Empedocles of Acragas
Empedocles was born in Acragas on the south
coast of Sicily. The name Acragas is Greek,
while the Latin name for the town was Agrigentum.
Later the town was called Girgenti and more
recently it became known by its present name
of Agrigento. It was one of the most beautiful
cities of the ancient world up to the time
it was destroyed by the Carthaginians in
406 BC. It was, in Empedocles time, a rich
city containing the finest Greek culture.
Some of the Pythagoreans had come there after
being attacked in their centre at Croton.
Empedocles was born into a rich aristocratic
family. He travelled throughout the Greek
world participating fully in the extraordinary
desire for learning and understanding which
gripped that part of the world. He is described
as follows by Sarton [5]:-
He was not only a philosopher but a poet,
a seer, a physicist, a social reformer, a
man of so much enthusiasm that he would easily
be considered a charlatan by some people,
or become a legendary hero in the eyes of
others.
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There are many legends regarding Empedocles
life. He wrote poetry and 450 lines of such
had been preserved by later writers such
as Simplicius, Aristotle, Plutarch and others.
It is not difficult to see the source of
most of the legends about Empedocles for
these are built on the poems that he wrote
himself. In these he claims god-like powers,
but whether this was simply a poetic style
or whether he really did believe that he
had such powers it is hard to say. Certainly
his poems were much appreciated, for example
Lucretius admired his hexametric poetry.
If we are to gather anything about the character
of the man then it will come from the lines
of poetry which have been preserved: 400
lines from his poem Peri physeos (On Nature)
and the remainder from his poem Katharmoi
(Purifications). These [1]:-
... reveal a man of fervid imagination, versatility,
and eloquence, with a touch of theatricality. |
Some details of his travels appear accurate.
He went to Italy and was in the town of Thurii,
Lucania shortly after 445 BC. From there
he went to the Peloponnese and he was in
Olympia in 440 BC. His songs were sung at
the Olympic games in that year. He had a
young friend, Pausanias the son of Anchitos,
who went with him on his travels. Of the
many legends regarding his death, the most
likely would appear to be that he died following
a feast in the Peloponnese. Sarton writes
[5]:-
Empedocles was so great and rare a man that
he left no school; none of his admirers or
disciples, not even the faithful Pausanias,
was able to continue the master's work.
Certainly Empedocles was attributed with
many "firsts". Aristotle is said
to have considered him the inventor of rhetoric
while Galen regarded him as the founder of
the science of medicine in Italy. He is best
known, however, for his belief that all matter
was composed of four elements: fire, air,
water, and earth.
The reason for his four element theory was
to argue a modification of the belief of
the Eleatic School, one of the leading pre-Socratic
schools of Greek philosophy, which had been
founded by Parmenides in Elea in southern
Italy. The philosophy of this school, which
included Zeno of Elea, was the claim that
the many things which appear to exist are
merely a single eternal reality. Empedocles
did not go for the "all is one"
version, but his "all is composed of
the four elements" is extremely important
in the development of science since it was
adopted by Plato and Aristotle. As Sarton
writes [5]:-
In spite of its arbitrariness, that hypothesis
had a singular fortune, for it dominated
Western thought in one form or another almost
until the eighteenth century.
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We should also note an important feature
of the hypothesis. It, like the ideas of
Pythagoras, tried to explain the multitude
of complexity seen in the world as being
the consequence of a small number of simple
underlying properties. Although we no longer
believe in Empedocles' four element theory,
we do still look for simple mathematics which
will explain the complex phenomena that surround
us.
Empedocles did not base his four element
hypothesis on any experimental evidence.
He did base some other scientific ideas on
experiment, however, and he showed by experiment
that air existed and was not empty space.
He did this with a clepsydra, a vessel with
a hole in the bottom and one in the top.
Placing the bottom hole of the vessel under
water, Empedocles observed that the vessel
filled up with water. If, however, he put
his finger over the top hole, then the water
did not enter the hole at the bottom but
it did once he removed his finger. Empedocles
correctly deduced that the air in the container
prevented the water entering.
Empedocles believed that light travelled
with a finite velocity, not through any experimental
evidence, of course, but simply through reasoning.
Aristotle writes in De sensu :-
Empedocles says that the light from the Sun
arrives first in the intervening space before
it comes to the eye, or reaches the Earth.
This might plausibly seem to be the case.
For whatever is moved through space, is moved
from one place to another; hence, there must
be a corresponding interval of time also
in which it is moved from the one place to
the other. But any given time is divisible
into parts; so that we should assume a time
when the sun's ray was not as yet seen, but
was still travelling in the middle space.
It is remarkable how many of Empedocles'
ideas have turned out to be correct. In addition
to his belief in the finite velocity of light
he also developed a crude evolutionary theory
based on the survival of the fittest. He
also had a form of the law of conservation
of energy and had a theory of constant proportions
in chemical reactions. His ideas, although
they had little influence on the development
of science, can be seen in the light of our
current scientific knowledge to be quite
incredible. If we have to explain how such
prophetically correct ideas could have such
little influence we have to agree with the
philosopher Hans Reichenbach who, in a book
published in 1957, said (see [1]):-
... a good idea stated within an insufficient
theoretical frame loses its explanatory power
and is forgotten. |
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
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