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Legend says Empedocles died by leaping into the crater of Mount Etna, certain he would return as a god. Colorful stories aside, this lecture from Academy of Ideas shows why he is one of the most fascinating figures in early Greek thought. He answered Parmenides’ puzzle by proposing four eternal roots — fire, air, earth, and water — driven forever by two moving forces, Love and Strife. The video traces that eternal tug-of-war, Empedocles’ dream of returning to a lost golden age, and the surprising way his chance-formed creatures foreshadowed evolution.
Full Video Transcript
The Presocratics Lecture 5, Empedocles.
In the last lecture we investigated the ideas of Parmenides.
As a quick reminder, Parmenides asserted that birth, death, and change are an illusion.
For he reasoned that something cannot be born from nothing, and likewise, something cannot emerge from what it is not.
In this lecture we will discuss Empedocles, the first post-Parmeneidian Presocratic,
who had to abide by Parmenides’ law against becoming, while simultaneously making room for
our experience of the world, which conveys to us that birth, change, and death are very real.
Empedocles was born in approximately 490 BC and was the most colorful of all the pre-Socratics.
Nietzsche even went so far as to call him the most multifaceted figure of ancient Greek philosophy.
He was unique in that within him were combined two intense temperaments
that are rarely found to such a degree within a single individual.
Empedocles harbored within himself both a strong scientific or rational mindset
and a deep and burning spiritual longing.
William Guthrie nicely described the unique character of Empedocles, writing,
Indeed, it is here above all, in the union of rational thought with mystical exaltation,
that Empedocles sums up and personifies the spirit of his age and race.
As we noted in the previous lecture, Parmenides claimed that it is impossible for something to
emerge out of nothing. Empedocles agreed and proceeded to claim that there are four categories
of elementary particles, which he called the roots of all things. He proposed that these roots are
eternal, immutable, and indestructible. There are, in other words, an innumerable number of
particles of fire, an innumerable number of particles of air, of earth, and of water. These
These particles were not born and will not die, but have always existed and will always
exist.
Parmenides also claimed that it is impossible for one thing to morph or transform itself
into another thing, and again Empedocles agreed.
These particles or roots do not change and are both qualitatively and quantitatively
immutable.
They do however mingle with each other, and in doing so they produce the myriad of things
which exist in the cosmos.
For example, an organism comes into existence when a specific ratio of fire particles, air
particles, water particles, and earth particles come together harmoniously.
The organism grows and changes when some of these particles are replaced by other particles
floating around in the cosmos.
And the organism dies when the harmonious integration ceases and all the particles drift
off and go their separate ways.
As Empedocles wrote, there is no birth of any mortal things, nor any end in baneful
death, but only mingling and separation of what is mingled.
Along with the four categories of particles or roots, Empedocles postulated the existence
of two powers or forces, love and strife.
In terms of their influence on the natural world, it is helpful to envision these as
the forces of attraction and repulsion.
is the force or power of attraction, and when it exerts its influence, it causes the different
roots to come together and mingle harmoniously. Strife, on the other hand, is the power or force
of repulsion, and when it exerts its influence, the different roots are repelled from each other
and seek their own kind. The birth, growth, change, and dissolution of all things in this cosmos
is guided by the influence which these two forces, love and strife, have on the four roots of all
things. Utilizing the word anger as a substitute for the force of strife, Empedocles describes how
this is so. In anger all are diverse and sundered, but in love they come together and are desired of
each other. For out of these are born whatever was and is and will be. Trees, men, women, beasts,
birds, and water-feeding fishes. Yeah, and long live God’s highest in honors. The powers of love
and strife are engaged in an eternal battle. This battle proceeds in a predictable or mechanical
manner, and hence the universe passes through a series of cyclical stages. The first stage is the
rule of love, and it is in this stage that the power of love is wholly dominant, and strife is
banished to the outer confines of the cosmos, impotent in its attempt to influence the roots.
Solely influenced by the power of love, all the elementary particles or roots are mingled or
fused together in a unity. This unity Empedocles envisioned as a sphere, and he thought that under
the rule of love the cosmos was in its most divine state. However, in the divine sphere of love,
where all the roots are fused together, nothing really happens and no things exist. It is only
in the beginning of the second stage, when strife begins to influence the elements, that the sphere
is disrupted and things begin to happen. For one by one, all the limbs of the god quiver,
wrote Empedocles, referring to the movement initiated in the sphere. Under the influence
of strife, the roots begin to separate and in the process commence the creation of a cosmos
composed of different things. It is in this cosmic stage, where strife is advancing but love still
influential, that Empedocles thought we lived. The battle between the forces of love and strife
can be observed in the phenomena of this world. The repulsive power of strife has separated
many of the roots, causing them to seek their own kind. Bodies of water, the atmosphere
of air, and the masses of earth conglomerated together are the work of strife which caused
the roots to seek their own kind. However, the variety of living creatures which call
this world home are evidence that love is still present, exerting an attractive force
in causing the four different roots to mingle and combine with each other. Each living
creature thought Empedocles is constituted by a specific ratio of the four different
roots, and hence is a harmonious entity that exists through the power of love.
