Empedocles 恩培多柯勒

Birth 490 BC

Death 430 BC

School/tradition 学派/传统Pluralist School 多元论学派

Main interests 主要兴趣cosmogenesis and ontology 宇宙发生论与本体论

Notable ideas 著名思想

All matter is made up of four elements: water, earth, air and fire. 万物由四元素—水、土、气、火--构成。

Influenced by 所受影响Parmenides, Pythagoreanism 巴门尼德、毕达哥拉斯主义

Influenced 影响

Gorgias of Leontini, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche莱昂蒂尼的高尔吉亚，亚里士多德，弗里德里希?尼采

Empedocles 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 of the cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements. He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements. These physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, he supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Empedocles is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to record his ideas in verse. Some of his work still survives today, more so than in the case of any other Presocratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.

恩培多柯勒是一位前苏格拉底哲学家，他是西西里的希腊殖民地阿克腊加斯公民。恩培多柯勒的哲学由于四根说的宇宙发生论最为知名。他也提出“爱”和“恨”两种力量，作为四元素分离与结合的因素。这些自然猜测是研究生命的起源与演化的宇宙历史的组成部分。受毕达哥拉斯学派的影响，他支持轮回转世说。恩培多柯勒被公认为最后一位用诗文来记录其思想的希腊哲学家。他的某些作品至今犹存，比任何前苏格拉底哲学家留存的作品都多。恩怕多柯勒之死被许多古代作家写成了神话，一直是很多文学作品的主题。

Empedocles was born, c. 490 BC, at Agrigentum (Acragas) in Sicily to a distinguished family. Very little is known about his life. His father Meto seems to have been instrumental in overthrowing the tyrant of Agrigentum, presumably Thrasydaeus in 470 BC. Empedocles continued the democratic tradition of his house by helping to overthrow the succeeding oligarchic government. He is said to have been magnanimous in his support of the poor; severe in persecuting the overbearing conduct of the aristocrats; and he even declined the sovereignty of the city when it was offered to him.

恩培多柯勒大约生于公元前490年西西里阿克腊加斯的一个名门望族家庭。我们对他的生活知之甚少。其父迈托在公元470年帮助推翻了阿克腊加斯的暴政，大概是拉绪德尔斯。恩培多柯勒继承了他家的民主传统，斑竹推翻了后来的寡头政府。据说他对穷人极其慷慨；这遭到了贵族专横行为的冷酷迫害；甚至当让他在城邦掌权之时也予以拒绝。

His brilliant oratory, his penetrating knowledge of nature, and the reputation of his marvellous powers, including the curing of diseases, and averting epidemics, produced many myths and stories surrounding his name. He was said to have been a magician and controller of storms, and he himself, in his famous poem “Purifications” seems to have promised miraculous powers, including the destruction of evil, the curing of old age, and the controlling of wind and rain.

他出色的口才，对自然的敏锐觉察，以及他崇高的治病、预防流行病的名望，产生了很多有关他的神话与故事。有人说他是一位魔术师和暴风雨的掌管者，他自己也在著名的诗 ‘净化’中暗示了这种神奇的力量，包括消除罪恶、医治衰老和控制风雨。

According to Aristotle, he died at the age of sixty, (c. 430 BC) even though other writers have him living up to the age of one hundred and nine. Likewise, there are myths concerning his death.

尽管有些作家让恩培多柯勒活到了109岁，但按照亚里士多德，恩培多柯勒活了六十岁，那一年是公元前430年。同样，对他的死也有很多神话。

Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in verse and the surviving fragments of his teaching are from two poems, Purifications and On Nature. Empedocles was undoubtedly acquainted with the didactic poems of Xenophanes and Parmenides - allusions to the latter can be found in the fragments, - but he seems to have surpassed them in the animation and richness of his style, and in the clearness of his descriptions and diction. Aristotle called him the father of rhetoric, and, although he acknowledged only the meter as a point of comparison between the poems of Empedocles and the epics of Homer, he described Empedocles as Homeric and powerful in his diction. Lucretius speaks of him with enthusiasm, and evidently viewed him as his model. The two poems together comprised 5000 lines. About 550 lines of his poetry survive, although because ancient writers rarely mentioned which poem they were quoting, it is not always certain to which poem the quotes belong. Some scholars now believe that there was only one poem, and that the Purifications merely formed the beginning of On Nature.

