The pluralism of Empedocles (495-435 BC) was more modest. He argued that a small set of elements sufficed to explain the material nature of the world. Probably borrowing from his predecessors, he took water, air, and life, added a fourth element earth, and composed a four-part elemental scheme that held for nearly 2,000 years. As for Anaxagoras, Empedocles believed that the elements required an overreaching principle of organization. In his case it was not ‘Nous’ (common sense) but rather a system of dual forces, designated ‘Philotes’ (Love) and ‘Niekos (strife). Love was the power of attraction and was clear to Empedocles that both were needed; if there were only attraction in the universe, all matter would be drawn together in a formless mass, something like a black hole. As if there were only repulsion, the four elements would be driven apart, never to unite into structured objects. He reasoned that there must be a balance of the two, in a kind of harmonic tension. “Panpsychism in the West” ~ David Skrbina