_Part. anim._ i. 1; 640 a 19. So Empedokles was wrong in saying that many
characteristics appear in animals because it happened to be thus in their
birth, as that they have such a spine because they happen to be descended
from one that bent itself back....
i. 1; 642 a 18. And from time to time Empedokles chances on this, guided
by the truth itself, and is compelled to say that _being_ and _nature_
are reason, just as when he is declaring what a bone is; for he does not
say it is one of the elements, nor two or three, nor all of them, but it
is the reason of the mixture of these.
_De Plant._ i.; 815 a 16. Anaxagoras and Empedokles say that plants are
moved by desire, and assert that they have perception and feel pleasure
and pain.... Empedokles thought that sex had been mixed in them. (Note
817 a 1, 10, and 36.)
i.; 815 b 12. Empedokles _et al._ said that plants have intelligence and
knowledge.
i.; 817 b 35. Empedokles said again that plants have their birth in an
inferior world which is not perfect in its fulfilment, and that when it
is fulfilled an animal is generated.
i. 3; 984 a 8. Empedokles assumes four elements, adding earth as a fourth
to those that have been mentioned; for these always abide and do not
come into being, but in greatness and smallness they are compounded and
separated out of one and into one.
i. 3; 984 b 32. And since the opposite to the good appeared to exist in
nature, and not only order and beauty but also disorder and ugliness,
and the bad appeared to be more than the good and the ugly more than the
beautiful, so some one else introduced Love and Strife, each the cause
of one of these. For if one were to follow and make the assumption
in accordance with reason and not in accordance with what Empedokles
foolishly says, he will find Love to be the cause of what is good, and
Strife of what is bad; so that if one were to say that Empedokles spoke
after a certain manner and was the first to call the bad and the good
first principles, perhaps he would speak rightly, if the good itself were
the cause of all good things, and the bad of all bad things.
_Met._ i. 4; 915 a 21. And Empedokles makes more use of causes than
Anaxagoras, but not indeed sufficiently; nor does he find in them what
has been agreed upon. At any rate love for him is often a separating
cause and strife a uniting cause. For whenever the all is separated into
the elements by strife, fire and each of the other elements are collected
into one; and again, whenever they all are brought together into one by
love, parts are necessarily separated again from each thing. Empedokles
moreover differed from those who went before, in that he discriminated
this cause and introduced it, not making the cause of motion one, but
different and opposite. Further, he first described the four elements
spoken of as in the form of matter; but he did not use them as four but
only as two, fire by itself, and the rest opposed to fire as being one in
nature, earth and air and water.
i. 8; 989 a 20. And the same thing is true if one asserts that these
are more numerous than one, as Empedokles says that matter is four
substances. For it is necessary that the same peculiar results should
hold good with reference to him. For we see the elements arising from
each other inasmuch as fire and earth do not continue the same substance
(for so it is said of them in the verses on nature); and with reference
to the cause of their motion, whether it is necessary to assume one or
two, we must think that he certainly did not speak either in a correct or
praiseworthy manner.
i. 9; 993 a 15. For the first philosophy seems to speak inarticulately in
regard to all things, as though it were childish in its causes and first
principle, when even Empedokles says that a bone exists by reason, that
is, that it was what it was and what the essence of the matter was.
_Meta._ ii. 4; 1000 a 25. And Empedokles who, one might think, spoke
most consistently, even he had the same experience, for he asserts that
a certain first principle, Strife, is the cause of destruction; but one
might think none the less that even this causes generation out of the
unity; for all other things are from this as their source, except god.
_Meta._ ii. 4; 1000 a 32. And apart from these verses (vv. 104-107) it
would be evident, for if strife were not existing in things, all would
be one, as he says; for when they come together, strife comes to a stand
last of all. Wherefore it results that for him the most blessed God
has less intelligence than other beings; for he does not know all the
elements; for he does not have strife, and knowledge of the like is by
the like.
_Meta._ ii. 4; 1000 b 16. He does not make clear any cause of necessity.
But, nevertheless, he says thus much alone consistently, for he does not
make some beings perishable and others imperishable, but he makes all
perishable except the elements. And the problem now under discussion
is why some things exist and others do not, if they are from the same
(elements).
