A History of Greek Philosophy / THE ATOMISTS / EMPEDOCLES

Page 10

Passing from the general conceptions of Empedocles to those more particular rationalisations of particular problems which very largely provided the motive of early philosophies, while scientific methods were in an undeveloped and uncritical condition, we may notice such interesting statements as the following: “The earth, which is at the centre of the sphere of the universe, remains firm, because the spin of the universe as a whole keeps it in its place like the water in a spinning cup.” He has the same conception of the early condition of the earth as in other cosmogonies. At first it was a chaos of watery slough, which slowly, under the influence of sky and sun, parted off into earth and sea. The sea was the ‘sweat’ of the earth, and by analogy with the sweat it was salt. The heavens, on the other hand, were formed of air and fire, and the sun was, as it were, a speculum at which the effulgence and the heat of the whole heavens concentrated. But that the aether and the fire had not been fully separated from earth and water he held to be proved by the hot fountains and fiery phenomena which must have been so familiar to a native of Sicily. Curiously enough he imagined fire to possess a solidifying power, and therefore attributed to it the solidity of the earth and the hardness of the rocks. No doubt he had observed some effects of fire in ‘metamorphic’ formations in his own vicinity.

Previous / First / Next Page of this chapter

Cf. Empedocles Anthology and Resources

Next Chapter : LEUCIPPUS AND DEMOCRITUS / Previous Chapter : ANAXAGORAS

A History of Greek Philosophy : Table of Contents

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/history-of-philosophy/empedocles.asp?pg=10