Empedocles[3] was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who lived in Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily.
Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the origin of the cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements in the Western world. He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements.
Influenced by the Pythagoreans, he supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Empedocles was perhaps the last Greek philosopher to record his ideas in verse. Some of his work still survives today, more so than in the case of any other Presocratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.
References
↑Frank Reynolds, David Tracy (eds.), Myth and Philosophy, SUNY Press, 1990, p. 99.
↑Frag. B100 (Aristotle, On Respiration, 473b1–474a6)
