“From what is not, nothing can come to be, and what is cannot be destroyed.”
— EmpedoclesDiels-Kranz 31 B12, reported in Aristotle, Physics, and in Simplicius; approximate English rendering
Commentary
This fragment restates the Eleatic principle that nothing comes from nothing and that what is cannot be destroyed, and it uses that principle as the foundation for the theory of the four roots. Empedocles accepted the logical force of Parmenides' argument and designed his physics to preserve it, so that change becomes recombination rather than creation. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield present the fragment as the moment at which Empedocles makes the Eleatic logic serve a physical theory. Daniel Graham argues that the principle explains why the roots must be eternal and why the variety of things must be explained by their mixture. Aristotle, in the Physics, reports the principle in his own discussion of coming-to-be and uses it to criticise earlier theories, a context that should be kept in mind. Richard Wright notes that the fragment serves as a bridge between the Eleatic and the atomist traditions. The English is an approximation, and the Greek should be checked before any quotation.
Commentary
This fragment restates the Eleatic principle that nothing comes from nothing and that what is cannot be destroyed, and it uses that principle as the foundation for the theory of the four roots. Empedocles accepted the logical force of Parmenides' argument and designed his physics to preserve it, so that change becomes recombination rather than creation. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield present the fragment as the moment at which Empedocles makes the Eleatic logic serve a physical theory. Daniel Graham argues that the principle explains why the roots must be eternal and why the variety of things must be explained by their mixture. Aristotle, in the Physics, reports the principle in his own discussion of coming-to-be and uses it to criticise earlier theories, a context that should be kept in mind. Richard Wright notes that the fragment serves as a bridge between the Eleatic and the atomist traditions. The English is an approximation, and the Greek should be checked before any quotation.