恩培多柯勒是希腊哲学家中最后一个以诗文写作的人，他现存的论述的片段来自两首诗，《净化》和《论自然》。恩培多柯勒无疑熟悉色诺芬尼和巴门尼德的说教诗—我们可以在片段中看到恩培多柯勒提到了后者，但是恩培多柯勒在文体的活力与丰富性以及论述的清晰性与修辞方面超越了他们。亚里士多德说他是“修辞学之父”，虽然他仅仅把格律诗作为恩培多柯勒的诗与荷马史诗的比较之处，但他把恩培多柯勒说成是在修辞上荷马式的、强有力的。卢克莱修热情洋溢地提到他，而且显然把恩培多柯勒作为他的榜样。两首诗共有5000行组成。，虽然由于古代作者很少提到他们所援引的是那一首诗，所以我们并不总是确定所引用的那一首诗，但我们知道恩培多柯勒大约有550行诗流传下来。有些作者认为只有一首诗，而且《净化》只不过是《论自然》的开始部分。

Purifications 《净化》

We possess only about 100 lines of his Purifications. It seems to have given a mythical account of the world which may, nevertheless, have been part of Empedocles' philosophical system. The first lines of the poem are preserved by Diogenes La?rtius:

我们只有《净化》的大概100行。看来这些诗行对世界进行了神话式的说明，不过，这种说明示恩培多柯勒哲学体系的组成部分。这首诗的前面的内容有戴奥真尼斯?拉尔修保存下来。

Friends who inhabit the mighty town by tawny Acragas

which crowns the citadel, caring for good deeds,

greetings; I, an immortal God, no longer mortal,

wander among you, honoured by all,

adorned with holy diadems and blooming garlands.

To whatever illustrious towns I go,

I am praised by men and women, and accompanied

by thousands, who thirst for deliverance,

some ask for prophecies, and some entreat,

for remedies against all kinds of disease.

居住在茶色的阿克腊加斯旁边的根据地大城镇的朋友们，喜做善事，相敬如宾；我，不朽的上帝，佩戴着神圣的王冠和盛开的花环，永远不死，漫步在你们中间，受众人敬仰。无论到哪里，我都得到所有人的赞扬，周围总是陪伴着无数渴望得救的人们，有些人请求预示，有些人祈求治疗各种疾病。

On Nature  论自然

There are about 450 lines of his poem On Nature extant, including 70 lines which have been reconstructed from some papyrus scraps known as the Strasbourg Papyrus. The poem originally consisted of 2000 lines of hexameter verse. It was this poem which outlined his philosophical system. In it, Empedocles explains not only the nature and history of the universe, including his theory of the four classical elements, but he describes theories on causation, perception, and thought, as well as explanations of terrestrial phenomena and biological processes.

《论自然》一诗现在大约450行，包括70行是从被称之为斯特拉斯堡草纸的一些草纸碎片修整而成的。此诗原由2000行六步格诗构成。正是这首诗显示了他的哲学体系。在诗中，恩培多柯勒不仅解释宇宙的性质和历史，包括他的四根说，他也描述了因果、感觉与思想的理论与对陆地现象和生物过程的解释。

Although acquainted with the theories of the Eleatics and the Pythagoreans, Empedocles did not belong to any one definite school. An eclectic in his thinking, he combined much that had been suggested by Parmenides, Pythagoras and the Ionian schools. He was both a firm believer in Orphic mysteries, as well as a scientific thinker and a precursor of physical science. Aristotle mentions Empedocles among the Ionic philosophers, and he places him in very close relation to the atomist philosophers and to Anaxagoras.

