“Fools! Short-sighted! Their thought is not deep enough to see that what was not before cannot come into being.”
— EmpedoclesDiels-Kranz 31 B110, preserved in Simplicius; approximate English rendering
Commentary
This fragment, sharply polemical in tone, attacks those who believe that things come into being from nothing, and it reflects Empedocles' insistence that rational argument must govern our understanding of nature. The rebuke of fools and short-sighted thinkers recalls the Parmenidean critique of the ordinary belief in coming-to-be, and it presents the poet as one who sees further than common opinion. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield note the combative character of the passage and read it as a response to rival theories of generation. Daniel Graham argues that the criticism is directed at the naive empiricism of those who trust appearances, and that Empedocles' physics is an attempt to explain appearances through rational principles. Richard Wright observes that the language of folly and short sight is typical of the poem's address to its audience. Jean Bollack's edition discusses the fragment's rhetorical features in detail. The English is approximate, and the Greek should be consulted before quotation, since the verbs are contested.
Commentary
This fragment, sharply polemical in tone, attacks those who believe that things come into being from nothing, and it reflects Empedocles' insistence that rational argument must govern our understanding of nature. The rebuke of fools and short-sighted thinkers recalls the Parmenidean critique of the ordinary belief in coming-to-be, and it presents the poet as one who sees further than common opinion. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield note the combative character of the passage and read it as a response to rival theories of generation. Daniel Graham argues that the criticism is directed at the naive empiricism of those who trust appearances, and that Empedocles' physics is an attempt to explain appearances through rational principles. Richard Wright observes that the language of folly and short sight is typical of the poem's address to its audience. Jean Bollack's edition discusses the fragment's rhetorical features in detail. The English is approximate, and the Greek should be consulted before quotation, since the verbs are contested.