person
Empedocles of Acragas
Empedocles
also: Empedocles
Pre-Socratic philosopher (c. 494-434 BC) of the four roots (elements) and the forces of Love and Strife. Cicero (De Fato 39) groups him with Democritus, Heraclitus, and Aristotle among those who made fate carry the force of necessity.
Reading notes
- Laelius, On Friendship §24 a certain learned man of Agrigentum
Empedocles of Acragas (Agrigentum), the 5th-century philosopher-poet who made Love and Strife the forces that draw the cosmos together and tear it apart. Laelius cites his verses for the cosmic power of friendship and discord.
- Tusculan Disputations §1.18 Empedocles holds the soul to be blood suffused around the heart
Empedocles of Acragas (fifth century BC), who located thought in the blood around the heart. He heads Cicero's doxography of the soul, a survey of conflicting philosophical views on what the soul is and where it resides.