Empedocles of Akraganta

According to legend, was killed, volunteered to jump into the crater of Etna, in fact, died in the Peloponnese. After the overthrow of tyranny in Akragante rejected offered him the insignia of imperial dignity, the democratic movement led by hometown. Venerated by their followers, who had assisted him almost divine honors. Empedocles studied medicine and was a priest. The range of his interests included astronomy, cosmology, mathematics, physiology, psychology, zoogoniya. Preserved fragments of his principal work "On Nature" and "purification". In the essay "On the nature of" setting out his natural philosophy. "The roots of all things, for Empedocles, - Fire, Water, Air and Land. They are eternally immutable, and indestructible nesozdavaemy. They can not be transformed into one another, and can only be mixed mechanically with one another. Thus, Empedocles was the creator of the classic doctrine of the elements, he laid the foundations of their scientific understanding. World events on Empedocles, exists due to the connection and separation of elementary particles, the reason for connections - Love, separation - Hatred, which are the universal eternal driving force. Matter and energy are inextricably to one another, global processes are variations between the extremes of complete mixing (exclusive domination of Love) and complete separation (exclusive domination of Hate). Some things in t.ch. and people who can exist only at intermediate levels. The diversity of the world is the result of different proportions of the mixture between the elements. Among living creatures can arise purely random formation, but there remain only feasible. Rejecting the hypothesis of using divine powers, Empedocles, and tries to explain such complex phenomena of nature, both day and night, seasons, sunlight and moonlight. In the religious and philosophical terms Empedocles - the representative of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls: who is burdened with guilt, he should wander in different ways three times ten thousand, Op.