M. Luz Presocratics 9

Dr Menahem Luz,
Presocratic Philosophers
Summary 9
The Pluralist Reply to Parmenides:
Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus

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Contents
Background
Empedocles of Agrigentum
Purifications
On Nature

Anaxagoras
account of nature
cosmological theory

Atomism general remarks
Leucippos
Democritus of Abdera

Background
Even before Zeno formulated his paradoxes, some pluralists were preparing an answer for Parmenides' monism with a justification of a plurality of substances. Others were Zeno's contemporary, but took his criticism into account.

The Pythagoreans envisioned a pluralistic numerical cosmos derived and generated from a geometric unit, very much like that of Parmenides.
Opposed to this conceptual pluralistic account of the world, there is that of Empedocles who combined the old Ionic materialistic accounts of the world with a new conceptual account of cosmic forces. He accepted Parmenides' denial of the conversion of reality to non-reality in the sense that he denied the absolute destruction of substance or its absolute creation from nothing.
Anaxagoras' account answers Parmenides' monism by eliminating the elements altogether.
The atomists (Leucippus and Democritus) maintained a pluralism by making each atomic element an independent Parmenidean entity.

Empedocles of Agrigentum (c.493-c.433 BC)
Background
Empedocles came from the Greek colony of Acragas (Latin: Agrigentum) in Sicily (see map) which he mentions in fragments of his work. (tadpis p 21 no. 10)
Down to the time of Plato, there were close links between the Greek colonies in Sicily and the Pythagorean communities in Italy.
Some of Empedocles' fragments may remind us of Pythagorean belief:

Transmigration and perhaps reincarnation (tadpis p 22 no. 12)
His mystical composition The Purifications (Katharmoi; tadpis p 22 no. 10) mentions the reverance that the common people bore him, much like as did Pythagoras' pupils.
As the Pythagoreans, Empedocles was interested in physiology and medicine (tadpis p 21 no 7-9) although his account of physiology is strictly material and not numerical.

Empedocles' original work was contained in On Nature (tadpis p. 20-22 no. 3-11) where he tries to construct a philosophy of nature that is universal and based on unified principles.
He gives an account for the physiology and sensation of man, for the growth of plants and the creation of the cosmos.
Here he shows the interest of the Sicilians in the materialistic and natural philosophy of the Ionian philosophers
late anecdotes also speak of his interest in the Sicilian Volcano Mt. Etna. Much earlier, Xenophanes had taken an interest in Sicilian fossils (tadpis p. 12 no. 25)
On Nature (tadpis p. 20-22 no. 3-11)
All that exists is constructed out of the four traditional roots (rizai): fire, air, earth and water), bonded in various proportions by the force of cohesion (philotes = love) and separated by the force of corruption (neikos = strife).(tadpis p. 20 no. 3)
The two elemental concepts (Love and Strife) may at first sight seem like early mythic abstractions, but Empedocles employed them as cosmic forces:
Aristotle understands Empedocles as referrubg to causal forces of the universe (tadpis p. 22 no. 4)
As such they can be compared to the cosmic forces of densification and rarification in Anaximenes.
Empedocles agrees with Parmenides on two points:
no object is created out of nothing -- i.e. no conversion of reality from non-reality (a principle called in Latin, creatio ex nihilo)
nor is it absolutely destroyed -- i.e. no conversion of reality into non-reality (Latin: destructio ad nihil).
Instead, there is generation out of the 4 roots and destruction back into the roots.
The four roots account not only for the construction of objects, but also for our means of perception of them through the principle that like is perceived by like (tadpis p. 21 no. 6-7)

Our faculty of understanding is based on perception, which is itself based on material principles (tadpis p. 20-21 no. 9)

It is difficult to separate the mystical from the rational in Empedocles' fragments.
His system adopts the Parmenidean concept that there is no such thing as non-reality; therefore Empedocles denies absolute creation and absolute destruction as told in the myths
there is only generation from previous existing roots and a breaking down into these roots.
His system attempts to give a unified account of the sensible universe that Parmenides denied.

