Empedocles on Ensouled Beings

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Published: Jun 30, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.31570
Keywords:
Empedocles ensoulment whole nature is akin justice katharmoi abstaining incarnation happiness
Željko Kaluđerović
University of Novi Sad, Serbia
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6572-4160
Abstract

The paper analyses fragmentarily preserved views of Empedocles, that, in the author’s opinion, represent the antecedents of deviations from the anthropocentric vision of the world and anticipate the majority of later attempts at scientific, philosophical, and legal modifications of the status of all living beings. Empedocles, namely, claims that all beings think, i.e., that they have understanding or consciousness. He is, moreover, portrayed as a proponent of the thesis that plants as well have both intellect and the ability to think, and that they are driven by desire and have feelings, sadness and joy. According to him, the idea that the whole nature is akin not only has a vital-animal meaning but, to a certain extent, a mental meaning. Empedocles urged his disciples to abstain from consuming ensouled beings, since it is in the bodies of these beings that penalized souls reside. He believed that he himself was one of them who had been killed and eaten, and that it is by purification that prior sins in connection with food should be treated. Empedocles’ case shows that humans are living beings that err, and that they owe to animals justice based on mutual kinship. Aside from living a pure life, practicing the recommended katharmoi, and abstaining from flesh in any version, the path to the salvation of the soul leads through two additional dimensions. The first is being revealed in the important phrase of the sage from Acragas that one should fast from evil. And secondly, the wealth of divine thoughts is connected with being happy, just as those who have vague opinions about the gods are wretched. Eventually, the “Sicilian Muse” believed that if people live in a holy and just manner, they shall be blessed in this life, even more so after leaving this one, because they will achieve happiness that will not be temporarily, and be able to rest for eternity.

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Author Biography
Željko Kaluđerović, University of Novi Sad, Serbia

Željko Kaluđerović (1964) was born in Vrbas (Serbia). At the Department of Field and Vegetable Crops at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University in Novi Sad he graduated in 1991. The same year he enrolled in philosophy studies at the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Novi Sad where he graduated in 1996. At the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Novi Sad he received his master degree in 2003. At the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Novi Sad he submitted and in 2008 defended his doctorate dissertation.

He is employed as a Full Professor (elected in 2018) at the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Novi Sad. Since 2009 i.e. 2010 he has been teaching the following subjects: Hellenic Philosophy, Hellenistic-Roman philosophy, Ethics, Bioethics and Journalistic Ethics. Since 2010 i.e. 2020, he has been teaching course in Ancient Greek Philosophy, course in Modern Philosophy and a course in Bioethics at the Department of Philosophy and Sociology, at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He is the author of the following books: Aristotle and Presocratics (2004), Hellenic Concept of Justice (2010), Presocratic Understanding of Justice (2013), Philosophical Triptych (2014), Dike and Dikaiosyne (2015), Early Greek Philosophy (2017), Stagirites (2018) and Bioethical Kaleidoscope (2021). He wrote and published about 150 articles and reviews in different science and philosophy journals in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Hellenic Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and USA. He took part in sixty international symposiums and one international congress (9th World Congress of Bioethics).

He is the Coordinator of the Center for Bioethics at the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Novi Sad (2019-). He is a member of several editorial boards of journals and proceedings, organizational, scientific and program committees of various international conferences and symposiums. He has participated or is participating in eight scientific projects in the country and abroad.

Last but not least, in June 2022, Željko Kaluđerović was promoted to Doctor Honoris Causa of the Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

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