Abstract

McLuhan’s contribution to this book consists of several rather oracular pages of rapprochements of Empedocles with T. S. Eliot, relating mainly, it seems, to the distinction between auditory and visual imagination. In introducing this book Lambridis claims that Empedocles is treated "briefly and almost contemptuously" in "the standard books on the history of ancient Greek philosophy" and that aspects of Empedocles’ thought are largely misunderstood. Lambridis feels however that Empedocles is "a very important philosopher" and, "moreover, can be called the greatest philosopher-poet of the ancient world." We may thus expect in what follows both a demonstration of the importance of Empedocles and a clarification of aspects of his philosophy. Lambridis attempts this in a series of chapters on "The Sources," "Life and Legend," "Contemporaries," "Physics and Metaphysics," "Sensation and Knowledge," "Biology," "Cosmology," "Conversion," "Poetry." Lambridis is not afraid to attack the major problems in interpreting Empedocles: the problem of the relation between On Nature and the Purifications is solved by taking the latter poem to be a later composition reflecting a conversion to Pythagoreanism ; the problem of the cosmic cycle is solved by proposing that it consists of a cycle of the sequence of stages, Sphairos—invasion of strife—dominance of love—invasion of strife—Sphairos.