[RAA NOTE: Similarly, Keep in mind that Archimides was born, lived, and died in Syracuse, Sicily, and never set foot in Greece, yet is claimed to be Greek] 

If you have taken a course in philosophy you will have heard of the "Greek" philosopher known as Empedocles.

Scholars recognize Empedocles as the person that first forcefully promoted the idea that everything in the world is made up of certain basic elements.

In that way, his theories are the beginnings of the kind of theory of atoms that has guided so much of modern successful science.

He is known as a "Greek" philosopher -- but he lived and worked very far from the famous cities of Greece and Asia Minor.  He worked at Akragas -- a settlement founded by Greeks on the south side of Sicily.  Akragas became the city we know as Agrigento.

So, do we have any way of knowing whether or not Empedocles was "Greek?"   He might have been from a family of Sicils, the people who had occupied Sicily before the Greeks set up their colonies.

So, why don't we say that Empedocles was an "Ancient Sicilian" philosopher?????

[RAA NOTE:Particularly, when John Burnet states that Aristotle said that Empedocles was the inventor of Rhetoric; and Galen made him the founder of the Italian school of Medicine..( Exploring Plato's Dialogues)]
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V. V. Raman  Calendrical Reflections for November 15.

From the World of Science: EMPEDOCELES OF ACRAGAS

On 16 November 1945 it was announced that two new elements, curium and Americium, had been discovered. We learn in school about elements and compounds. The idea of rhizomata (roots) or elements was introduced in Greek
thought by Empedocles of Acragas (fifth century B.C.E.), a remarkable man who was physician, philosopher, poet, and physical theorist....

He formulated the theory of elements... Unlike his predecessors, Empedocles claims that there are four elements in the universe; air, fire, earth, and water....and everything, including mortal beings, arose by the combinations of the four basic rhizomata which combine and split incessantly, causing the manifold transformations in the world around.

Empedocles said that in addition to the four passive elements, there operate in the world two active principles: philotes (love) and neikos (hate/strife). These principles come into play between the elements and cause transformations. There is an interesting similarity between this speculation and the worldview of current physics. According to our modern theories, the variety of natural phenomena arises because of the fundamental interactions (attraction, repulsion) between the elementary particles (roots).

The greatest achievement of Empedocles was his observational discovery that air is a substance which exerts a push (pressure). Until then material substances meant only solids and liquids. No one had thought of matter in a gaseous state.

Empedocles was doing one of the earliest experimenters in physics, for he deliberately arranged things and devices to observe and draw conclusions.  He demonstrated that by indirect means we can become aware of aspects of the
world not directly perceived by our senses.