The aim of this essay is to highlight Empedocles’s role as a theoretical mediator between the Orp... more The aim of this essay is to highlight Empedocles’s role as a theoretical mediator between the Orphic-Pythagorean tradition and the philosophical elaboration of Plato, attempting to provide a more comprehensive analysis of them, especially the Orphic one. In particular, I propose the hypothesis that, apart from the allegory of the cave, Empedocles himself presents another allegory embraced by Plato, that of the “divided line,” which is also deeply connected to the ontological and epistemological dualism expressed in the cave analogy. However, it must be acknowledged that the Platonic and the Empedoclean ideas are not identical. Therefore, to avoid arbitrary and self-referential juxtaposition, an effort will be made to understand if and how the thesis of a theoretical connection between the two thinkers can be substantiated. Further, it can be argued that Plato was strongly influenced by Empedocles, not only in terms of ethical considerations, but also and especially regarding gnoseological theory, in particular the gnoseological consideration of the sensible world. To achieve this, a comparison between Empedocles’s poem On Nature and Plato’s Republic will be undertaken. The aim is to demonstrate how, in Empedocles, despite the absence of the systematic framework provided by Plato, there already exists an ontological and epistemological reference similar (or at least highly analogous) to the part of Plato’s divided line concerning sensible knowledge.
The aim of this essay is to highlight Empedocles’s role as a theoretical mediator between the Orp... more The aim of this essay is to highlight Empedocles’s role as a theoretical mediator between the Orphic-Pythagorean tradition and the philosophical elaboration of Plato, attempting to provide a more comprehensive analysis of them, especially the Orphic one. In particular, I propose the hypothesis that, apart from the allegory of the cave, Empedocles himself presents another allegory embraced by Plato, that of the “divided line,” which is also deeply connected to the ontological and epistemological dualism expressed in the cave analogy. However, it must be acknowledged that the Platonic and the Empedoclean ideas are not identical. Therefore, to avoid arbitrary and self-referential juxtaposition, an effort will be made to understand if and how the thesis of a theoretical connection between the two thinkers can be substantiated. Further, it can be argued that Plato was strongly influenced by Empedocles, not only in terms of ethical considerations, but also and especially regarding gnoseological theory, in particular the gnoseological consideration of the sensible world. To achieve this, a comparison between Empedocles’s poem On Nature and Plato’s Republic will be undertaken. The aim is to demonstrate how, in Empedocles, despite the absence of the systematic framework provided by Plato, there already exists an ontological and epistemological reference similar (or at least highly analogous) to the part of Plato’s divided line concerning sensible knowledge.
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Further, it can be argued that Plato was strongly influenced by Empedocles, not only in terms of ethical considerations, but also and especially regarding gnoseological theory, in particular the gnoseological consideration of the sensible world. To achieve this, a comparison between Empedocles’s poem On Nature and Plato’s Republic will be undertaken. The aim is to demonstrate how, in Empedocles, despite the absence of the systematic framework provided by Plato, there already exists an ontological and epistemological reference similar (or at least highly analogous) to the part of Plato’s divided line concerning sensible knowledge.
Further, it can be argued that Plato was strongly influenced by Empedocles, not only in terms of ethical considerations, but also and especially regarding gnoseological theory, in particular the gnoseological consideration of the sensible world. To achieve this, a comparison between Empedocles’s poem On Nature and Plato’s Republic will be undertaken. The aim is to demonstrate how, in Empedocles, despite the absence of the systematic framework provided by Plato, there already exists an ontological and epistemological reference similar (or at least highly analogous) to the part of Plato’s divided line concerning sensible knowledge.