Chance, relativity, and Empedocles’ cycle(s) of time

Abstract

The recent publication of 12th century scholia that temporalize Empedocles’ Cosmic Cycle has prompted a wave of new studies on the subject of time in Empedoclean thought. The scholia suggest various temporal quantifications for different phases of the cycle, thus implying that Love and Strife’s interchange occurred according to a strict, pre-determined timetable. However, this paper argues that a cosmic timetable is conceptually incompatible with key features of Empedoclean cosmology and biology. This paper takes its cue from a suggestive testimony by Aëtius, which claims that the sun’s passage temporally varies throughout the Cosmic Cycle. By considering the implications of this depiction of temporal relativity, as well as the impact of chance upon biological and cosmological process, I argue that Empedocles’ depiction of time cannot be understood through the interchange of Love and Strife alone; it is also crucial to consider the fluctuating interactions of the four rhizomes. By exploring the rhizomes’ impact upon time in cosmic and biological terms, I suggest how we might overcome the limitations of deterministic approaches and negotiate the discernible parallels between the temporality of the Cosmic Cycle and the multiple temporalities of mortal ‘life cycles’.

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