From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordBlastoi are shoots or sprouts.
- In this workThe shoot is not merely the opposite end of a tree in these notices; it is where the difficulty of coordinated growth becomes visible.
- In this editionThe title does not identify the botanical shoot with the “sprout of flesh” used for the ear elsewhere.
- A place to readUses shoots as the aether-associated member of the divided generative explanation.
Meaning
Blastoi are shoots or sprouts. Theophrastus assigns aether to these upper growing parts in his account of Empedocles, while Aristotle explains the upward direction through fire. The organ-name is ordinary botanical vocabulary in a polemical exposition.
Use in the book
The shoot is not merely the opposite end of a tree in these notices; it is where the difficulty of coordinated growth becomes visible. Theophrastus objects to a division that makes earth generate roots and aether generate shoots, insisting instead on one matter and one generating cause. Aristotle similarly criticizes explaining upward plant growth through fire's natural direction. The objection is to treating material tendencies as sufficient explanation of a living whole. It should not be reported as Empedocles' own confession that a plant lacks unity. Aëtius' broader account invokes heat within the earth as the cause lifting plants upward and proportionate mixture as the condition of their sexual completeness. Those details leave room for a more complex account than either isolated criticism reproduces, while not resolving the critics' challenge.
Places to read
- A 70 (polemical)2Theophrastus, On the Causes of Plants. Uses shoots as the aether-associated member of the divided generative explanation.
- A 70 (polemical)2Aristotle, On the Soul. Attributes upward plant growth to fire in the explanation he rejects.
- A 70 (testimony)2Aëtius. Reports growth through terrestrial heat and a proportionate mixture.
Translation in this edition
The title does not identify the botanical shoot with the “sprout of flesh” used for the ear elsewhere. The same family of growth imagery need not name the same structure or explanation.