Reconstructing Empedocles' Thought

To understand Empedocles'' thought one must view his work as a unified whole of religion and physics. Only a few interpreters however recognise rebirth as a positive doctrine within Empedocles'' physics and attempt to reconcile its details with the cosmological account. This study shows how rebirth underlies Empedocles'' cosmic system being a structuring principle of his physics. It reconstructs the proem to his physical poem and then shows that claims to disembodied existence individual identity and personal survival of death(s) prove central to his physics; that knowledge of the cosmos is the path to escape rebirth; that purifications are essential to comprehending the world and changing one''s being and that the cosmic cycle with its ethical import is the ideal backdrop for Empedocles'' doctrine of rebirth. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.