Difference between revisions of "Empedocles" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
(linking image)
m
Line 1: Line 1:
−
I am working on this article.—[[User:Keisuke Noda|Keisuke Noda]] 18:47, 25 Oct 2005 (UTC)
+
[[Image:388px-Empedokles.jpg|right|thumb|225px|Empedocles of Agrigentum]]
 +
'''Empedocles''' (c. 490 B.C.E. – c. 430 B.C.E.) was a [[Hellenic civilization|Greek]] [[pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratic philosopher]] and a citizen of [[Agrigentum]], a Greek colony in [[Sicily]].
 +
 
 +
Empedocles conceived the ultimate reality as the unity of four permanent elements which he called “roots”: water, earth, air, and fire. Each element has its distinct characteristics. They are both spiritual and physical, and the principle of love and hate causes the combination and separation of these elements, thereby produces the diversity and changes of the world. Love is the principle of unity and hate is that of destruction. Empedocles developed a cyclical [[cosmology]] that the cosmos repeats the unity and destruction by alternate domination of love and hate.
 +
 
 +
Empedocles was the first [[pluralism|pluralist]] in Greek philosophy. He was an enigmatic figure and had a multiple faces as a poet, medical doctor, preacher, mystic, magician, prophet, political leader as well as a philosopher.
 +
 
 +
==Life and Works==
 +
Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in an epic verse and the surviving fragments of his teaching are from his two poems, ''Purifications'' and ''On Nature''.
 +
 
 +
He claimed that by the virtue of the knowledge he possessed he had become divine and could perform miracles. He fought to preserve Greek [[democracy]] and allowed that through his teaching others could also become divine. He even went so far to suggest that all living things were on the same spiritual plane, indicating he was influenced by [[Pythagoras|Pythagorean]] spirituality. Like Pythagoras, he believed in the [[reincarnation|transmigration of souls]] between humans and animals and followed a [[vegetarian]] lifestyle.
 +
 
 +
The legend goes that he died by throwing himself into an active volcano ([[Mount Etna]] in [[Sicily]]), so that people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god.
  
−
[[Image:388px-Empedokles.jpg|right|thumb|225px|Empedocles of Agrigentum]]
+
==Philosophy==
−
'''Empedocles''' (c. [[490 B.C.E.]] – c. [[430 B.C.E.]]) was a [[Hellenic civilization|Greek]] [[presocratic]] [[philosopher]] and a citizen of [[Agrigentum]], a Greek colony in [[Sicily]].  
+
===The Ultimate Being as the Interactive Unity of the Four Elements===
 +
Empedocles attempted to integrate two opposing views of existence developed by [[Parmenides]] and [[Heraclitus]]. Parmenides conceived the ultimate existence as permanent unchanging being, and Heraclitus as ever changing flow or process. Parmenidean view was logically appealing, yet Heraclitian view was in accord with our experiences.  
 +
 
 +
While Parmenides understood the ultimate reality as homogeneous, permanent, and unchanging one entity, Empedocles comprehended it as the combination of four permanent and unchanging [[Element|elements]] (which he called ''roots):'' water, earth, air, and fire. These “roots” are both material and spiritual, and called “[[Zeus]],” “[[Here]],” “[[Nestis]],” and “[[Adoneus]].” Empedocles’ conception of the ultimate reality has intrinsic dynamism, which Parmenidean concept of the ultimate reality lacked.
 +
 
 +
Empedocles explained diversity and changes of the world, which Heraclitus grasped, as a combination and separation of these four elements. For Empedocles, each element maintains its own nature without change and the degree and ratio of the mixture of four elements produce diversity.
 +
 
 +
===Love and Hate: the principle of unity and destruction===
 +
These four elements, however, do not intrinsically possess the principle of changes.  Empedocles introduced a pair of “love” ''(philia)'' and “hate” ''(neikos)''  as a principle to cause combination and separation of all things in the world. “Love” combines and “hate” separates. He did not ascribe this emotional principle to any personified existence. The principle of love and hate is rather naturalistic and mechanical. Aristotle noted, based upon his own [[theory of four causes]], that Empedocles was the first philosopher who introduced the [[efficient cause]]. 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
===Periodic cycle of the world===
 +
Empedocles developed a cyclical cosmology based upon the principle of love and hate.  The world regularly repeats four periods:
 +
 
 +
:I. The fist period:  love dominates; the world is unified; everything is one; there is no separation; symbolized as “sphere.”
 +
 
 +
:II. The Second period: hate intrudes into the world and co-exists with love; the unity of the world is broken; elements were separated and the world is diversified.
  