_Meta._ xi. 10; 1075 b 2. And Empedokles speaks in a manner, for he makes
friendship the good. And this is the first principle, both as the moving
cause, for it brings things together; and as matter, for it is part of
the mixture.
_Ethic._ vii. 5; 1147 b 12. He has the power to speak but not to
understand, as a drunken man repeating verses of Empedokles.
_Ethic._ viii. 2; 1155 b 7. Others, including Empedokles, say the
opposite, that the like seeks the like.
_Moral._ ii. 11; 1208 b 11. And he says that when a dog was accustomed
always to sleep on the same tile, Empedokles was asked why the dog always
sleeps on the same tile, and he answered that the dog had some likeness
to the tile, so that the likeness is the reason for its frequenting it.
_Poet._ 1; 1447 b 16. Homer and Empedokles have nothing in common but
the metre, so that the former should be called a poet, the latter should
rather be called a student of nature.
Fr. 65; Diog. Laer. viii. 57. Aristotle, in the _Sophist_, says that
Empedokles first discovered rhetoric and Zeon dialectic.
Fr. 66; Diog. Laer. viii. 63. Aristotle says that (Empedokles) became
free and estranged from every form of rule, if indeed he refused the
royal power that was granted to him, as Xanthos says in his account of
him, evidently much preferring his simplicity.
PASSAGES IN DIELS’ ‘DOXOGRAPHI GRAECI’ RELATING TO EMPEDOKLES.
Aet. Plac. i. 3; _Dox._ 287. Empedokles of Akragas, son of Meton, says
that there are four elements, fire, air, water, earth; and two dynamic
first principles, love and strife; one of these tends to unite, the
other to separate. And he speaks as follows:—Hear first the four roots
of all things, bright Zeus and life-bearing Hera and Aidoneus, and
Nestis, who moistens the springs of men with her tears. Now by Zeus he
means the seething and the aether, by life-bearing Hera the moist air,
and by Aidoneus the earth; and by Nestis, spring of men, he means as
it were moist seed and water. i. 4; 291. Empedokles: The universe is
one; not however that the universe is the all, but some little part of
the all, and the rest is matter. i. 7; 303. And he holds that the one
is necessity, and that its matter consists of the four elements, and
its forms are strife and love. And he calls the elements gods, and the
mixture of these the universe. And its uniformity will be resolved into
them;[84] and he thinks souls are divine, and that pure men who in a
pure way have a share of them (the elements) are divine. i. 13; 312.
Empedokles: Back of the four elements there are smallest particles,
as it were elements before elements, homoeomeries (that is, rounded
bits). i. 15; 313. Empedokles declared that colour is the harmonious
agreement of vision with the pores. And there are four equivalents of
the elements—white, black, red, yellow. i. 16; 315. Empedokles (and
Xenokrates): The elements are composed of very small masses which are
the most minute possible, and as it were elements of elements. i. 24;
320. Empedokles et al. and all who make the universe by putting together
bodies of small parts, introduce combinations and separations, but not
genesis and destruction absolutely; for these changes take place not
in respect to quality by transformation, but in respect to quantity by
putting together. i. 26; 321. Empedokles: The essence of necessity is the
effective cause of the first principles and of the elements.
Aet. _Plac._ ii. 1; _Dox._ 328. Empedokles: The course of the sun is
the outline of the limit of the universe. ii. 4; 331. Empedokles: The
universe <arises and> perishes according to the alternating rule of Love
and Strife. ii. 6; 334. Empedokles: The aether was first separated, and
secondly fire, and then earth, from which, as it was compressed tightly
by the force of its rotation, water gushed forth; and from this the air
arose as vapour, and the heavens arose from the aether, the sun from the
fire, and bodies on the earth were compressed out of the others. ii. 7;
336. Empedokles: Things are not in fixed position throughout the all,
nor yet are the places of the elements defined, but all things partake
of one another. ii. 8; 338. Empedokles: When the air gives way at the
rapid motion of the sun, the north pole is bent so that the regions of
the north are elevated and the regions of the south depressed in respect
to the whole universe. ii. 10; 339. Empedokles: The right side is toward
the summer solstice, and the left toward the winter solstice. ii. 11;
339. Empedokles: The heaven is solidified from air that is fixed in
crystalline form by fire, and embraces what partakes of the nature of
fire and of the nature of air in each of the hemispheres. ii. 13; 341.
