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Empedocles
Empedocles (; ; , 444–443 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is known best for originating the cosmogonic theory of the four classical elements. He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix and separate the elements, respectively.
AI overview
Empedocles was an ancient Greek philosopher from Sicily who lived around 444–443 BC and is famous for proposing that all matter consists of four classical elements. He also introduced the ideas of two opposing forces—Love, which mixes the elements together, and Strife, which separates them—to explain how the world changes and takes different forms.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 490 BCE
- Died
- 430 BCE
- Works
- 29
Top works
- Carmina
- [Kapharmoi
- Empedocles
- The Fragments of Empedocles
- Empedocles Agrigentinus
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 34
Works in European collections
14 objects attributed to Empedocles, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~14 min read
Article
13 sectionsContents
- Life
- Death and legacy
- Philosophy
- Cosmogony
- Psychology
- Writings
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- Ancient Testimony
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Empedocles (; ; , 444–443 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is known best for originating the cosmogonic theory of the four classical elements. He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix and separate the elements, respectively.
Empedocles challenged the practice of animal sacrifice and killing animals for food. He developed a distinctive doctrine of reincarnation. He is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to have recorded his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than is the case for any other pre-Socratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.