他虽然熟悉爱利亚人与毕达哥拉斯学派的观点，但是恩怕多柯勒并不属于任何明确的学派。他在思想上是折中的，结合了很多巴门尼德、毕达哥拉斯与爱奥尼亚学派的观点。他既是俄尔普斯教义的坚信者，也是一位科学的思想家与自然科学的先驱。亚里士多德在艾奥尼亚哲学家中提到了恩培多柯勒，认为他同原子论哲学家和阿那柯萨哥拉有着十分密切的关系。

Empedocles, like the Ionian philosophers and the atomists, tried to find the basis of all change. They did not, like Heraclitus, consider the coming into existence and motion as the existence of things, and rest and tranquillity as the non-existence, because they had derived from the Eleatics the conviction that an existence could not pass into non-existence, and vice versa. In order to allow change to occur in the world, against the views of the Eleatics, they viewed changes as the result of mixture and separation of unalterable substances. Thus Empedocles said that a coming into existence from a non-existence, as well as a complete death and annihilation, are impossible; what we call coming into existence and death is only mixture and separation of what was mixed.

与爱奥尼亚哲学家和原子论者一样，恩培多柯勒企图发现万物变化的基础。他们没有像赫拉克利特那样，把生成与运动看作是事物的存在方式，把静止与宁静看成非存在，因为他们继承了爱利亚人的这一信念：存在不可能变成非存在，非存在也不可能变成存在。为了针对爱利亚人的观点承认世界中发生的变化，他们把变化看成是不变物质的混合与分离的结果。所以，恩培多柯勒认为，从非存在生成存在、全然消亡与毁灭是不可能的；我们所说的生成与死亡只不过是混合与混合东西的分离。

The four elements 四元素—四根说

It was Empedocles who established four ultimate elements which make all the structures in the world - fire, air, water, earth. Empedocles called these four elements "roots", which, in typical fashion, he also identified with the mythical names of Zeus, Hera, Nestis, and Aidoneus. Empedocles never used the term "element", which seems to have been first used by Plato. According to the different proportions in which these four indestructible and unchangeable elements are combined with each other the difference of the structure is produced. It is in the aggregation and segregation of elements thus arising, that Empedocles, like the atomists, found the real process which corresponds to what is popularly termed growth, increase or decrease. Nothing new comes or can come into being; the only change that can occur is a change in the juxtaposition of element with element. This theory of the four elements became the standard dogma for the next two thousand years.

恩培多柯勒提出了四种基本元素—火、气、水、土是构成世界所有结构的基本元素。他称这四种元素为“四根”，在一般意义上说，他也认同这些神话中的名字—宙斯、赫拉、冥王-爱多涅斯，但他从来未使用过“元素”一词，这种说法由柏拉图首先使用。这四种不可毁灭的、从不变化的元素按照不同的比例彼此混合，就会产生不同的结构。恩培多柯勒认为，就是这四种元素的聚集与分离构成了与大家称之为成长、增加或减少相一致的真实过程。没有新的东西产生；可能发生的唯一变化是元素与元素排列的变化。四元素说后来成为下一个2000年的标准观点。

Love and Strife 爱与恨

The four elements are, however, simple, eternal, and unalterable, and as change is the consequence of their mixture and separation, it was also necessary to suppose the existence of moving powers - to bring about mixture and separation. The four elements are eternally brought into union, and eternally parted from each other, by two divine powers, Love and Strife. Love explains the attraction of different forms of matter, and Strife accounts for their separation. If the elements are the content of the universe, then Love and Strife explain their variation and harmony. Love and Strife are attractive and repulsive forces which the ordinary eye can see working amongst people, but which really pervade the universe. They alternately hold empire over things, - neither, however, being ever quite absent.