−
He maintained that all [[matter]] is made up of four [[classical element|Elements]] (which he called ''roots):'' [[water (classical element)|water]], [[earth (classical element)|earth]], [[air (classical element)|air]] and [[fire (classical element)|fire]]. In addition to these, he postulated something called [[Love]] ''(philia)'' to explain the attraction of different forms of matter, and of something called Strife ''(neikos)'' to account for their separation.  He was also one of the first people to state the theory that [[light]] travels at a finite (although very large) speed, a theory that gained acceptance only much later.
+
:III. The Third Period: hate becomes dominant; the world becomes chaotic and more diversified.
  
−
Though having much in common with [[Heraclitus]]' [[ontology]], Empedocles is considered to be more tolerant and soft in his outlook. That fact served as a matter of mentioning him by [[Plato]] in the famous "Sophist" [[dialogue]] as a "gentle muse":
+
:III. The Fourth Period: love becomes dominant again; unity and harmony are restored; the world restores the perfection symbolized by “sphere.”
  
−
:''Then there are Ionian, and in more recent times Sicilian muses, who have arrived at the conclusion that to unite the two principles is safer, and to say that being is one and many, and that these are held together by enmity and friendship, ever parting, ever meeting, as the-severer Muses assert, while the gentler ones do not insist on the perpetual strife and peace, but admit a relaxation and alternation of them; peace and unity sometimes prevailing under the sway of Aphrodite, and then again plurality and war, by reason of a principle of strife.'' ([[Plato]], ''Soph.'').
+
The world repeats a cycle of four epochs again and again as a natural process like four seasons. Efforts of human beings have no effect upon this process. At the fourth stage, varieties of things in the world we have today were born.
  
−
Empedocles was also a mystic and a poet, and some consider him the inventor of the study of [[rhetoric]].  [[Gorgias]] of Leontini was his student, and it is probably from Empedocles that Gorgias developed the notion of rhetoric as magic.
+
Empedocles integrated the ideas of vortex, spontaneous generation, and the [[survival of the fittest]] in his periodic view of the world in order to explain the formation of the cosmos and developments of living things.
  
−
As a person he was somewhat arrogant, dressing himself in purple and claiming that by the virtue of the knowledge he possessed he had become divine and could perform miracles. Yet his actions and teaching betrayed an [[egalitarian]] streak, he fought to preserve Greek [[democracy]] and allowed that through his teaching others could also become divine. He even went so far to suggest that all living things were on the same spiritual plane,  indicating he was influenced by [[Pythagoras|Pythagorean]] spirituality. Like Pythagoras, he believed in the [[reincarnation|transmigration of souls]] between humans and animals and followed a [[vegetarian]] lifestyle.
+
He held a broad knowledge including medical sciences
  
−
Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in verse and the surviving fragments of his teaching are from his two poems, ''Purifications'' and ''On Nature''.
+
===Homeopathic theory of knowledge  ===
−
His life was recored by [[Diogenes Laertius]].
+
Empedocles held a theory of knowledge that we recognize like by like. Recognition is the accordance between an element in us and a like element outside of us.
  
−
The legend goes that he died by throwing himself into an active volcano ([[Mount Etna]] in [[Sicily]]), so that people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god; however, the volcano threw back one of his bronze sandals, revealing the deceit. (There is, however, some evidence that he actually died in Greece.)
+
<blockquote>
 +
With our own matter we perceive the earth; with our water, water; with our air, divine air; with our fire, the scorching blaze; with our love, the love of the world; and its hatred, with our own sorry hate. (D.K., 109)
 +
</blockquote>
  
−
In Icaro-Menippus, a comedic dialogue written by the second century satirist [[Lucian of Samosata]], Empedocles’ final fate is revaluated. Rather than being incinerated in the fires of Mount Etna, he was carried up into the heavens by a volcanic eruption. Though a bit singed by the ordeal he survives and continues his life on the [[moon]], surviving by feeding on dew.
+
==References to Empedocles==
  
−
Empedocles is the subject of [[Friedrich Hölderlin]]'s play ''Tod des Empedokles'' (''Death of Empedocles''), two versions of which were written between the years [[1798]] and [[1800]].  A third version was made public in [[1826]].   
+
*Empedocles is the subject of [[Friedrich Hölderlin]]'s play ''Tod des Empedokles'' (''Death of Empedocles''), two versions of which were written between the years 1798 and 1800.  A third version was made public in 1826.   
  
