ABSTRACT
Sometime around the fourth century BC certain discourses arose in Greece that was opposed to the Eleatic thinking from which Socratic-Platonic philosophy was born. One of the leading exponents of this opposing current was Empedocles of Argent, a physician, politician, and dramatist. In response, Empedocles and others developed a metaphysics of plurality, based, at one and the same time, on the accuracy of observation and on speculative solidity. Empedocles’ method, which stresses diagnosis rather than pro gnosis, brings up a theoretical problem. The disorder was confused with the patient’s life in general, and this life was intertwined with former lives, according to the Orphic and Pythagorean cults that influenced Empedocles. The authority of Empedocles’ word is not of the same type as that of a shaman, nor even as that we see today in compromise therapies. In political terms Empedocles was a fervent defender of democracy and stood strongly against oligarchy.
