The great Greek “charlatan”: Empedocles

Abstract

This article revises the views about Empedocles of Akragas. Even contemporaries of the thinker were confronted with the question of whether he was a great sage or a charlatan. The combination of “scientific” and prophetic knowledge embarrassed more than one generation of researchers, making them accuse Empedocles of superficial eclecticism or see him as an inconsistent representative of antique mechanical philosophy. With no intention to give a final answer to this question, the article suggests looking at this problem from a different angle by focusing more on the lifestyle of Empedocles and less on his theoretical provisions of philosophy. The first part of the article provides a brief outline of the history of the concept of “charlatanism” and considers the image of Empedocles as a Greek alazon. The internal motives of the political and public activity of Akragas accompanied by provocative behavior and claims to divine status are considered. It is suggested that the personality conflict of Empedocles, the discrepancy of external appearance and acts, is primarily due to pedagogical purposes and desire to deliver saving truths to his contemporaries who were mired in vices. The second part of the article deals with a hypothesis about breathing exercises of Empedocles. The main attention is paid to the 129 B (DK) and 100 B (DK) fragments, with an attempt to reconstruct the breathing practice of Empedocles as a thought technique aimed at gaining access to higher knowledge.