Book 1: Chapter 6, Empedocles Summary and Analysis

Empedocles, who lived in 440 BC preceded Parmenides, but his views were more similar to those held by Heraclitus. He lived in Acragas, on the Southern coast of Sicily, and was a democratic politician, also claiming to be a god. He was Orphic during his youth, combined politics and science while becoming a prophet in exile.

Empedocles was to perform miracles that were based more on science than what may have seemed magic. He was to cease winds, restore lives, but died trying to prove that he was a god when jumping into the Etna crater. He was to be a great poet, scientist, philosopher, and had his own religion. He discovered centrifugal force, that the air is a separate substance through the observation that water and air don't mix, and different plant sexes. He invented a theory...