From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe first phrase means on a hypothesis or supposition; the second, supplied as Diels’ explanatory gloss in the apparatus, means for the sake of teaching.
- In this workSimplicius at A52 suggests that Plato, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and other natural philosophers hand down generation of composites from simples in this explanatory manner, as though the constituents had existed earlier in time.
- In this editionKeep the interpretative level visible: Simplicius is proposing a way to read cosmological exposition, not quoting Empedocles’ own methodological preface.
- A place to readSuggests that generation from simples may be narrated by hypothesis rather than because the ingredients literally pre-existed in time.
Meaning
The first phrase means on a hypothesis or supposition; the second, supplied as Diels’ explanatory gloss in the apparatus, means for the sake of teaching. The terminology concerns how a cosmological account is presented, not necessarily an event within the cosmos.
Use in the book
Simplicius at A52 suggests that Plato, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and other natural philosophers hand down generation of composites from simples in this explanatory manner, as though the constituents had existed earlier in time. This shifts the question from what happened first to what must be introduced first for understanding.
The statement is separate from Simplicius’ preceding recurrent account in which the cosmos repeatedly comes to be and perishes. It should not be read as another direct report of Empedocles’ professed intentions. It is a later interpretative strategy capable of reducing the pressure of a literal temporal narrative.
The edition calls it the ancestor of every later non-literal reading of the cycle. That sweeping genealogy is not established by the excerpt. What the text securely demonstrates is the presence of a pedagogical or hypothetical reading in Simplicius’ discussion. Whether that reading is historically correct about the poem remains open.
Places to read
- A 52 (polemical)Simplicius, De caelo 305,21. Suggests that generation from simples may be narrated by hypothesis rather than because the ingredients literally pre-existed in time.
- A 52 (apparatus)Diels, apparatus to Simplicius 305,21. Explains the hypothetical manner with the gloss “for the sake of teaching.”
Translation in this edition
Keep the interpretative level visible: Simplicius is proposing a way to read cosmological exposition, not quoting Empedocles’ own methodological preface.