Empedocles

Empedocles
Empedocles, 17th-century engraving
Born	c. 490 BC Akragas, Sicily
Died	c. 430 BC (aged around 60) Mount Etna, Sicily
Era	Pre-Socratic philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Pluralist school
Main interests	Cosmogenesis, ontology, epistemology
Notable ideas	All matter is made up of four elements: water, earth, air and fire The cosmic principles of Philotes ("Love") and Neikos ("Repulsion") Theories about respiration
Influences Parmenides, Pythagoreanism
Influenced Gorgias of Leontini, Aristotle, Lucretius, Friedrich Nietzsche

Empedocles 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.