Greek philosophers
Empedocles
Empedocles of Acragantus was a Greek philosopher of the pre-Socratic period. He was born in 490 BC in Akragantu (Sicily) and died in 430 BC, supposedly by jumping from Mount Etna to make people believe he had gone among the gods. He therefore committed suicide.
Empedocles defined the four elements - fire, water, air and earth - as the basic primordial elements. He defended this idea by saying that there cannot be only one primordial. Water can't turn a butterfly into a dog. He cites further evidence in the painter, who also does not paint a green meadow with red paint. But if he mixes the primary colours, he can get an infinite number of shades.
He also defined two pigs - love and hate - which are the driving force behind everything. Love is the force that unites, hate separates.
Empedocles is taken to be an eclectic, and therefore a man who took the ideas of different people and combined them into a new whole. His view of the world is very similar to that of modern cosmology. And that is that the beginning of everything is the "big bang" and the end is the "big crunch". His ideas influenced Sigmund Freud.