What is it about?
Neurosciences are extended into a broad field, where the scientific observation and research join harmoniously the imagination, the intuition, the philosophy, the critic analysis, the enthusiasm and the skepticism, opening new horizons in the theoretic perspectives and offering new motivations for research, on the bases of an advanced multi-dimensional intellectualityEmpedocles endeavored to enter in the depths of the human.soul in order to discover the interior power which motivates the emotions, the feelings and the social behavior of the human being. He tried to identify the main pivots of the emotional interactions. He insisted that Love and Strife are the ends of an axis, which regulates and controls all the spectrum of the human emotions. According to Empedocles there is not birth or coming into existence and death. There is only a connection or mixture and separation of four pure fundamental elements or “roots”, which are “the earth”, “the air”, “the fire” and “the water”. According to Aristotle these four elements, which have been traditional concepts in Greek physical theory , were mentioned first by Empedocles. The theory of the four fundamental elements or roots is not far from the scientific reality, since earth symbolizes the carbon (C), the basis of any organic substance, the water (H2O) and the air (O2) are also essential elements of the life and the fire created from the union of carbon with oxygen is the source of energy for any activity in life (circle of Krebs).
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Why is it important?
Empedocles claimed that ontogenesis under the power of Love results in creation of perfect entities, bodies and faces, whereas under the influence of Strife it results in malformations and congenital defects in humans, animals and plants. As biologist, Empedocles described the chimeric creatures, such as man-faced bulls, the teratogenesis in many creatures with a face and breasts on both sides, the hermaphroditism with male and female nature combined the malformations of the limbs of the body and the hybrid forms.
Perspectives
Empedocles underlined that the continuous controversy troubles and trials the human soul and disturbs thoughts and emotions (Frag.114). It is true, that problematizing and disputing are essential in scientific research especially in the field of Neurosciences. Many years later, the skeptics, such as Sextus Empiricus claimed that controversy is the theoretical basis of Science and Philosophy and they tried to deliberate the thinker from the dogmatism and the anxiety and depression, which are derived from the fixation on inflexible doctrines and axioms, encouraging him to proceed to a continuous search for the truth.In terms of cell organization, the harmonious coexistence of all Empedocles’ “roots” occurs in the mitochondria of the cell, which are the most essential organelles for the living entities, since they are the source of energy production and the main factor of cellular homeostasis, cellular differentiation and continuation of the viability of the cell.Empedocles is a prototype of moral philosopher as well as a neuro-philosopher He attempted to interpret the reason of the continuous alteration of the human emotions and the perpetual conflict between Love and Strife, in the depths of the human existence. He claimed that the dispute and rivalry between Love and Strife is the main cause of interchange of happiness and pain, peace and aggression, kindness and envy, friendship and enmity, serenity and anxiety, unity and fragmentation, hope and despair, integrity and decay in the human life .
Professor Stavros J Baloyannis or Balogiannis or Balojannis or Baloyiannis or Mpalogiannis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
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This page is a summary of: Empedocles: Neurophilosophy and Neurosciences- Prophecy and Reality, Journal of Neurology & Stroke, October 2014, MedCrave Group LLC,
DOI: 10.15406/jnsk.2014.01.00037.
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