Empedocles(5th Century Bce–After 444 Bce) Empedocles, the Greek poet, prophet, and natural philosopher, was the originator of the doctrine of four elements that dominated Western cosmology and medical thought down to the Renaissance. Empedocles...

Empedocles [addendum] The philosophy of Empedocles remains the subject of widely diverging interpretations. This is so despite the discovery of important new evidence, which, far from dousing old debates, has instead further inflamed them. The...

EMPEDOCLES of Acragas (Sicily), a Greek philosopher and sage who lived in the first half of the fifth century BCE (c. 495–435 BCE) and who ended his life, according to a widespread but apocryphal tradition, by jumping into the crater of the...

Empedocles. c.492-c.432 B.C. Sicilian Philosopher, Poet, and Physician Empedocles is considered, perhaps incorrectly, the originator of the four-element theory...

Greek philosopher, poet, and politician A philosopher, poet, politician, and visionary, Empedocles of Acragas developed radical new ideas about the nature of the universe. His philosophy of the four elements in the universe and the definition of matter...

492?-432 B.C. Greek philosopher who gained fame as a physician, statesman, theologian, mystic, and democratic reformer. Only fragments of his long poem, On Nature, have survived. Galen called Empedocles the founder of the Italian school of medicine....

For the volcano, see Empedocles (volcano). Empedocles (Greek: á¼μπεδοκλá¿ς, ca. 490–430 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the origin...