From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe phrase means idle or inactive matter.
- In this workAëtius at A47 states that the cosmos is one but is only a small part of the All; what remains is inert matter.
- In this editionThe phrase is not attested as Empedocles’ own vocabulary in this file.
- A place to readCalls the remainder beyond the single, limited cosmos inert matter.
Meaning
The phrase means idle or inactive matter. The adjective should not be translated as a modern law of inertia: it characterizes the remainder outside the cosmos in one doxographic notice. “Matter” itself is a later analytical term.
Use in the book
Aëtius at A47 states that the cosmos is one but is only a small part of the All; what remains is inert matter. If accepted as a genuine account, this would substantially affect the spatial picture of the cycle, because the ordered world would not occupy all available being. The notice does not explain the remainder’s location, structure or relation to Love and Strife.
The edition properly warns that no surviving fragment supports the claim. That does not license silently deleting it from the dossier, but it does prevent making it the default background for every other cosmological passage. It would be particularly unsafe to imagine a modern infinite space filled with inert substrate, since neither infinity nor a detailed geometry is stated here.
The entry records the distinction the report actually makes: a limited ordered arrangement against a larger totality, expressed through the witness’s matter-language. Its evidentiary isolation is part of its meaning for this volume.
Places to read
- A 47 (testimony)Aëtius I 5,2 (D. 291). Calls the remainder beyond the single, limited cosmos inert matter.
Translation in this edition
The phrase is not attested as Empedocles’ own vocabulary in this file. The report’s potential importance is a reason for caution, not a reason to treat its spatial model as established.