Empedocles and the Pythagorean Tradition - Year 2010

Breaking with the prejudices of all traditional research on pre-Socratic philosophy, Peter Kingsley renews the approach to Empedocles in this work: instead of interpreting the fragments of his poetry from a post-Platonic or post-Aristotelian idea of philosophy, he undertakes to make us hear their strangeness by placing them back in their original context, a context where philosophy is not primarily conceived as a rational endeavor, but as a way of life where thought is closely linked to mythology, mysteries, and magic.

Empedocles' relationships with ancient Pythagoreanism are thus reconstructed, as well as the Pythagorean origin of Plato's myths, particularly that of the Phaedo, which is the subject of an in-depth study, with a number of methodological consequences for the study of ancient philosophy in general.

The second half of the book re-examines the problem of the links between magic, science, and religion in ancient philosophy. It highlights a line of transmission that, starting from Empedocles and the early Pythagoreans, reached Egypt and then the Islamic world. This hitherto neglected transmission process revolutionizes our understanding not only of Greek philosophy but also of the cultural background of ancient alchemy, Sufism, and medieval mysticism.

Peter Kingsley is an honorary professor at Simon Fraser University (Canada) and the University of New Mexico. His works published by Les Belles Lettres include "In the Caves of Wisdom: Parmenides' Studies" (2007).