可是，四元素是简单的、永恒的、不变的，因为变化是它们混合与分离的结果，这就有必要假设引起这种混合与分离的推动力的存在。四元素有两种神圣的力量—爱和恨推动，不断地产生统一与分离。“爱”解释不同形式的物质之间的相互吸引，而“恨”则说明他们彼此分离。如果这些元素是宇宙的内容，那么，爱和恨就解释了它们的变化与和谐。爱和恨是在人们中间起作用的引力与斥力，在宇宙中也是无处不在的。这两种力量交替统治事物，可是，它们永不消失。

The sphere of Empedocles 恩培多柯勒的天体

As the best and original state, there was a time when the pure elements and the two powers co-existed in a condition of rest and inertness in the form of a sphere. The elements existed together in their purity, without mixture and separation, and the uniting power of Love predominated in the sphere: the separating power of Strife guarded the extreme edges of the sphere. Since that time, strife gained more sway and the bond which kept the pure elementary substances together in the sphere was dissolved. The elements became the world of phenomena we see today, full of contrasts and oppositions, operated on by both Love and Strife. The sphere being the embodiment of pure existence is the embodiment or representative of god. Empedocles assumed a cyclical universe whereby the elements return and prepare the formation of the sphere for the next period of the universe.

作为最佳的原始状态，纯净的四元素与爱和恨两种力量一度在静止与无活力的状态下共存于一个天体之中。这些元素以纯洁、没有混合与分离的状态共存，爱的统一力在球体中占统治地位：恨的分离力保护着天体的边缘地带。那时，恨获得了进一步的发展，保持天体内纯洁的基本物质统一的力量瓦解了。元素就变成了我们现在看到的现象世界--充满了差别与敌对，这些都是在爱与恨的支配下得到的。作为纯洁的存在化身的天体是上帝代表的化身。恩培多柯勒提出了循环的宇宙，四元素来回往返并为形成下一个时期的宇宙天体做准备。

Cosmogony 宇宙进化论

Since the time of the sphere, Strife has gained more sway; and the actual world is full of contrasts and oppositions, due to the combined action of both principles. Empedocles attempted to explain the separation of elements, the formation of earth and sea, of sun and moon, of atmosphere. He also dealt with the first origin of plants and animals, and with the physiology of humans. As the elements entered into combinations, there appeared strange results - heads without necks, arms without shoulders. Then as these fragmentary structures met, there were seen horned heads on human bodies, bodies of oxen with human heads, and figures of double sex. But most of these products of natural forces disappeared as suddenly as they arose; only in those rare cases where the parts were found to be adapted to each other, did the complex structures last. Thus the organic universe sprang from spontaneous aggregations, which suited each other as if this had been intended. Soon various influences reduced the creatures of double sex to a male and a female, and the world was replenished with organic life. It is possible (although anachronistic) to see this theory as a crude anticipation of Darwin's theory of natural selection.

随着天体时代的到来，恨获得越来越多的支配地位；由于两种基本力量的联合行动，真实世界充满了差异与敌对。恩培多柯勒企图解释元素的分离、地球与海的形成、太阳与月亮的形成、大气的形成。他也考虑了植物、动物与人类生理机能的最初起源。随着四元素的结合，就会出现前所未有的结果：没有脖子的头、没有肩膀的胳膊。然后，当这些片断结构相遇时，就会出现人身上长着犄角的头，长着人脑袋的牛身，双性别的人。但是多数这些自然力量的产物就会马上消失；只有在非常偶然的机会彼此适合的部分结合在一起，复杂的结构才能延续下去。因此，有机界产生于自发的组合，似乎这是一种有目的的匹配。不久，各种力量把两性动物还原成雄性与雌性，世界上就开始有了有机生命。可以（虽然年代错配）把这种观点看成是达尔文自然选择理论的朴素预知。

Perception and knowledge 感知与知识

Knowledge is explained by the principle that the elements in the things outside us are perceived by the corresponding elements in ourselves. Like is known by like. The whole body is full of pores, (and hence respiration takes place over the whole frame). In the organs of sense these pores are specially adapted to receive the effluences which are continually rising from bodies around us; and in this way perception is explained. Thus in vision, certain particles go forth from the eye to meet similar particles given forth from the object, and the resultant contact constitutes vision. Perception is not merely a passive reflection of external objects.

