Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 4

Note 59 — Chapter XXXVIII · TIMÆUS AND KRITIAS.

Reading edition

Plato, Timæus, p. 45. The theory of vision here given by Plato is interesting. A theory, similar in the main, had been propounded by Empedoklês before him. Aristotel. De Sensu, p. 437 b.; Theophrast. De Sensu, cap. 5-9, p. 88 of Philipson’s Ὕλη Ἀνθρωπίνη. Aristotle himself impugns the theory. It is reported and discussed in Galen, De Hippocratis et Platonis Dogmat. vii. 5, 6, p. 619 seqq. ed. Kühn.

The different theories of vision among the ancient philosophers anterior to Aristotle are thus enumerated by E. H. von Baumhauer (De Sententiis Veterum Philosophorum Græcorum de Visu, Lumine, et Coloribus, Utrecht, 1843, p. 137):— “De videndi modo tres apud antiquos primarias theorias invenimus: et primam quidem, emanatione lucis ex oculis ad corpora externa, ejusque reflexu ad oculos (Pythagorei, Alcmæon): alteram emanationibus e corporibus, quæ per oculos veluti per canales ad animum penetrent (Eleatici, Heraclitus, Gorgias): quam sententiam Anaxagoras et Diogenes Apolloniates eatenus mutarunt, quod dicerent pupillam quasi speculum esse quod imagines acceptas ad animum rejiciat. Tertia theoria, orta è conjunctione duarum priorum, statuebat tam ex oculis quam corporibus emanationes fieri, et ambarum illarum concursu visum effici, quum conformata imago per meatus ad animum perveniat (Empedocles, Protagoras, Plato). Huic sententiæ etiam Democritus annumerari potest; qui eam planè secundum materiam, ut dicunt, exposuit.”

The theory of Plato is described in the same treatise, pp. 106-112.

Return to CHAPTER XXXVIII. TIMÆUS AND KRITIAS.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX.Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 2)Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 2)Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 3)Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 3)