Explain a specific Pre-Socratic philosopher and his/her major ideas Introduction Pre-Socratic Philosophy is a philosophy that emerged before Socrates. This philosophy was introduced in 5th Century BCE by Greek thinkers during their enquiry about the world and the place for the human beings in it. The Pre-Socratic Philosophers were recognized as first generation scientists of the Western tradition. Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Zeno, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras and Protagoras are some of the well-known Pre-Socratic Philosophers (Long 35). This research paper primarily focuses on describing about one of the prolific Pro-Socratic Philosophers, Empedocles and his major idea and philosophies. Biography of Empedocles Empedocles was a Greek Pre-Socratic …show more content…
As a firm believer of Orphic Mysteries, Empedocles had developed an eclectic thinking and tried to combine the best philosophies suggested by Pythagoras and Ionian Schools. Very similar to Ionian and Atomist philosophers, Empedocles has tried to find out the basis of all change in his …show more content…
These two divine powers are Love and Strife. Whilst Love attracts different forms of matter or makes four elements to combine together, Strife causes their separation. The harmony or variation in the universe, which was composed by Earth, Water, Air and Fire, depends on the Love and Strife (Brown 99). These two divine powers either wane or wax but they will never disappear from the imposition of each other. He also added that these both Love and Strife were coexisted when they are pure elements in the form of sphere, which according to Empedocles is representative of God (Wilford 12). The uniting power of Love dominated the sphere leaving Strife to move to extreme edges of sphere when they existed together in purity. The bond of purity has been dissolved when the Strife moved to extreme edges and mixes with Love. Empedocles tried to relate this phenomenon with real-time living environment and concluded that the world is full of contrasts and oppositions majorly because of combination of Love Strife (Brown