Empedocles
WARNING
You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com
The Extant Fragments
Empedocles; Edited, with an Introduction, Commentary, and Concordance by M. R. Wright.
View Inside
Format: ClothPrice: $69.00
Our shopping cart only supports Mozilla Firefox. Please ensure you're using that browser before attempting to purchase.
One of the most important Presocratic philosophers was the Sicilian Empedocles. He presented his work in the form of two hexameter poems, of which about 450 lines are extant, revealing a formidable range of interests, acute observation, and a firm grasp of fundamental issues in the study of man and nature.
Empedocles’ theory of four elements was crucial to later developments in science and medicine. He showed how forces of attraction and repulsion acted on the elements within a framework of cyclical time and limited space, and initiated or advanced major discoveries in astronomy, biology, and physiology. More sophisticated concepts of divinity, personality, and mortality replaced traditional mythology, and these concepts were founded on the conviction that the individual has control over his own character and intellectual growth.
The introduction discusses Empedocles’ life and interests, the content of the Physics and Katharmoi, and the relation of the two poems to each other. A new Greek text with apparatus is followed by translation, commentary, and detailed concordance, to give a comprehensive edition of this key figure in the history of ideas.
“With its careful and judicious editing of the fragments and its many fresh insights into Empedocles’ thought, this work will be indispensable to students of Presocratic philosophy.”—Alexander P.D. Mourelatos
Empedocles’ theory of four elements was crucial to later developments in science and medicine. He showed how forces of attraction and repulsion acted on the elements within a framework of cyclical time and limited space, and initiated or advanced major discoveries in astronomy, biology, and physiology. More sophisticated concepts of divinity, personality, and mortality replaced traditional mythology, and these concepts were founded on the conviction that the individual has control over his own character and intellectual growth.
The introduction discusses Empedocles’ life and interests, the content of the Physics and Katharmoi, and the relation of the two poems to each other. A new Greek text with apparatus is followed by translation, commentary, and detailed concordance, to give a comprehensive edition of this key figure in the history of ideas.
“With its careful and judicious editing of the fragments and its many fresh insights into Empedocles’ thought, this work will be indispensable to students of Presocratic philosophy.”—Alexander P.D. Mourelatos
“With its careful and judicious editing of the fragments and its many fresh insights into Empedocles’ thought, this work will be indispensable to students of Presocratic philosophy.”—Alexander P.D. Mourelatos
"Wright's scholarship is sound and his work will no doubt become a regularly consulted source of information for all serious students of the Presocratics."—Library Journal
"The most extensive treatment of the fragments of Empedocles' poems hitherto published in English. . . . Deserves serious attention as an important and lasting contribution to interpretation of the fragments of Empedocles' poems."—J.P. Hershbell, Classical World
"The careful labour necessary to produce such . . . solid results is considerable, as is the reader's gratitude. . . . Its utility is enhanced by excellent concordances and indexes, including an especially good and complete index verborum."—Malcolm Schofield, Times Literary Supplement
"This volume replaces all which has gone before and becomes the standard account of Empedocles. It places Mrs. Wright firmly in the front line of Pre-Socratic scholars."—John Ferguson, The Heythrop Journal
"Wright has given us the most complete treatment of the fragments available in English, and in some ways the most useful in any language. . . . The presentation of text, translation, and commentary is thorough anad careful; the work is completed with very helpful indexes. This is an essential reference work for anyone studying the religion of the ancient Greeks."—Anthony Preus, Religious Studies Review
"Wrights invaluable commentary assembles a wealth of helpful literary parallels, scholarly insights and sensible judgments concerning the text, its translation and interpretation. Her erudite comments draw on a wealth of information, and she manages Homeric allusions, doxography, archaeology, and modern embryology with equal skill. Her resulting interpretations are well-argued and always intelligent. Her reconstruction of the order, context, and interrelations of the fragments has much to recommend it."—Daniel W. Graham, International Studies in Philosophy
ISBN: 9780300024753
Publication Date: September 10, 1981
Publication Date: September 10, 1981
376 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
