Empedocles' Cosmos

You know, speaking of Empedocles: modern science thinks little of his elements (we've got like twenty-nine-and-a-half times as many!), but cosmologically, he appears to have been quite correct: at the center, one has a (or, we might say, many) sphere(s) composed of heavy, passive Earth. Atop these reside life-giving Water, or as we might say, biosphere(s). Above these, is the realm of Air: at the lowest are the various dense atmosphere(s), but this gradually gives way to the thin æther suffusing the entirety of space, whereupon the planets and stars reside. Finally, beyond the stars (or as J. M. Barrie poetically put it, "the second star to the right and straight on 'til morning") is the fiery Empyrean, the spiritual realms. All of these are held in balance between Love (various attractive forces) and Strife (various repulsive forces). His discussion of how nothing in the universe is created or destroyed, but merely cycles between various forms, ultimately foreshadows the various laws of conservation; and the way in which love and strife give way to each other is mimicked at solar scales by stellar evolution and at cosmological scales by conformal cyclic cosmology.

I am reminded of Raymond Smullyan's assertion that the three ways of exploring the world—positivism, empiricism, and mysticism—are not mutually exclusive but rather mutually supportive. Here we have the meeting of all three, a common ground where we may all gather, if only we chose to operate under the banner of Love.

Spring, in Arcadia and Anhui

---

The golden age was first; when Man yet new,
No rule but uncorrupted reason knew:
And, with a native bent, did good pursue.
Unforc'd by punishment, un-aw'd by fear,
His words were simple, and his soul sincere;
Needless was written law, where none opprest:
The law of Man was written in his breast:
No suppliant crowds before the judge appear'd,
No court erected yet, nor cause was heard:
But all was safe, for conscience was their guard.
The mountain-trees in distant prospect please,
E're yet the pine descended to the seas:
E're sails were spread, new oceans to explore:
And happy mortals, unconcern'd for more,
Confin'd their wishes to their native shore.
No walls were yet; nor fence, nor mote, nor mound,
Nor drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry sound:
Nor swords were forg'd; but void of care and crime,
The soft creation slept away their time.

(Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book I, as translated by Dryden et al)

---

In the age when life on earth was full, no one paid any special attention to worthy men, nor did they single out the talented. Rulers were like the highest branches on a tree and the people were like deer in the woods. They were honest and righteous without realizing they were "doing their duty." They cared for each other and did not know that this was "loving thy neighbor." They deceived no one yet did not know that they were "men of their word." They were reliable and did not know that this was "good faith." They lived freely together giving and taking, and did not know that they were generous. This is why their path left no trail behind. This is why they made no history.

(Zhuangzi, Ch. II, adapted by yours truly)