Empedocles (c. 490 BC – 430 BC), scientist and philosopher

Today we start a new series of posts. We are going to talk about famous Sicilians: Empedocles is our first.

Empedocles (pronounced: /ɛmˈpɛdəkliːz/; Ancient Greek: Ἐμπεδοκλῆς; Empedoklēs; Ancient Greek: [empedoklɛ̂ːs]; ca. 490–430 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles’ philosophy is best known for being the originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements. These physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, he supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Empedocles is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to record his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than in the case of any other Presocratic philosopher. Empedocles’ death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.

[...]

According to Aristotle, he died at the age of sixty, (c. 430 BC) even though other writers have him living up to the age of one hundred and nine. Likewise, there are myths concerning his death: a tradition, which is traced to Heraclides Ponticus, represented him as having been removed from the Earth; whereas others had him perishing in the flames of Mount Etna.

Note: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Metasyntactic variable” and Creative Commons by Commons Deed. This information was accurate when it was posted, but can change without notice.