Empedocles

Qu'est-ce que l'Absolu ? Dieu existe-t-il ?

A holy and ineffable mind, with neither head nor human limbs

Un Absolu impersonnelIl le dit expressément

Empedocles fills his physics with divine names: the four roots are called Zeus, Hera, Aidoneus and Nestis, and the two forces that join and separate them are Love and Strife. When Love prevails, everything fuses in the Sphere, round and rejoicing in its solitude, which fragments B27–29 treat as a god. But in fragment B134 he explicitly rejects the anthropomorphic image: the divine has no human head upon its limbs, no arms or feet, but is only a holy and ineffable mind that darts through the whole cosmos with swift thoughts. The ultimate is thus divine and intelligent, yet faceless: a principle that thinks the world, not a lord who governs it from outside.

Qui suis-je ? Existe-t-il un vrai soi ?

A daimon exiled from the gods, wandering through many forms

Une âme en évolutionIl le dit expressément

In the Purifications Empedocles speaks of himself as one of the long-lived daimons who, for having stained their hands with blood and trusted in Strife, have been exiled far from the blessed for thrice ten thousand seasons, being born in all kinds of mortal forms. He claims to have been already a boy and a girl, a bush, a bird and a mute fish of the sea, and describes the weeping of the newcomer to an unfamiliar place. The end of the journey is return: the best become seers, poets, physicians and leaders, and from there they spring up as gods, table companions of the immortals. The true self is that daimon passing through lives until it recovers its divine condition.

Pourquoi souffrons-nous ?

We suffer because Strife exiled us from the blessed

La séparation d'avec DieuIl le dit expressément

In the Purifications suffering has a precise origin. Empedocles counts himself among the daimons who, for having shed blood and trusted in raging Strife, were cast far from the gods and condemned to be born in mortal forms. The world they reach is a joyless place of murder, wrath and disease, and he himself says he wept on seeing the unfamiliar place. The slaughter continues: humans sacrifice and eat animals without seeing that they devour one another, and a father slaughters among prayers his son changed in form. Pain is exile, and its causes are bloodshed and the dominion of Strife over Love.

Que se passe-t-il après la mort ?

There is no birth or death, only mixture; the daimon transmigrates until it returns

Renaissance selon le karmaIl le dit expressément

Empedocles answers in two registers. In On Nature he denies that there is properly birth or death of mortal things: there is only mixture and exchange of what is mixed, and “birth” is a name humans give them. In the Purifications the exiled daimon passes for thrice ten thousand seasons through every kind of form — boy and girl, bush, bird and fish — and that is why eating meat is killing a kinsman. At the end of the cycle, the purified are born as seers, poets, physicians and leaders, and from there rise as gods, free of human pains and table companions of the immortals. Death is a step in the journey home.

Comment atteint-on la libération ou le salut ?

Abstain from blood, purify oneself and reach divine thoughts

Par une pratique disciplinéeIl le dit expressément

The poem tradition calls the Purifications offers a way for the exiled daimon to return among the gods. Its core is an ethic of non-violence: to stop shedding blood, because the sacrificed animal may be a kinsman changed in form, and to abstain from certain foods, including beans and laurel. Knowledge is added to that discipline: blessed is he who has gained the wealth of divine thoughts, and wretched he who holds a dark opinion about the gods. The purified ascend through the highest callings — seers, poets, physicians, leaders — until they spring up as gods. It is a way of practice and sustained purification.

Faut-il un maître ?

A sage who speaks as a god passes a guarded knowledge to his disciple

IndispensableCela se déduit de sa doctrine

On Nature is addressed to a disciple, Pausanias, and Empedocles asks him to keep what he hears in his silent heart. He promises him knowledge of remedies against ills and old age, of stilling the winds and bringing a dead man back from Hades: a knowledge only he can impart. In the Purifications he presents himself to the citizens of Acragas as an immortal god, followed by crowds asking for oracles and cures. At the same time he acknowledges the limits of mortal knowledge and entreats the Muse. The figure that emerges is that of an inspired sage whose word is the necessary vehicle of truth, though the disciple must test it with all his senses.

