“Vision occurs when effluences from the body meet the fire within the eye.”
— EmpedoclesTheophrastus, De Sensibus, reporting Empedocles' theory of vision; approximate English rendering, a paraphrase of a report
Commentary
This account of vision, reported by Theophrastus, explains seeing as the meeting of effluences from the visible object with the fire contained in the eye, and it applies the four-root theory to perception. The theory treats the eye as a structure of pores through which the elements pass, so that vision depends on the proportion of fire and water. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield present Empedocles' theory of perception as an early attempt to explain the senses through a physical model. Daniel Graham argues that the model of effluences and pores was integrated with the theory of mixture, and that Empedocles treated perception as a case of like being known by like. Richard Wright discusses the Theophrastean report in detail and cautions that it reflects the reporter's own classification of theories. Aristotle's criticisms in the De Anima are an important context for the theory. The sentence is a paraphrase of a report and should be labelled accordingly.
Commentary
This account of vision, reported by Theophrastus, explains seeing as the meeting of effluences from the visible object with the fire contained in the eye, and it applies the four-root theory to perception. The theory treats the eye as a structure of pores through which the elements pass, so that vision depends on the proportion of fire and water. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield present Empedocles' theory of perception as an early attempt to explain the senses through a physical model. Daniel Graham argues that the model of effluences and pores was integrated with the theory of mixture, and that Empedocles treated perception as a case of like being known by like. Richard Wright discusses the Theophrastean report in detail and cautions that it reflects the reporter's own classification of theories. Aristotle's criticisms in the De Anima are an important context for the theory. The sentence is a paraphrase of a report and should be labelled accordingly.