Ancient Philosophy

Pre-Socratics

Empedocles

A blend of philosopher, prophet, scientist, and charlatan—previously exemplified in the figure of Pythagoras—finds its fullest embodiment in Empedocles, whose flourishing activity roughly coincided with 440 BCE. He, therefore, was a younger contemporary of Parmenides, though in certain respects, his teachings bore more resemblance to those of Heraclitus. A citizen of Akragas on the southern coast of Sicily, Empedocles was a democratic political figure who simultaneously claimed a divine aspect to his persona. Throughout most Greek cities, particularly in Sicily, there existed a constant conflict between democracy and tyranny, with leaders of both factions facing execution or exile in moments of defeat. Exiles often had little compunction about negotiating with Greece's enemies, namely Persia in the East and Carthage in the West. Empedocles, too, experienced exile; however, it seems he chose the path of a saint over that of a scheming outcast. Perhaps influenced to some degree by Orphism in his youth, he initially combined political engagement with scientific inquiry, only to later assume the role of a prophet in the twilight of his life, post-exile.

Numerous legends surrounded Empedocles. It was believed that he performed miracles—sometimes through magic and other times through scientific knowledge—that seemed miraculous. It is said that he could command the winds and even revived a woman who had appeared dead for thirty days. Ultimately, he purportedly met his end by jumping into the crater of Mount Etna to prove his divinity. As the poet puts it:

Great Empedocles, with a fiery soul,
Leapt into Etna and was wholly scorched.

On this theme, Matthew Arnold penned a poem, though, despite its ranking among the least favorable of his works, it lacks the aforementioned couplet.

Like Parmenides, Empedocles composed his thoughts in verse. Lucretius, influenced by him, esteemed Empedocles as a poet, though opinions on this matter differ. Since only fragments of Empedocles' writings have survived, his poetic merits must remain questionable.

It is essential to consider Empedocles' science and religion separately, as they do not harmonize with one another. I will first examine his scientific contributions, then his philosophy, and finally his religious beliefs.

The most significant contribution of Empedocles to science was his discovery of air as a distinct substance. He demonstrated this through observation: when a bucket or similar vessel is inverted in water, the water does not enter. Empedocles states:

...So the girl
Plays with a gleaming bronze clepsydra.
When, with her lovely hand, she seals the tube's opening,
Dipping it into the soft body of silvery water,
No drop of water enters the vessel—
It is held back
By the mass of air pressing from within against the tiny holes—
Until she uncovers the sealed flow of air;
After which,
When the air is absent, the proper
Measure of water flows in.

This excerpt is found where he explains the nature of respiration. Empedocles also identified at least one instance of centrifugal force: when a bowl of water is spun at the end of a rope, the water does not spill out.

He recognized that plants have sexes and formulated a somewhat fantastic theory of evolution and the survival of the fittest. Initially:

From their mingling emerged
Myriad tribes of mortal beings,
Endowed with every kind of form—
A marvel to behold!
There were heads without ears, hands without shoulders,
Eyes without foreheads, dismembered limbs striving to unite.
All these were haphazardly connected;
There were clumsy creatures with countless hands,
Beings with faces and chests turned in different directions,
Creatures with the body of a bull and the face of a man,
And others with the body of a man and the snout of a bull.
There were hermaphrodites, combining male and female natures,
Yet barren. In the end, only certain forms survived.

Regarding astronomy, he knew that the Moon shines with reflected light and believed the same to be true for the Sun. He asserted that a specific amount of time is required for light to travel, but this interval is so brief that it escapes our notice; he recognized that a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, a fact he likely learned from Anaxagoras.

He was the founder of the Italian school of medicine, which began with him and subsequently influenced Plato and Aristotle. According to Barnett, it shaped the entire trajectory of scientific and philosophical thought.

All this attests to a scientific vigor during that time that had no equal in the later centuries of Greek history.

I now turn to his cosmology. As previously mentioned, it was Empedocles who regarded earth, fire, air, and water as the four elements (though the term “element” was not used by him). Each of these elements was eternal, yet they could intermingle in various proportions, thus giving rise to the mutable complex substances encountered in the world. The elements united through Love and were divided by Strife. For Empedocles, Love and Strife were primary substances alongside earth, air, fire, and water. At certain periods, Love prevailed, while at others, Strife took dominance. There existed a Golden Age when Love reigned supreme. In this age, humanity worshipped only the Cyprian Aphrodite. Changes in the world are not dictated by any purpose but occur solely by Chance and Necessity. Development proceeds in a cyclical manner: when the elements are fully blended by Love, Strife gradually separates them; when Strife divides them, Love again begins to unite them. Thus, every complex substance is transient, while the elements, along with Strife and Love, remain eternal.