Le monde est-il réel ?

Four roots that Love unites and Strife divides, in an endless cycle

Un ordre naturel en transformationIl le dit expressément

Empedocles accepts from Parmenides that nothing comes from nothing nor is annihilated, but he saves the reality of the sensible world: what there is are four eternal roots — fire, air, earth and water — which mix and separate. Two forces move them: Love, which unites, and Strife, which divides. The account is double: sometimes everything comes together into one through Love, sometimes each thing is borne apart by the hatred of Strife, and this alternating change never ceases. Living beings, including the strange creatures of a primitive zoogony, arise from these combinations. The world is real and is a cyclical process of union and separation.

Qu'est-ce que l'amour ?

Love gathers what is separated until it fuses all in the Sphere

Le désir ardent et l'unionIl le dit expressément

In Empedocles Love (Philotes, also called Aphrodite or Cypris) is one of the two forces moving the cosmos. It unites the separated roots and, when it rules completely, everything gathers in the Sphere, a round god rejoicing in its solitude, in which there is no strife. Humans know that force in their own limbs, he says, when they think loving thoughts and perform works of concord, but they do not see that it is the same one that whirls in the universe. In the Purifications the reign of Cypris is the golden age when no blood was shed. Love is thus the cosmic force returning what is scattered to the original unity, the exiled soul included.

Sommes-nous libres ou tout est-il déterminé ?

A decree of Necessity punishes shed blood, but purification is possible

Le karma et le choixIl le dit expressément

Empedocles opens fragment B115 with an oracle of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal and sealed with broad oaths: when one of the daimons stains his limbs with blood or swears falsely following Strife, he wanders far from the blessed for thrice ten thousand seasons. There is thus a cosmic law binding faults to their consequences over many lives. But that law does not cancel responsibility: Empedocles urges his hearers to leave off slaughter and abstain from the impure, and states that the purified ascend until they become gods. The past conditions; the present can change the course.

Pourquoi méditer ou prier ?

A bloodless worship and a pure mind contemplating what it has learned

Le rite et la culture de soiIl le dit expressément

The Purifications propose a reform of worship. In the golden age, when Cypris reigned, humans honoured the goddess with painted images, perfumes, myrrh and incense, and the altar was not drenched with the blood of bulls, which was the greatest abomination. The religious practice Empedocles defends consists in abstaining from slaughter and certain foods, purifying oneself and leading a pure life. In On Nature he adds a form of contemplation: if you fix these teachings in your firm mind and contemplate them with goodwill and pure meditation, they will stay with you all your life and grow. Purified rite and attention to doctrine form a single practice.

La raison peut-elle connaître l'ultime ?

The means of knowing are narrow: the Muse helps the mortal mind

La foi et la raison s'entraidentIl le dit expressément

Empedocles opens On Nature with a warning about human limits: narrow are the means of knowing spread through the limbs, many the miseries that blunt thought, and humans, having seen a small part of life, think they have found the whole. He asks the gods to turn madness from his tongue and the Muse to grant him what is lawful for ephemeral beings to hear. And he advises the disciple not to trust one sense more than another, but to consider each thing by every way it becomes evident. Observation, reasoning and divine inspiration cooperate in a knowledge aware of its limits, though it promises divine thoughts.

Se retirer du monde ou le transformer ?

Physician, orator and democrat who refused kingship and toured the cities

S'engager dans le mondeCela se déduit de sa doctrine

Empedocles lived in the midst of his city. According to Diogenes Laertius, drawing on Timaeus and Aristotle, he championed democracy in Acragas, helped dissolve an oligarchic assembly and refused the kingship offered to him; he was famed as a physician and Aristotle considered him the inventor of rhetoric. His own verses show him touring the cities, followed by thousands asking him the way to profit, oracles and remedies for disease. And the summit he promises the purified is not isolation but the callings that serve humans: seers, poets, physicians and leaders. Wisdom proves itself in service to the community.