Empedocles: A Philosophical Investigation (review)

Book Reviews Helle Lambridis. Empedocles: A Philosophical Investigation. Studies in Humanities, no. 15. University, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1976. Pp. xvi + 154. $8.00, cloth; $3.50 paper. Alkidamas of Elaia--"who had good opportunities of knowing" (Burnet), having been a disciple of Gorgias, who himself had been a pupil of Empedocles-- "reports in the 'Physics' that Zenon and Empedocles at the same time attended lectures by Parmenides; that afterwards they left and that then Zenon philosophized in his own way, but that the other one [Empedocles ] attended the complete courses of Anaxagoras and of Pythagoras; and that of the one [Pythagoras] he then imitated the dignified ceremoniousness in the habits of life as well as in outward appearance, but of the other [Anaxagoras], the natural philosophy" (Diog. Laert. 8.56). And the famous historiographer Timaios of Tauromenion--"the greatest expert and most meticulous of all the historians of Sicily" (Zeller)-- has recorded (Diog. Laert. 8.54) that Empedocles "was a hearer of Pythagoras," but that"having been found guilty of theft of the doctrine [Iogoklopia], was at that time denied (further) participation in the lectures (just as Plato [recently])." What exactly is meant here by "theft of the doctrine" can be learned from Neanthes' report (Diog. Laert. 8.55) that "because he gave them [the lectures] out to the public at large by way of his poetry, they made it a law not to communicate them henceforth to any versifier. (The same, however.... happened to Plato; for he, too, was expelled.)" The author of this new book on Empedocles does not seem to have ever come across these passages, which is somewhat amazing. An explanation could be gathered from page xvi of the book where, of the sources cited, the most recent one turns out to be a monograph published in 1916, reprinted unchanged in 1963. Hence, whatever since 1963 has appeared about Empedocles must have escaped the author's notice. Had it been otherwise, he would no doubt have written his book in a rather different vein. He would hardly have idolized Empedocles as "the greatest philosopher-poet of the ancient world" (p. 1), who in his old age became a "mystic." He might have learned, instead, that by quite a few of his contemporaries Empedocles was considered an impostor and charlatan, a goes; that he was an ungrateful disciple of Anaxagoras, exposing to the public some of the basic ideas, diluted and popularized, of his master's philosophy before the master himself had made up his mind to publish his own doctrine. (This, of course, does not mean to imply that all of Empedocles' philosophy consists of popularized Anaxagorean ideas.) It has been one of the author's main goals "to give an intelligibleform to some admittedly difficult and puzzling passages" (p. 1) in Empedocles' work. But before starting to do so, he felt he had to offer also a biographical chapter, "Life and Legend," and a chapter, superscribed "Contemporaries," about some of the other giants of the pre-Sophistic period. These chapters are ailing primarily from the confused and confusing "established" chronology, which would imply, for instance, that Empedocles could have been a hearer of Pythagoreans but not of Pythagoras himself, since Pythagoras would not have been alive anymore when Empedocles was born; or that Alkmaion of Croton, the reputed teacher of Empedocles in the medical art, would have lived a generation before Empedocles; and the like. Here, return to the findings of K. F. Hermann (1849) and G. F. Unger (1884) is the only remedy. Then the correct dates would be again (all B.c.): Pythagoras, 568-ca.493; Anaxagoras, 533-462/61; Empedocles, 521 to some time after 444; Democritus, 493--404. In those chapters there are also some little flaws. According to page 21, "there is no report [4551 456 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY that he [Empedocles] ever went to Athens." But in the lexicon of Suidas, under "Acron," we read: "Acron studied in Athens together with Empedocles." (Acron of Akragas became a popular physician, a competitor of Empedocles.) And on page 34, the author contends that Anaxagoras was "a few years younger" than Empedocles, while according to Aristotle (Metaph. 984a11), Anaxagoras was...