Empedokles: The stars are fiery bodies formed of fiery matter, which the
air embracing in itself pressed forth at the first separation. 342. The
fixed stars are bound up with the crystalline (vault), but the planets
are set free. ii. 20; 350. Empedokles: There are two suns; the one is the
archetype, fire in the one hemisphere of the universe, which has filled
that hemisphere, always set facing the brightness which corresponds to
itself; the other is the sun that appears, the corresponding brightness
in the other hemisphere that has been filled with air mixed with heat,
becoming the crystalline sun by reflection from the rounded earth, and
dragged along with the motion of the fiery hemisphere; to speak briefly,
the sun is the brightness corresponding to the fire that surrounds the
earth. ii. 21; 351. The sun which faces the opposite brightness, is
of the same size as the earth. ii. 23; 353. Empedokles: The solstices
are due to the fact that the sun is hindered from moving always in a
straight line by the sphere enclosing it, and by the tropic circles. ii.
24; 354. The sun is eclipsed when the moon passes before it. ii. 25; 357.
Empedokles: The moon is air rolled together, cloudlike, its fixed form
due to fire, so that it is a mixture. ii. 27; 358. The moon has the form
of a disk. ii. 28; 358. The moon has its light from the sun. ii. 31; 362.
Empedokles: The moon is twice as far from the sun as it is from the earth
(?) 363. The distance across the heavens is greater than the height from
earth to heaven, which is the distance of the moon from us; according to
this the heaven is more spread out, because the universe is disposed in
the shape of an egg.
Aet. _Plac._ iii. 3; _Dox._ 368. Empedokles: (Thunder and lightning
are) the impact of light on a cloud so that the light thrusts out the
air which hinders it; the extinguishing of the light and the breaking
up of the cloud produces a crash, and the kindling of it produces
lightning, and the thunderbolt is the sound of the lightning. iii. 8;
375. Empedokles and the Stoics: Winter comes when the air is master,
being forced up by condensation; and summer when fire is master, when it
is forced downwards. iii. 16; 381. The sea is the sweat of the earth,
brought out by the heat of the sun on account of increased pressure.
Aet. _Plac._ iv. 3; Theod. v. 18; _Dox._ 389. Empedokles: The soul is a
mixture of what is air and aether in essence. iv. 5; 392. Empedokles et
al.: Mind and soul are the same, so that in their opinion no animal would
be absolutely devoid of reason. Theod. v. 23; 392. Empedokles et al.: The
soul is imperishable. Aet. iv. 9; 396. Empedokles et al.: Sensations are
deceptive. 397. Sensations arise part by part according to the symmetry
of the pores, each particular object of sense being adapted to some sense
(organ). iv. 13; 403. Empedokles: Vision receives impressions both by
means of rays and by means of images. But more by the second method; for
it receives effluences. iv. 14; 405. (Reflections from mirrors) take
place by means of effluences that arise on the surface of the mirror,
and they are completed by means of the fiery matter that is separated
from the mirror, and that bears along the air which lies before them
into which the streams flow. iv. 6; 406. Empedokles: Hearing takes place
by the impact of wind on the cartilage of the ear, which, he says, is
hung up inside the ear so as to swing and be struck after the manner of
a bell. iv. 17; 407. Empedokles: Smell is introduced with breathings of
the lungs; whenever the breathing becomes heavy, it does not join in the
perception on account of roughness, as in the case of those who suffer
from a flux. iv. 22; 411. Empedokles: The first breath of the animal
takes place when the moisture in infants gives way, and the outside air
comes to the void to enter the opening of the lungs at the side; and
after this the implanted warmth at the onset from without presses out
from below the airy matter, the breathing out; and at the corresponding
return into the outer air it occasions a corresponding entering of the
air, the breathing in. And that which now controls the blood as it goes
to the surface and as it presses out the airy matter through the nostrils
by its own currents on its outward passage, becomes the breathing out;
and when the air runs back and enters into the fine openings that are
scattered through the blood, it is the breathing in. And he mentions the
instance of the clepsydra.
