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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

c. 494 BCE – c. 434 BCE

Pre-Socratic

Born Acragas

Four roots: earth, water, air, fire. Two forces: love draws together, strife tears apart. He jumped into a volcano to prove he was a god.

Aristotle

384 BCE – 322 BCE

ClassicalPeripatetic

Born Stagira

He classified the world. Logic, biology, ethics, politics; he gave each its language.

Connection

Empedocles the four elements inherited Aristotle — Aristotle took Empedocles' four roots into his own physics as the four elements, while faulting him for letting Love and Strife do work that a proper account of causes ought to explain.

Shared Ideas

Nature Change

Ideas

Nature Change

Virtue Reason Happiness Moderation Nature Logos Justice Being Change On Anger Ockham's Razor

Words

“There is only mixing and exchange of what is mixed. 'Nature' is only a name given to these things by men.”
— Empedocles

“Fire and water and earth and the endless height of air; and cursed Strife apart from these, balanced in every way, and Love among them, equal in length and breadth.”
— Empedocles

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
— Aristotle

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
— Aristotle

Key Moments

c. 494 BCE

Born in Acragas, Sicily

c. 494 BCE

Born in Acragas

c. 460 BCE

The Four Roots

c. 460 BCE

Refuses the kingship of Acragas

384 BCE

Born in Stagira

c. 367 BCE

Joining the Academy

343 BCE

Tutor to Alexander

335 BCE

Founding of the Lyceum

Works

On Nature & Purifications

Nicomachean Ethics

Metaphysics

Politics

Poetics

Explore

Compare

Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Empedocles

c. 494 BCE – c. 434 BCE

Pre-Socratic

Born Acragas

Four roots: earth, water, air, fire. Two forces: love draws together, strife tears apart. He jumped into a volcano to prove he was a god.

Aristotle

384 BCE – 322 BCE

ClassicalPeripatetic

Born Stagira

He classified the world. Logic, biology, ethics, politics; he gave each its language.

Connection

Shared Ideas

Nature Change

Ideas

Nature Change

Virtue Reason Happiness Moderation Nature Logos Justice Being Change On Anger Ockham's Razor

Words

“There is only mixing and exchange of what is mixed. 'Nature' is only a name given to these things by men.”
— Empedocles

“Fire and water and earth and the endless height of air; and cursed Strife apart from these, balanced in every way, and Love among them, equal in length and breadth.”
— Empedocles

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
— Aristotle

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
— Aristotle

Key Moments

c. 494 BCE

Born in Acragas, Sicily

c. 494 BCE

Born in Acragas

c. 460 BCE

The Four Roots

c. 460 BCE

Refuses the kingship of Acragas

384 BCE

Born in Stagira

c. 367 BCE

Joining the Academy

343 BCE

Tutor to Alexander

335 BCE

Founding of the Lyceum

Works

On Nature & Purifications

Nicomachean Ethics

Metaphysics

Politics

Poetics