A Pre-Socratic
Empedocles was one of the more famous pre-Socratic philosophers. He lived in northern Sicily around 440 B.C., where he established himself as a democratic politician before being exiled. His scientific writings were in the form of epic verse.
He is noted for his discovery of air and centrifugal force, belief in human evolution, suspicion that light traveled at a finite speed, and going totally fucking crazy later in life.
Bertrand Russell, in his marvelous History of Western Philosophy, writes:
Legend has much to say about Empedocles. He was supposed to have worked miracles, or what seemed such, sometimes by magic, sometimes by means of his scientific knowledge. He could control the winds, we are told; he restored to life a woman who had seemed dead for thirty days; finally, it is said, he died by leaping into the crater of Etna to prove that he was a god. In the words of the poet:
Great Empedocles, that ardent soul
Leapt into Etna, and was roasted whole.
It’s somehow comforting to know that no matter what I do with my life, I will never be as awesome as this man.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 7:25 pm and is filed under history, old dead white guys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply