Empedocles essays

Empedocles essays Empedocles was a major Greek philosopher. This man was born in Agrigentum, Sicily, in 490? - 430 BC. He was not only a philosopher but a statesman, poet, and knowledge of natural history and medicine. After his father's death he extended his career in politics. He favored the democratic side and had many fellow citizens support him. He then obtained royal positions in Agrigentum. He was offered the crown but rumor has it that he refused. His study was a combination of scientific study and mystical religion of the Orphic type. Differing from Pythagoras, he focused on medicine instead of mathematics. The skill that he possessed in medicine and natural philosophy allowed him to perform many wonders. He pretended to drive away noxious winds from his country and put a stop to epidemic diseases. He has also been said to have restored a woman to life who had lain breathless thirty days and to have done many other things, equally astonishing. Empedocless poetic talent was based on nature. One of his famous poems was Peri Phuseos. The death of this notable philosopher is unknown, but according to the common account he has said to have thrown himself into the burning crater of Aetna and might afterwards pass as a god. This story was told by Strabo and other fictitious writers. According to Aristotle he died at the age of sixty. Empedocless philosophy was based on the extant fragments of his poems on nature and purification. He said that all things are composed of four primary elements: earth, air, fire, and water. There are two active and opposing forces, love and hate (affinity and antipathy), act upon these elements. These forces combine and separate the elements into infinitely varied forms. According to Empedocles, his view points are that reality is cyclical. At the beginning of the cycle, the four elements are bound together by the principle of love. When hate penetrates the cycle, the elem ...