Notes on Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus, and the Sophists

Empedocles

  • The philosophers discussed, including Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus, are referred to as "pluralists" because they believed in more than one fundamental principle of the world, unlike earlier philosophers who proposed a single substance like water or earth.

  • Empedocles introduced the theory of the four classical elements: fire, earth, water, and air.

  • Born in Acragas, a Greek colony in Sicily, Empedocles (c. 492-432 BC) was possibly a student of Pythagoras, Xenophanes, and Parmenides.

  • The four elements are considered basic and unchanging; change occurs through their mixing and separation.

  • Empedocles' elements should not be taken literally; for example, ice, water, and steam are not just different states of water but different instances of earth, water, and air.

  • Empedocles proposed four elements to resolve disagreements among his predecessors and to explain the variety of things observed in the world.

  • For example, it's unlikely that water would turn into a city or fire into a flower, even though their existence requires water or warmth.

  • Burning wood illustrates Empedocles' theory: wood (a compound) produces fire, water (crackles and splutters), air (smoke), and ashes (earth).

  • Empedocles agreed with Parmenides on the unchanging nature of being but acknowledged the evident fact of change.

  • He reconciled Parmenides' thesis and the existence of change by postulating four elements, allowing one kind of being to change into another.

  • Changes occur through the mixing and separation of the four elements in varying proportions, while the elements themselves remain unchanged.

  • Empedocles, differing from philosophers like Thales and Anaximenes, not only explained WHAT things are made of but also HOW things come into existence and pass away.

  • He introduced Love and Strife as two efficient causes to explain changes: Love brings things together, and Strife separates them.

  • Love and Strife are metaphors representing cosmic forces similar to attraction and repulsion in physics.

  • Empedocles often referred to Love as Aphrodite, but did not have a specific divine identity for Strife.

  • Aristotle adopted Empedocles' concept of four elements but explained their interactions based on properties like hot/cold and wet/dry.

    • Fire: hot and dry

    • Air: hot and wet

    • Water: cold and wet

    • Earth: cold and dry

  • Aristotle added a fifth element, aether, to represent the substance of heavenly bodies, considered pure and quintessential.

  • Legend says Empedocles threw himself into Mount Etna and turned into an immortal god.

Anaxagoras

  • Anaxagoras (c. 500-428 BC) is remembered for responding to Parmenides' thesis that change is impossible and for introducing the concept of Nous (Cosmic Mind).

  • He is regarded as an intellectual ancestor of the Big Bang theory.

  • Born in Clazomenae, Anaxagoras spent much of his life in Athens and later went into exile in Lampsacus.

  • Like Empedocles, Anaxagoras aimed to reconcile Parmenides' doctrine with the obvious fact of change by rejecting Parmenides' monism.

  • Anaxagoras disagreed with Empedocles' four elements, finding them inadequate to explain the things we experience.

  • Anaxagoras posited an infinite number of elements or "seeds" of which things are made, including those in living bodies.

  • All things are made of the same root particles (seeds) and differentiated by the proportion of each seed present.

  • There must be a portion of every element (seed) in every thing; for example, grass must contain hair and flesh elements.

  • Anaxagoras believed that stuff is infinitely divisible, responding to Parmenides and Zeno's denial of divisibility.

  • Zeno argued that infinite division would lead to divisions with no magnitude, which contradicts the requirement for things to be infinitely large to be infinitely divisible.

  • Anaxagoras responded: "For of the small there is no smallest, but always a smaller (for what is cannot not be). But also of the large there is always a larger, and it is equal in amount to the small. But in relation to itself, each is both large and small."

  • Nous (Cosmic Mind) is the agent responsible for the rotation and separation of the primordial mixture, leading to the universe as we know it.

  • Nous is considered a teleological explanation rather than a mechanistic one.

  • Teleological explanation assigns purposes or aims to things, while mechanistic explanation is based on causality.

  • Anaxagoras introduced final cause, while Thales recognized material cause, Pythagoras formal cause, and Empedocles efficient cause.

Democritus

  • Democritus (c. 460-370 BC), known as the "laughing philosopher," was the chief exponent of atomism.