只是由这样的原理解释：外在于我们的事物的元素被我们自己相应的元素感知。同类知道同类。我们整个身体充满了小孔（因此呼吸发生于整个身体）。在感觉器官中，这些小孔特别适合于接受我们体外不断产生的辐射；感知就因此得到了解释。因而，视觉就是某些粒子从眼睛发出，遇到从物体发生的类似粒子，所产生的接触形成视觉。感觉不止是对外部对象的被动反映。

Empedocles noted the limitation and narrowness of human perceptions. We see only a part, but fancy that we have grasped the whole. But the senses cannot lead to truth; thought and reflection must look at the thing on every side. It is the business of a philosopher, while laying bare the fundamental difference of elements, to display the identity that exists between what seem unconnected parts of the universe.

恩培多柯勒注意到了人类感觉的限制与狭隘。我们只能看到一部分，但认为我们已经掌握了整体。感觉无法到达真理；思想与反省必须看到事物的各个方面。在披露元素根本区别的同时，揭示存在于宇宙中未接触部分的统一性是哲学家的事情。

Reincarnation 转世

Like Pythagoras, Empedocles believed in the transmigration of the soul, that souls can be reincarnated between humans, animals and even plants. For Empedocles, all living things were on the same spiritual plane; plants and animals are links in a chain where humans are a link too. Empedocles urged a vegetarian lifestyle, since the bodies of animals are the dwelling places of punished souls. Wise people, who have learned the secret of life, are next to the divine, and their souls, free from the cycle of reincarnations are able to rest in happiness for eternity.

和毕达哥拉斯一样，恩培多柯勒相信灵魂轮回，轮回可以发生于人类、动物甚至植物之间。对恩培多柯勒而言，所有的生命都存在于同样的精神平台上；植物和动物都处于一个链上，人也在此链上。恩培多柯勒主张素食生活方式，因为动物的身体是受惩罚的灵魂的住所。智者，了解生命的秘密，仅次于神，因此他们的灵魂，免予轮回循环，可以安心于永恒的幸福。

Death  死亡

Diogenes La?rtius records the legend that he died by throwing himself into an active volcano (Mount Etna in Sicily), so that people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god; however, the volcano threw back one of his bronze sandals, revealing the deceit. Another legend has it that he threw himself in the volcano to prove to his disciples that he was immortal; he believed he would come back as a god among man after being devoured by the fire.

戴奥真尼斯?拉尔修记载着这样一个传说：恩培多柯勒跳入一个活火山而死，所以人们认为他的身体已经消失，恩培多柯勒已经变成不朽的神；可是，火山抛出了他的一支铜鞋，证明这是欺人之谈。还有一个传说：他跳入火山向他的门徒证明他是不朽的；他认为在被火焰吞噬之后，他可以回来可成为人中之神。

To the elements it came from

Everything will return.

Our bodies to earth,

Our blood to water,

Heat to fire,

Breath to air.

万物都要重返其来源的元素。我们的躯体变成土，我们的血液变成水，我们的热变成火，我们的呼吸变成气。

Socrates  苏格拉底

School/tradition 学派/传统Classical Greek 古典希腊

Main interests 主要兴趣epistemology, ethics 认识论、伦理学

Notable ideas 著名思想Socratic method, Socratic irony 苏格拉底方法、苏格拉底反讽

Influenced  影响

Plato, Aristotle, Aristippus, Antisthenes Western philosophy 柏拉图、亚里士多德、阿瑞斯提普斯、安提司泰尼西方哲学[犬儒哲学]

Socrates was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students. Plato's dialogues are t