EMPEDOCLES’ COSMOLOGY AND ITS SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT

The topic of the article is reconstruction of the correlation between cosmos and harmony in Empedocles’ cosmology, as well as the analogy between the pattern of cosmic periods and the changes of socio-cultural circumstances in Sicily at the end of 6th-first half of 5th BC. Two contradictions within reconstruction of Empedocles’ cosmology were pointed out in the article. Both were eliminated by means of suggested interpretation of Sphairon as the unity, but not the one, unlike taken into account researchers. It’s argued that the Empedocles’ cosmos as a whole isn’t harmonious, as far as only Sphairon’s period is harmonious. The sameness between the pattern of cosmic periods and the changes of socio-cultural context is emphasized. It’s maintained similarity firstly between features of Sphairon’s period and Empedocles’ childhood-youth period, and secondary between the period when Sphairon is disintegrating and the period of Empedocles’ life after tyrants of Syracuse and Acragas died.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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