  • Born in Abdera, Democritus traveled extensively but disliked Egypt and Persia.

  • Democritus' atomism claims:

    • Matter is not infinitely divisible.

    • What cannot be further divided are called atoms (from the Greek atomos, meaning "uncuttable").

    • Atoms are extremely small but not nothing; they are solid particles surrounded by empty space and moving incessantly at random.

    • Each atom is uniform, homogeneous, colorless, and tasteless.

    • Each atom is like Parmenides' Being, undivided, but atoms are many instead of one.

    • Differences between substances are due to differences in their atoms.

  • Atoms may be understood as Parmenides’ Being drastically reduced in magnitude and infinitely multiplied.

  • Reality and appearance:

    • Atoms are invisible and don't resemble anything we see.

    • What we see is relative to us and not inherent in the nature of things.

    • “By nature nothing is white or black or yellow or red or bitter or sweet.”

The Sophists

  • Historically, Sophists charged money for education and persuasion/debating skills (wisdom).

  • Philosophers tended to be upper class, and did not need money to begin with. They did accept donations however.

  • Sophistry is the use of fallacious arguments to deceive or win a debate.

  • A Sophist is a self-proclaimed wise man, while a philosopher loves wisdom.

  • The Sophists held no values other than winning and succeeding, using rhetorical tricks to persuade.

  • Socrates denounced the Sophists' hypocrisy, viewing them as mercenary and pretentious.

  • Aristotle defines sophistry as "wisdom in appearance only".

  • Sophistry example: "Margarine is better than nothing, and nothing is better than butter. So, margarine is better than butter."

  • Sophists used clever tricks in court cases, like in Shakespeare’s "The Merchant of Venice," where Portia uses legal sophistry to cheat Shylock.

  • Sophistry can also take a form of obscurantism.

  • Obscurantism is the deliberate failure to be clear, attempting to confuse to achieve a status of profundity.

  • Martha Nussbaum criticized Judith Butler’s writing for obscurantism.

  • The “Paradox of the Court” shows an example attributed to Protagoras where payment depends on winning the first court case.

  • What distinguishes the Sophists from the previous philosophers is that they looked inward, at man, or to be precise how one behaves or acts, instead of what it is out there, the nature of the world (cosmology).

  • Socrates shared the general orientation of the Sophists (looking inward, “know thyself ”).

  • Socrates was popularly depicted as a sophist because he questioned meanings and asked for clarification.

  • Protagoras (c. 490-420 BC) was a successful Sophist who demanded payment for teaching.

    • Believed there were always two equal sides to an argument.

    • Believed everything was true.

    • Believed one must fasten his arguments on words and leave facts out of consideration.

  • Protagoras’ famous statements:

    • “Man is the measure of all things.”

    • “Both of things that are that they are, and of things that are not that they are not.”

    • These is interpreted as relativism: truth is relative to a person, society, or culture.

    • Justifies sophistry: I can do whatever I think is right.

    • Denies objective and universal moral laws.

    • Fascist Mussolini embraced relativism, allowing everyone to create and enforce their ideology.

    • Relativism is dismissed by professional philosophers as logically incoherent.

    • A good example is the widely circulated proclamation made by the “New Age High Priestess”, Oprah Winfrey: • “Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” 2018 Golden Globes speech The Sophists

  • Relativists believe in “my truth” or “your truth,” but not the truth.

  • Gorgias (460-349 BC) was called "Gorgias the Nihilist."

    • Said to have studied under Empedocles. Thought to have also influenced Hippocrates (Do no harm).

    • Nihilism: the belief that no value or meaning exists.

    • He claimed:

      • There is nothing.

      • If there is anything at all, it cannot be known.

      • If anything can be known, it cannot be communicated by one person to another.

    • Likely meant there is no order, intelligibility, or meaning.

    • Communication is futile, because language is confusing.

    • These are the doctrines of contemporary postmodernism.

    • Gorgias’ assertions are self-contradictory.

    • Epimenides Paradox: “All Cretans are liars.”

    • Liar Paradox: “I am lying.”