Aet. _Plac._ v. 7; 419. Empedokles: Male or female are born according
to warmth and coldness; whence he records that the first males were
born to the east and south from the earth, and the females to the
north. v. 8; 420. Empedokles: Monstrosities are due to too much or too
little seed (_semen_), or to disturbance of motion, or to division into
several parts, or to a bending aside. v. 10; 421. Empedokles: Twins
and triplets are due to excess of seed and division of it. v. 11; 422.
Empedokles: Likenesses (of children to parents) are due to power of the
fruitful seed, and differences occur when the warmth in the seed is
dissipated.[85] v. 12; 423. Empedokles: Offspring are formed according
to the fancy of the woman at the time of conception; for oftentimes
women fall in love with images and statues, and bring forth offspring
like these. v. 14; 425. Empedokles: (Mules are not fertile) because the
womb is small and low and narrow, and attached to the belly in a reverse
manner, so that the seed does not go into it straight, nor would it
receive the seed even if it should reach it. v. 15; 425. Empedokles: The
embryo is [not] alive, but exists without breathing in the belly; and
the first breath of the animal takes place at birth, when the moisture
in infants gives way, and when the airy matter from without comes to the
void, to enter into the openings of the lungs. v. 19; 430. Empedokles:
The first generations of animals and plants were never complete, but
were yoked with incongruous parts; and the second were forms of parts
that belong together; and the third, of parts grown into one whole; and
the fourth were no longer from like parts, as for instance from earth
and water, but from elements already permeating each other; for some the
food being condensed, for others the fairness of the females causing an
excitement of the motion of the seed. And the classes of all the animals
were separated on account of such mixings; those more adapted to the
water rushed into this, others sailed up into the air as many as had
the more of fiery matter, and the heavier remained on the earth, and
equal portions in the mixture spoke in the breasts of all. v. 22; 434.
Empedokles: Flesh is the product of equal parts of the four elements
mixed together, and sinews of double portions of fire and earth mixed
together, and the claws of animals are the product of sinews chilled by
contact with the air, and bones of two equal parts of water and of earth
and four parts of fire mingled together. And sweat and tears come from
blood as it wastes away, and flows out because it has become rarefied.
v. 24; 435. Empedokles: Sleep is a moderate cooling of the warmth in
the blood, death a complete cooling. v. 25; 437. Empedokles: Death is
a separation of the fiery matter out of the mixture of which the man
is composed; so that from this standpoint death of the body and of the
soul happens together; and sleep is a separating of the fiery matter.
v. 26; 438. Empedokles: Trees first of living beings sprang from the
earth, before the sun was unfolded in the heavens and before day and
night were separated; and by reason of the symmetry of their mixture
they contain the principle of male and female; and they grow, being
raised by the warmth that is in the earth, so that they are parts of
the earth, just as the fœtus in the belly is part of the womb; and the
fruits are secretions of the water and fire in the plants; and those
which lack (sufficient) moisture shed their leaves in summer when it is
evaporated, but those which have more moisture keep their leaves, as in
the case of the laurel and the olive and the date-palm; and differences
in their juices are (due to) variations in the number of their component
parts, and the differences in plants arise because they derive their
homoeomeries from (the earth which) nourishes them, as in the case of
grape-vines; for it is not the kind of vine which makes wine good, but
the kind of soil which nurtures it. v. 26; 440. Empedokles: Animals are
nurtured by the substance of what is akin to them [moisture], and they
grow with the presence of warmth, and grow smaller and die when either of
these is absent; and men of the present time, as compared with the first
living beings, have been reduced to the size of infants (?). v. 28; 440.
Empedokles: Desires arise in animals from a lack of the elements that
would render each one complete, and pleasures....