−
In Matthew Arnold's poem "Empedocles on Etna", dramatising the philosopher's last hours before he jumps to his death in the crater, Empedocles predicts:  
+
*In Matthew Arnold's poem "Empedocles on Etna", dramatising the philosopher's last hours before he jumps to his death in the crater, Empedocles predicts:  
  
 
:To the elements it came from
 
:To the elements it came from
Line 31: Line 61:
 
:Heat to fire,
 
:Heat to fire,
 
:Breath to air.
 
:Breath to air.
 +
 +
*[[Friedrich Nietzsche]] drafted a unfinished script for Empedocles drama. Some claim that the archetype of Nietzsche’s [[Zarathustra]] was Empedocles.
 +
 +
*[[Alchemy]] adopted the idea of four elements: air, fire, water, and earth.
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
−
 
+
*Diels, H. and Kranz, W. (eds), ''Die Fragmente der Vorsocratiker'' (Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1960) (This is the standard text for pre-Socratics; abbr. DK)
−
* M R Wright, ''Empedocles: The Extant Fragments'', 1995
+
*Freeman, K. (ed), ''Ancilla to the pre-Socratic philosophers'' (Cambridge:Harvard University Press, 1983)( a complete translation of the fragments in Diels and Kranz.)
−
* Peter Kingsley, ''Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition'', 1986 
+
*Hicks, R. D., ''Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers'', 2 vols., The Loeb Classical Library, 1925)
−
* Anthony Gottlieb, ''The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance '', 2001
+
*Kingsley, Peter. ''Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition'', (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986)
−
* Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, ''The Presocratic Philosophers'', 1983
+
*Kirk, G. S., Raven, J. E. and Schofield, M. ''The Presocratic Philosophers'', 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983)
−
* A. A. Long, ''The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy'', 1999
+
*Wright, M. R. ''Empedocles: The Extant Fragments'', (New Heaven, CT: Yale university press, 1981)
−
* Bertrand Russell, ''The History of Western Philosophy'', 1945
 
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
Line 49: Line 82:
 
*[http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/A/ArnoldMatthew/verse/EmpedoclesonEtna/empedoclesetna.html "Empedocles on Etna"], dramatic poem by Matthew Arnold
 
*[http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/A/ArnoldMatthew/verse/EmpedoclesonEtna/empedoclesetna.html "Empedocles on Etna"], dramatic poem by Matthew Arnold
  
−
{{Presocratics}}
+
===General Philosophy Sources===
 +
*[http://www.epistemelinks.com/  Philosophy Sources on Internet EpistemeLinks]
 +
*[http://plato.stanford.edu/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
 +
*[http://www.bu.edu/wcp/PaidArch.html Paideia Project Online]
 +
*[http://www.iep.utm.edu/ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
 +
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg]
  
−
[[Category:490 B.C.E. births]]
+
[[Category:Pre-Socratic philosophers]]
−
[[Category:430 B.C.E. deaths]]
 
−
[[Category:Presocratic philosophers]]
 
 
[[Category:Ancient Greek philosophers]]
 
[[Category:Ancient Greek philosophers]]
−
[[Category:Sicilian Greeks]]
 
−
 
 
[[Category:Philosophy and religion]]
 
[[Category:Philosophy and religion]]
−
 
  
 
{{credit|26077453}}
 
{{credit|26077453}}

Revision as of 05:42, 23 February 2006

Empedocles of Agrigentum

Empedocles (c. 490 B.C.E. – c. 430 B.C.E.) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily.

Empedocles conceived the ultimate reality as the unity of four permanent elements which he called “roots”: water, earth, air, and fire. Each element has its distinct characteristics. They are both spiritual and physical, and the principle of love and hate causes the combination and separation of these elements, thereby produces the diversity and changes of the world. Love is the principle of unity and hate is that of destruction. Empedocles developed a cyclical cosmology that the cosmos repeats the unity and destruction by alternate domination of love and hate.

Empedocles was the first pluralist in Greek philosophy. He was an enigmatic figure and had a multiple faces as a poet, medical doctor, preacher, mystic, magician, prophet, political leader as well as a philosopher.

Life and Works

Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in an epic verse and the surviving fragments of his teaching are from his two poems, Purifications and On Nature.

