Kurzbeschreibung
This work offers the first complete reinterpretation of Empedocles - one of the founding figures of Western philosophy - since the publication of the Strasbourg papyrus in 1999 brought new fragments of his lost work to light. Starting from the unity of Empedocles' thought, Simon Trepanier reconstructs a single original philosophical poem, against previous interpretations which allocate our extant fragments on two works: a religious poem, The Purifications , and a scientific poem, On Nature . The resulting single work is best understood as a protreptic philosophical masterpiece whose function was to persuade the hearer of a radically new conception of the universe, one that combined a belief in reincarnation and afterlife judgement with a rigorous and uncompromising physics, both conceived in response to puzzles about thought and Being first set by Parmenides. While remaining sensitive to philological detail and the full range of available evidence, this study presents a revolutionary approach to a challenging author. The unity of his thought, now discernible for the first time, allow Empedocles a more coherent philosophical doctrine than previously recognized, and reveals his anticipation of many key philosophical themes later developed by Plato.
Synopsis
This work offers the first complete reinterpretation of Empedocles - one of the founding figures of Western philosophy - since the publication of the Strasbourg papyrus in 1999 brought new fragments of his lost work to light. Starting from the unity of Empedocles' thought, Simon Trepanier reconstructs a single original philosophical poem, against previous interpretations which allocate our extant fragments on two works: a religious poem, The Purifications , and a scientific poem, On Nature . The resulting single work is best understood as a protreptic philosophical masterpiece whose function was to persuade the hearer of a radically new conception of the universe, one that combined a belief in reincarnation and afterlife judgement with a rigorous and uncompromising physics, both conceived in response to puzzles about thought and Being first set by Parmenides. While remaining sensitive to philological detail and the full range of available evidence, this study presents a revolutionary approach to a challenging author.
The unity of his thought, now discernible for the first time, allow Empedocles a more coherent philosophical doctrine than previously recognized, and reveals his anticipation of many key philosophical themes later developed by Plato.
