Empedocles came from Sicily. He disagreed that there was one basic ingredient to the universe. He said reality boiled down to the simplest parts of the four elements (fire, air, earth, and water). all change could be explained by the coming together and falling apart of these elements.He said that there are two basic forces in nature that cause this–love and strife. Love bring things together and strife tears them apart. This idea explained both how things can change and how the world remains the same.

His theory of evolution was that only the strong survived. Sadly, he didn’t survive a jump into Mount Etna. He dived into a volcano to prove he was a god and burned to a crisp.