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Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500-428 BC)
Background

Anaxagoras lived much of his life in Athens, where he was a personal advisor to the great Athenian statesman, Pericles
towards the end of his life he was exiled from Athens for his controversial denial of the sun's divinity (tadpis p. 22 no.1 (6), p. 23 no. 14)
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Anaxagoras' account of nature

He accepted Parmenides denial of the conversion of reality into non-reality (tadpis p. 22 no.1)

however, instead of positing the traditional four roots as did Empedocles, Anaxagoras suggested that each and every substance of the universe may be divided infinitely (Latin: ad infinitum) without ever reaching an end
All objects and substances are thus infinitly divisible into similar parts (homeo-mere): e.g., bread contains corn, but also stone, meat and all other substances (tadpis p. 22 no.1 (8), p. 23 no. 2)
the qualities of the substances depend on the stage of division at which we examine the object. In this way, Anaxagoras avoids converting reality into non-reality since this division is ad infinitum.
As with Empedocles, Anaxagoras supposed that there is no absolute creation or destruction, but not from basic indistructable roots as Empedocles supposed.
if Anaxagoras does not accept a destruction of reality, but merely infinite division of its objects, then there is also no creation out of nothing, but merely the mixing of substances together
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Anaxagoras' cosmological theory
the universe was ordered and arranged by a cosmic Nous, the intellect of the universe (tadpis p. 22 no 1 (8))
this conceptual cosmic force controls both inter-stellar generation as well as earthly generation. The stars and sun are then not divinely created out of nothing, but are arrangements of pre-existing materials. Hence his claim that the sun was just a rock (see above)
Socrates knew of Anaxagoras' theory (Plato Phaedo 97-98 Heb. trans. Liebes vol. 2 p. 63-64)
Socrates found the teleological idea of an organising mind behind the universe attractive
but he was critical that Anaxagoras did not show how the nous ordered objects in this world from its place in the cosmos
Anaxagoras' theory only partially solved the problems set by Parmenides
his idea of infinitely divisible objects stands as a counterpoint to the atomic theory of Democritus: objects are finitely divisible breaking down into basic atomic elements.
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Atomism - general remarks

Atomism -- the theory that every object is compounded out of a random combination of elemental atoms (from the Greek: a + tomon = in+divisible)
Atomism had a long history:
Early atomism of Leucippus and Democritus of the 5th century BC
Epicurean atomism of the 3rd century BC was founded by Epicurus of Samos, who used atomism primarily for an ethical and cognitive purpose.
During the Roman period, there was a popular revival of Epicureanism. The best known exponent is Lucretius.
See also Hebrew note on Epicurus and Lucretius: Epicurus

Ancient atomism had two basic priniciples:
'being' in the form of a basic atomic entity
not-being or empty space in which the atoms moved
It was originally created to answer the problems raised by Parmenides (tadpis p. 23 no.1)

each atom is a complete Parmenidean world in its own:
it is a complete, limited unit of reality -- as such this is a denial of Zeno's infinite division of lengths of reality
the atom is also unchanging and unmoving (from within) and so also like the Parmenidean one
this concept may have been inspired by the Eleatic Melissus' remark that if there were a plurality, each being would have to be a (Parmenidean) unit(tadpis p. 23 no. 2)

neither of the principles (atoms and empty space) can be created or destroyed
However, the atomists concluded that there is a plurality of objects constructed out of the Parmenidean units

objects are generated from random combinations of atoms in space -- and dismantled in time
the atoms have no qualities of their own except shape -- qualities result from the combination of atoms in objects

this atomism was primarily speculative, although sometimes demonstrated by observational examples.
It was not accepted by Aristotle and the majority of Greek thinkers who preferred a description of the universe based on elemental states (liquidity-solidity, cold-hot) rather than the insensible and unproved atoms

Leucippus (c. 534-440 BC)
Leucippus is considered the father of atomism (tadpis p. 23 no.1)
he may have written about the generation of universes by atomic movement (tadpis p. 23 no.7)
it is often difficult to distinguish between him and Democrtus
often his language is more poetic than that of Democritus

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Democritus of Abdera (c. 500-428 BC)
Democritus propounded a unified philosophical theory examining the following aspects:

a psychological theory that dealt with the following

a theory of perception and sensation based on atomic principles - that is sensation was the absorbtion of atomic particles
so also was his theory of cognition -- thought being a form of sensation (p. 25 no. 9-10)

his cosmological theory examined the following

a theory of galactic generation based on
the principle of interstellar atomic rain in which an infinite amount of atoms moving through infinite space collide with one another forming interstellar bodies
chance configuration of the universe with many worlds of different types
terrestrial life too is the result of atomic trial and error
a theory of quality and substance
these are explained by the shape of the qualitiless atoms
combinations of atoms of different shapes account for the probablity whether a substance will not destruct into its constituent atoms
and what its qualities should be.

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