Istituto Mazzini, Naples, Italy.
J Nephrol. 2009 Nov-Dec;22 Suppl 14:103-7.
Water was a prominent substance with Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus and Parmenides, who flourished in the years 530-490 bc. The basic Pythagorean elements were earth and fire, and between them there were 2 intermediate entities (water and air), which were instrumental and indispensable components of specific solids. All things are a blend of different elements. For Xenophanes, "All things that come into being and grow are earth and water," "We all originated from earth and water" and "And in certain caves water drips down."For Heraclitus water is an ambivalent substance: "One cannot bathe in the same river on two occasions." "The sea is the safest and the most polluted water, for fish it is healthy and gives life, for men it is unhealthy and causes death." "Fire experiences the death of earth, air experiences that of fire, water experiences the death of air and the earth that of water." Parmenides was a man who sought the truth through reasoning and was, according to Hegel, the founder of Western philosophy. He built a dualist theory of the cosmos based on heat and cold, fire and earth - the former as a cause, the latter as substrate. The former unified, the latter separated. According to Aristotle, Parmenides considered air and water as mixtures of earth and fire.
水在公元前 530 年至 490 年间的毕达哥拉斯、色诺芬尼、赫拉克利特和巴门尼德等哲学家那里是一种突出的物质。基本的毕达哥拉斯元素是土和火，它们之间有 2 种中间实体（水和空气），它们是特定固体的工具性和不可或缺的组成部分。万物都是不同元素的混合物。对色诺芬尼来说，“所有生成和成长的东西都是土和水”，“我们都起源于土和水”，“在某些洞穴里，水滴滴下来”。对赫拉克利特来说，水是一种矛盾的物质：“人不能两次踏进同一条河流。”“海是最安全也是最受污染的水，对鱼来说是健康和生命的，对人来说是不健康和致命的。”“火经历土的死亡，空气经历火的死亡，水经历空气的死亡，土经历水的死亡。”巴门尼德是一个通过推理寻求真理的人，在黑格尔看来，他是西方哲学的创始人。他建立了一种基于热和冷、火和土的宇宙二元论理论——前者是原因，后者是基质。前者统一，后者分离。根据亚里士多德的说法，巴门尼德认为空气和水是土和火的混合物。
