And so we do. All of our modern science confirms that we are made of the same stuff as the universe around us, and are subject to the same physical laws as govern inanimate nature. Some modern thinkers hold to that bleak view, reducing us and our moral aspirations to mere wishful thinking, the delusions of scattered atoms in the cosmic dust. But that sterile hypothesis is, to say the least, unproven. Empedocles knows that we are indeed part of the strife-riven universe, but Empedocles also knows that strife is not boundless, for in its midst, also an integral part of the universe, is Love.
Love indeed is fully equal to strife, equal in length and breadth.
She it is who is known as inborn in mortal limbs, through whom they think friendly thoughts and do well-fitted deeds, calling her Joy and Aphrodite. For Empedocles, Love is as real as the chaotic whirl of wind and water, earth and fire and, even if we no longer personify the force as the goddess Aphrodite, we feel the immense sweep of his reasoning. Some part of the universe is governed by a moral economy, because we find it in ourselves and we are part of the universe. The human animal is inextricably imbedded in the natural order, but in an unusual way. We cannot survive infancy and childhood, and we cannot live anything resembling a truly human existence as adults, without family and community.