In the future the third cosmic stage will reign, and strife will rule without any opposition
from love, which will be rendered impotent, banished to the outer confines of the cosmos
just as strife once was. In this cosmos where strife reigns supreme, all the roots will
be completely segregated. Earth particles will mingle with earth, water with water, fire with
fire, and air with air. Being a cyclic process, after a period of time where strife rules without
any opposition, love will make its way back into the fold, attracting the segregated elements to
one another. In this stage, when love and strife are again battling with one another, another cosmos
like our own will be produced. The process comes full circle when love again rules supreme,
starting the eternal cycle all over again. This cosmic cycle Empedocles proposed will continue
for all eternity. In the above description we showed how according to Empedocles a world like
our own where there exists a myriad of living creatures is created either in stage two or stage
four of the cosmic cycle. That is either during the advance of love or the advance of strife.
If this is so why did Empedocles believe that the cosmos we live in was in the stage of advancing
strife? The answer to this question can be found through the understanding that along with
conceiving love and strife as exerting an influence on the natural elements of the cosmos,
Empedocles also conceived the forces of love and strife as exerting a moral or psychological
influence, compelling individuals to behave virtuously or destructively. As Aristotle explained,
for if one follows up and comprehends the statements of Empedocles in accord with their
true meaning and not with his obscure language, he will find that love is truly the cause of good
and strife the cause of evil. Empedocles thought that our world was in the stage of advancing
strife instead of advancing love because he was appalled at the atrocities and horrific acts which
permeated the human world and concluded that evil, or strife, was gaining ground and would soon
dominate the minds and intentions of all creatures. The world, he wrote, is and is increasingly
becoming, as strife advances, a roofed-in cave, a joyless place where murder and anger and tribes
of other spirits of death, and parching diseases and wastings, and the works of flux wander in
darkness over the meadow of doom. Since we are in the stage where strife is advancing, in the past
when the force of strife was weaker and that of love stronger, the world must have been a much
more loving and harmonious place. Indeed, Empedocles asserted that, in the past, under the greater
influence of love. Human beings and other creatures lived in a sort of golden age,
where nature was bountiful, life was easy, and mankind lived harmoniously, happily, and peacefully.
Describing this era with a sense of nostalgia, Empedocles wrote,
For all things were tame and gently to man, both beasts and birds, and friendly feelings
were kindled everywhere. Despite thinking this world was a sorrowful place, where evil reigned
supreme, Empedocles believed there was a way out. He claimed that apotheosis, or the elevation to
divine status, was possible for human beings. In reality thought Empedocles, we are divine spirits
who under the influence of strife slaughtered living creatures. After committing such a sin,
we fell from our righteous abode in the heavens, condemned to wander this earth clothed in an alien
garment of flesh. Your punishment is to wander 10,000 seasons on this earth, continually being
reincarnated into different creatures. Before this, Empedocles claimed, I have been a boy and
a girl, a bush and a bird, and a dumb fish of the sea. Empedocles thought he remembered the moment
his spirit was punished and saw this earth for the first time, stating, I wept and wailed when
I saw the unaccustomed place. However, unlike the general run of mankind who he thought were
condemned to wander this earth for thousands of more years. Because of his devotion to the
force of love and his accumulation of wisdom, Empedocles thought his return to divinity was
imminent. I, an immortal god, he wrote, no longer a mortal, wander among you. Legend has it that
Empedocles died by hurling himself into the volcanic crater of Mount Etna, convinced that
upon his mortal death his spirit would return to the divine heavens. To conclude, we must briefly
discuss Empedocles’ beliefs regarding the origin and development of life, for astonishingly they
represent, at least superficially, a primitive form of the modern theory of evolution. Upon
pondering how it is that creatures are so well adapted to their environments, and have parts
that are harmoniously integrated together, Empedocles concluded that such creatures arose
by chance, through what we now call natural selection. In the past, according to Empedocles,
there roamed the earth the strangest of creatures, with parts not well adapted to or integrated with
one another. Many were born with faces and breasts both front and back, oxen with the heads of men,
and conversely there sprang up creatures in human form with the heads of oxen. Now obviously a
creature composed of a human body with the head of an oxen, or an elephant head on the body of an
eagle, to take an even more absurd example, won’t be well adapted to its environment and hence will
die off quickly. A creature composed of a human head on a human body, or an eagle head on an eagle
body, on the other hand, will be well adapted for survival. While Empedocles’ theory sounds
like a primitive version of the modern theory of evolution, it is important not to take the
resemblance too far, as the likeness is only superficial. What is important is that Empedocles
did not claim that creatures are designed ahead of time, so as to render them well adapted to
their surroundings, but instead that they become well adapted through the chance combination
of elements and parts.
With that note, we must leave the fascinating figure of Empedocles.
In the coming two lectures of this series, we will discuss Anaxagoras and Democritus.
Source: Academy of Ideas