”Očišćenje” i blaženstvo iatromantis-a iz Akraganta
“Purification” and the Happiness of the Iatromantis of Acragas

Summary/Abstract: In the article, the authors explore the forerunners of the so-called nonhomocentric expansion of ethics and find them in the fragments of the first physicists, in which the particular mixture of physical and mental elements, i.e. the kinship of all forms of life, is emphasized. In this context, Empedocles stresses that men’s wisdom increases according to what is present, adding that thought is corporal and is influenced by corporal changes. The Sicilian thinker believed that thinking and perception are only special cases of the universal principle that like acts on like, as well as that all beings think, that is, they have understanding or consciousness. Moreover, he is presented in (Pseudo) Aristotelian work On Plants as one of the representatives of the thesis that plants also have a mind and the ability to think, that they are driven by certain desire and that they can feel joy and sorrow. This observation reveals that according to other “Pythagorean”, expressed more explicitly than by the founder of the fraternity himself, the idea of the kinship of all living things does not only have a vital-animal meaning, but to some extent also a mental one. On the trail of the iatromantis of Acragas, it can be said that if people live a holy and just way of life, practising the recommended purifications, and abstaining from meat in any version, they will be blessed in this life. Still, they shall be even more blessed after leaving this life, because they will achieve happiness, not for a period of time, but they will be able to rest eternally.

• Details
• Contents