Empedocles 490-430 B.C.

Empedocles was important because he argued that nature consisted of 4 elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Each particular thing in nature was composed of a combination of these 4 elements. The elements were further divided into 2 pairs of opposites, with fire opposed to water and earth to air. The formation of anything was dependent on dynamic equilibrium involving the right proportion of each element.

This idea became firmly established in Greek physics and natural philosophy when the great philosophers Plato and Aristotle incorporated it into their theories concerning the physical universe. The 4 elements were not literally these things in the world but were the building blocks. E.g. soil would be said to be formed of all the elements but with a preponderance of the earth element.

Empedocles might have watched a piece of wood burning. Something disintegrates. We hear it crackle and splutter – this is water. Something goes up in smoke – that is air. The fire we can see and what is remaining when the fire is extinguished is earth.

Characteristics of the 4 Elements:

Earth
Absolute heaviness. Centre of all the other elements and of existence. In nature at rest, therefore makes objects stationary. Tendency to return to original position when moved. Makes objects firm, stable, lasting and able to maintain its outward form. Serves to fix and hold our bodies together in a compacted form. Primary qualities are coldness and dryness. Secondary qualities are density, heaviness and hardness.

Air
Possesses relative lightness. Hot and moist in quality. Secondary qualities of porosity, lightness and thinness and allows objects to rise upwards.

Fire
Element of heat and dryness creating the secondary qualities of absolute lightness in the sense of brightness and illumination as well as opposite to heavy. Imparts lightness and porosity to objects. Enables the natural ripening or development of substances by its heat and, like the alchemists fire, counteracts the cold and heaviness of Earth and Water by transmuting them into other compounds with different qualities.

Water
Relatively heavy. Surrounds the earth element as the ocean surrounds the landmasses of our planet. Cold and moist with the secondary qualities of softness and ability to change shape. In addition, moisture protects dry objects from crumbling to a powder (friability) as the dryness prevents moister from dispersing by fixing it.