knowledge

is, for the Greeks, such that a knower cannot know an object without some sort of identity of elements between them. In coming to know something, we also, through knowing it, at the same time, become more like it.

Knower,' states Peters, 'cannot know an object without some sort of identity of elements between them,' and in knowing there is an indissoluble relationship wherein a metamorphosis occurs, for in knowing something 'we also, at the same time,become more like it' (87). If we read the following fragment of Empedocles in light of the observations of both Vernant and Peters, the understanding of sensation and knowledge occurring as an embodied phenomenon in terms of a unique way of being situated in the world, becomes clear: We see (know) Earth by means of Earth, Water by means of Water, divine air by means of Air, and destructive Fire by means of Fire... Affection by means of Affection, Hate by means of baneful Hate (DK 31B fr. 109, trans, Freeman).

PetersThinkers

Peters