This notion resembles that of Heraclitus, though in a softened form, for it is not only Strife but the combined forces of Strife and Love that engender change. Plato connects Heraclitus with Empedocles in the Sophist:

“Later, some Ionian and Sicilian Muses reasoned that it is safest to unite both perspectives, asserting that being is both multiple and one, and that it is held together by enmity and friendship. ’What diverges always converges,’ say the stricter among the Muses; while the more accommodating have always allowed that all things take turns being unified and beloved by Aphrodite, and then multiple and hostile to themselves due to some discord.”

Empedocles asserted that the material world is spherical: during the Golden Age, Strife was external, while Love was internal; gradually, Strife infiltrated the world, banishing Love until, in the darkest times, Love is entirely outside the sphere, while Strife resides wholly within it. Then, although the cause of this shift remains unclear, a contrary movement begins, restoring (though certainly not permanently) the Golden Age. The entire cycle then repeats once more. One might imagine that each stage could be stable, yet this is not Empedocles’ perspective. He sought to explain movement while acknowledging Parmenides’ arguments, but he did not wish to arrive, at any stage, at an immutable Universe.

Empedocles’ views on religion were primarily Pythagorean. In a fragment that likely refers to Pythagoras, he states:

There was among them a certain man, possessing extraordinary knowledge,
Who garnered the greatest wealth of intellect,
And was particularly skilled in various wise endeavors.
As soon as he directed his mind with all his might,
He easily perceived each of all existing things,
Both across ten and twenty human centuries.

In the Golden Age, as previously noted, people worshipped only Aphrodite.

Yet the altar was not sprinkled with pure blood,
But this was the greatest abomination among men:
Ripping life apart, they devoured noble limbs.

Once, he spoke of himself in florid terms, as a god:

Friends! You who dwell in the grand city on the shores
Of golden Akragas,
On the very acropolis, caring for noble deeds,
You are esteemed havens for strangers,
Unacquainted with harm.
Greetings to you! And I am no longer a man, but an immortal god
For you—
I stride, revered by all as is proper,
Wreathed in ribbons and verdant garlands:
Hardly do I arrive in blossoming cities—
Men and women honor me. They follow me—
Hordes and hordes—seeking to learn where the path to benefit lies:
Some desire prophecies, others inquire about various ailments,
Hoping to hear a healing word,
Long tormented by grievous sufferings.
Yes, why do I emphasize this? As if I were doing something significant,
If I surpass mortals, perishing from the multitude
Of human calamities.

At another time, he perceives himself as a great sinner, atoning for his wickedness:
There is an oracle of Necessity (Ananke),
An ancient decree of the gods,
Eternal, bound by oaths as if sealed by a stamp:
If any demon (deity) defiles his members
With blood (through murder) due to transgression,
And following Hatred, swears a guilty oath—
Among those destined for a long life—
He must wander for thirty thousand years far from the blessed,
Reborn over time in various forms
Of mortal beings,
Changing the agonizing paths of life.
The might of the Ether drives him into the Sea,
The Sea spits him onto the soil of the Earth, the Earth—toward the rays
Of the Radiant Sun, while the Sun hurls him into the whirlwinds of the Ether.
One receives from another, yet all are filled with hatred.
On this path, I too now tread, an exile from the gods and a wanderer,
Submitting to the frenzied Hatred...

What his sin consisted of, we do not know; perhaps there was nothing that we could deem particularly grievous. For he states:

Woe to me that the relentless day did not claim me sooner
Than I devised with my lips the vile acts of consumption!
To abstain entirely from laurel leaves!
Unfortunate, thrice unfortunate! Do not touch the beans!

Thus, he likely committed nothing worse, save for munching on laurel leaves or greedily devouring beans. The most famous passage from Plato, where he compares this world to a cave in which we see only shadows of real objects in the bright world above, was foreshadowed by Empedocles. The origin of this comparison must be sought in the teachings of the Orphics. Only a few—seemingly those who refrain from sin over many reincarnations—ultimately attain eternal bliss in the company of the gods:

And in the end, they become prophets, singers,
Healers,
And leaders among the living men on earth,
From where they ascend to gods, surpassing all honors.
Those dwelling at a single hearth and sharing meals with other immortals,
Free from human sufferings, invulnerable.

In all this, there appears to be little that was not already contained in the teachings of Orphism and Pythagoreanism. The originality of Empedocles, apart from his scientific contributions, lies in his doctrine of the four elements and the application of the principles of Love and Strife to explain change. He rejected monism and regarded the course of events as governed more by chance and necessity than by purpose. In this respect, his philosophy was more scientific than that of Parmenides, Plato, and Aristotle. In other regards, he silently acquiesced to prevailing prejudices; yet even in this, he was no worse than many later representatives of science.