On one hand Empodocles was a cooky character. He thought immortal healer who likes to wear fancy Greek swag. On the other hand, he was a pretty good scientist and physician, able to correctly observe nature.
He thought that the cosmos was created from the four elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), and the forces of Love and Strife. I interoperate the force of Love merely as being a binding force, and Strife as being a force that separates. All things are created of a mixture of elements, with varying degrees of love and strife to give things shape.
Side note: I really liked Empedocles concept of the sphere. It is the epitome of love because there is no foreign strife within it; all of its faces are equidistant.
Its easy to see how Empedocletic thought parallel chemical concepts such as bonds and disincorporation.
I find Empedocles view of ethics interesting because it is different from my own. He tends to think as evil being foreign to man. That is why I presume he writes rules such as "Fast from evil" (in the dietary sense) "Keep completely away from laurel leaves!" and "keep your hands off beans!". He thinks that these are things that are evil and could corrupt man. However, I believe that evil is rooted within humanity. Nature, without Man, is in harmony unable to create evil. Humans have corrupted desires for our advantage that distort things things from the way they ought to be.
How can Man redeem himself? By living how humans are intended to live, righteously.
(A departure from the way things ought to be is my definition for evil)
Zip it up and zip it out y'all
I think he sees evil as strife and in that sense it is rooted in the cosmos. but I agree with you that he does not see it as something rooted within human nature itself. Rather as something that can grow. I like his view.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, you do a nice job of capturing the view at hand. Also, you do a very nice job of drawing out something from his ethical writings. Personally, I struggled to make sense of them. So thank you for your insights.
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