SOURCE: Lambridis, Helle. “Sensation and Knowledge” and “Poetry.” In Empodocles, pp. 73-91 and 136-45. University: The University of Alabama Press, 1976.

In the following excerpt, Lambridis considers Empedocles's theory of sensation, explains his limited trust in knowledge, and evaluates his work strictly on its poetic merit.

Although both the theory of the four elements and the notion that the world is periodically destroyed and reborn were current in Empedocles' time, the way in which he envisaged them is original and exclusively his own.

Sensation. Empedocles believed knowledge to be conveyed to the human mind primarily by sensation. His theory of sensation is among the most interesting parts of his doctrine and, if rightly interpreted, can be seen to agree with modern conceptions. We shall take it in isolation, for at some points it clashes with other views of his on the more complicated and abstract processes of thought.

According...