He claimed that by the virtue of the knowledge he possessed he had become divine and could perform miracles. He fought to preserve Greek democracy and allowed that through his teaching others could also become divine. He even went so far to suggest that all living things were on the same spiritual plane, indicating he was influenced by Pythagorean spirituality. Like Pythagoras, he believed in the transmigration of souls between humans and animals and followed a vegetarian lifestyle.

The legend goes that he died by throwing himself into an active volcano (Mount Etna in Sicily), so that people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god.

Philosophy

The Ultimate Being as the Interactive Unity of the Four Elements

Empedocles attempted to integrate two opposing views of existence developed by Parmenides and Heraclitus. Parmenides conceived the ultimate existence as permanent unchanging being, and Heraclitus as ever changing flow or process. Parmenidean view was logically appealing, yet Heraclitian view was in accord with our experiences.

While Parmenides understood the ultimate reality as homogeneous, permanent, and unchanging one entity, Empedocles comprehended it as the combination of four permanent and unchanging elements (which he called roots): water, earth, air, and fire. These “roots” are both material and spiritual, and called “Zeus,” “Here,” “Nestis,” and “Adoneus.” Empedocles’ conception of the ultimate reality has intrinsic dynamism, which Parmenidean concept of the ultimate reality lacked.

Empedocles explained diversity and changes of the world, which Heraclitus grasped, as a combination and separation of these four elements. For Empedocles, each element maintains its own nature without change and the degree and ratio of the mixture of four elements produce diversity.

Love and Hate: the principle of unity and destruction

These four elements, however, do not intrinsically possess the principle of changes. Empedocles introduced a pair of “love” (philia) and “hate” (neikos) as a principle to cause combination and separation of all things in the world. “Love” combines and “hate” separates. He did not ascribe this emotional principle to any personified existence. The principle of love and hate is rather naturalistic and mechanical. Aristotle noted, based upon his own theory of four causes, that Empedocles was the first philosopher who introduced the efficient cause.


Periodic cycle of the world

Empedocles developed a cyclical cosmology based upon the principle of love and hate. The world regularly repeats four periods:

I. The fist period: love dominates; the world is unified; everything is one; there is no separation; symbolized as “sphere.”
II. The Second period: hate intrudes into the world and co-exists with love; the unity of the world is broken; elements were separated and the world is diversified.
III. The Third Period: hate becomes dominant; the world becomes chaotic and more diversified.
III. The Fourth Period: love becomes dominant again; unity and harmony are restored; the world restores the perfection symbolized by “sphere.”

The world repeats a cycle of four epochs again and again as a natural process like four seasons. Efforts of human beings have no effect upon this process. At the fourth stage, varieties of things in the world we have today were born.

Empedocles integrated the ideas of vortex, spontaneous generation, and the survival of the fittest in his periodic view of the world in order to explain the formation of the cosmos and developments of living things.

He held a broad knowledge including medical sciences

Homeopathic theory of knowledge

Empedocles held a theory of knowledge that we recognize like by like. Recognition is the accordance between an element in us and a like element outside of us.

With our own matter we perceive the earth; with our water, water; with our air, divine air; with our fire, the scorching blaze; with our love, the love of the world; and its hatred, with our own sorry hate. (D.K., 109)

References to Empedocles

  • Empedocles is the subject of Friedrich Hölderlin's play Tod des Empedokles (Death of Empedocles), two versions of which were written between the years 1798 and 1800. A third version was made public in 1826.
  • In Matthew Arnold's poem "Empedocles on Etna", dramatising the philosopher's last hours before he jumps to his death in the crater, Empedocles predicts:
To the elements it came from
Everything will return.
Our bodies to earth,
Our blood to water,
Heat to fire,
Breath to air.
  • Alchemy adopted the idea of four elements: air, fire, water, and earth.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Diels, H. and Kranz, W. (eds), Die Fragmente der Vorsocratiker (Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1960) (This is the standard text for pre-Socratics; abbr. DK)
  • Freeman, K. (ed), Ancilla to the pre-Socratic philosophers (Cambridge:Harvard University Press, 1983)( a complete translation of the fragments in Diels and Kranz.)
  • Hicks, R. D., Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 2 vols., The Loeb Classical Library, 1925)
  • Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986)
  • Kirk, G. S., Raven, J. E. and Schofield, M. The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983)
  • Wright, M. R. Empedocles: The Extant Fragments, (New Heaven, CT: Yale university press, 1981)

External links

General Philosophy Sources

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Empedocles&oldid=26226

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki