Philosopher File: Empedocles
The philosopher, poet and shamanic healer who claimed the universe was underpinned by Love and Strife.
Life
Empedocles was a philosopher from the city of Akragas in Sicily. His traditional dates are around c. 494 BCE to c. 434 BCE, although these are uncertain. He came from a family of aristocrats, and his grandfather, also called Empedocles, was allegedly a skilled horseman who won the crown for his riding skills at the Olympic Games.
The dandyish shaman
Some have argued that Empedocles studied with philosophers such as Xenophanes and Anaximander, although this is largely speculation. There is some evidence that he was influenced by Parmenides and by the Pythagorean school. Despite his aristocratic origins, some early accounts paint him as a defender of ordinary people against the iniquities imposed upon them by the rich.
But in the tradition, Empedocles does not fit with the image of a sober-minded philosopher. Instead, he seems to have been more like a wandering healer, poet, medicine-man and shaman. Tradition also holds that he was a snappy dresser, who liked to wear bronze sandals and a laurel wreath. And if this seems like an affectation, it is in keeping with stories that Empedocles styled himself as a…