Theophr. _Phys. opin._ 3; _Dox._ 478. Empedokles of Agrigentum makes
the material elements four: fire and air and water and earth, all of
them eternal, and changing in amount and smallness by composition and
separation; and the absolute first principles by which these four are
set in motion, are Love and Strife; for the elements must continue to be
moved in turn, at one time being brought together by Love and at another
separated by Strife; so that in his view there are six first principles;
for sometimes he gives the active power to Love and Strife, when he says
(vv. 67-68): ‘Now being all united by Love into one, now each borne apart
by hatred engendered of Strife;’ and again he ranks these as elements
along with the four when he says (vv. 77-80): ‘And at another time it
separated so that there were many out of the one; fire and water and
earth and boundless height of air, and baneful Strife apart from these,
balancing each of them, and Love among them, their equal in length and
breadth.’
Fr. 23; _Dox._ 495. Some say that the sea is as it were a sort of sweat
from the earth; for when the earth is warmed by the sun it gives forth
moisture; accordingly it is salt, for sweat is salt. Such was the opinion
of Empedokles.
Theophr. _de sens._ 7; _Dox._ 500. Empedokles speaks in like manner
concerning all the senses, and says that we perceive by a fitting into
the pores of each sense. So they are not able to discern one another’s
objects, for the pores of some are too wide and of others too narrow
for the object of sensation, so that some things go right through
untouched, and others are unable to enter completely. And he attempts
to describe what vision is; and he says that what is in the eye is fire
and water, and what surrounds it is earth and air, through which light
being fine enters, as the light in lanterns. Pores of fire and water
are set alternately, and the fire-pores recognise white objects, the
water-pores black objects; for the colours harmonise with the pores. And
the colours move into vision by means of effluences. And they are not
composed alike ... and some of opposite elements; for some the fire is
within and for others it is on the outside, so some animals see better
in the daytime and others at night; those that have less fire see better
by day, for the light inside them is balanced by the light outside them;
and those that have less water see better at night, for what is lacking
is made up for them. And in the opposite case the contrary is true; for
those that have the more fire are dim-sighted, since the fire increasing
plasters up and covers the pores of water in the daytime; and for those
that have water in excess, the same thing happens at night; for the fire
is covered up by the water.... Until in the case of some the water is
separated by the outside light, and in the case of others the fire by
the air; for the cure of each is its opposite. That which is composed
of both in equal parts is the best tempered and most excellent vision.
This, approximately, is what he says concerning vision. And hearing is
the result of noises coming from outside. For when (the air) is set in
motion by a sound, there is an echo within; for the hearing is as it
were a bell echoing within, and the ear he calls an ‘offshoot of flesh’
(v. 315): and the air when it is set in motion strikes on something
hard and makes an echo.[86] And smell is connected with breathing, so
those have the keenest smell whose breath moves most quickly; and the
strongest odour arises as an effluence from fine and light bodies. But
he makes no careful discrimination with reference to taste and touch
separately, either how or by what means they take place, except the
general statement that sensation takes place by a fitting into the
pores; and pleasure is due to likenesses in the elements and in their
mixture, and pain to the opposite. And he speaks similarly concerning
thought and ignorance: Thinking is by what is like, and not perceiving
is by what is unlike, since thought is the same thing as, or something
like, sensation. For recounting how we recognise each thing by each, he
said at length (vv. 336-337): Now out of these (elements) all things
are fitted together and their form is fixed, and by these men think and
feel pleasure and pain. So it is by blood especially that we think; for
in this especially are mingled <all> the elements of things. And those
in whom equal and like parts have been mixed, not too far apart, nor
yet small parts, nor exceeding great, these have the most intelligence
and the most accurate senses; and those who approximate to this come
next; and those who have the opposite qualities are the most lacking in
intelligence. And those in whom the elements are scattered and rarefied,
are torpid and easily fatigued; and those in whom the elements are small
and thrown close together, move so rapidly and meet with so many things
that they accomplish but little by reason of the swiftness of the motion
of the blood. And those in whom there is a well-tempered mixture in some
one part, are wise at this point; so some are good orators, others good
artisans, according as the mixture is in the hands or in the tongue; and
the same is true of the other powers.
Theophr. _de sens._ 59; _Dox._ 516. And Empedokles says of colours that
white is due to fire, and black to water.
Cic. _De nat. deor._ xii.; _Dox._ 535. Empedokles, along with many other
mistakes, makes his worst error in his conception of the gods. For the
four beings of which he holds that all things consist, he considers
divine; but it is clear that these are born and die and are devoid of all
sense.