Form without Matter: Empedocles and Aristotle on Color PerceptionMark Eli Kalderon presents an original study in the philosophy of perception written in the medium of historiography. He considers the phenomenology and metaphysics of sensory presentation through the examination of an ancient aporia. Specifically, he argues that a puzzle about perception at a distance is behind Empedocles' theory of vision. Empedocles conceives of perception as a mode of material assimilation, but this raises a puzzle about color vision, since color vision seems to present colors that inhere in distant objects. But if the colors inhere in distant objects how can they be taken in by the organ of sight and so be palpable to sense? Aristotle purports to resolve this puzzle in his definition of perception as the assimilation of sensible form without the matter of the perceived particular. Aristotle explicitly criticizes Empedocles, though he is keen to retain the idea that perception is a mode of assimilation, if not a material mode. Aristotle's notorious definition has long puzzled commentators. Kalderon shows how, read in light of Empedoclean puzzlement about the sensory presentation of remote objects, Aristotle's definition of perception can be better understood. Moreover, when so read, the resulting conception of perception is both attractive and defensible. |
Contents
1 Empedocles | 1 |
2 Perception at a Distance | 17 |
3 Transparency | 40 |
4 Color | 61 |
5 Light and Dark | 92 |
6 The Generation of the Hues | 109 |
7 The Eye | 137 |
8 Two Transitions to Actuality | 151 |
9 Form without Matter | 169 |
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207 | |
Other editions - View all
Form Without Matter: Empedocles and Aristotle on Color Perception Mark Eli Kalderon Limited preview - 2015 |
Form without Matter: Empedocles and Aristotle on Color Perception Mark Eli Kalderon Limited preview - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
acted actually transparent analogy Anima animal Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle’s definition assimilation of sensible body brilliant white Burnyeat capacity for sight chromatic hues color perception color vision colored particular colors of remote combination constitutively shapes Democritus distal objects distinct Empedoclean principle Empedoclean puzzlement Empedocles endoxa exercise explained external medium eye’s interior fiery substance fire illuminated medium ingestion model Kalderon least light and dark material effluences mixture mode of assimilation Moreover nature object of perception organ of sight Parmenides passages perceiver’s perceptual capacities perceptual experience perceptually available phenomenological philosophy of perception Plato Plutarch presence and activity primary objects Protagoras puzzle qualitative alteration ratio of light reactive capacity remote external particulars second actuality sensation sense organ sensible form sensible qualities sensory presentation Sensu signet ring Smith in Barnes soul specific sun’s tertiary colors Theaetetus Theophrastus things Timaeus transparent medium understood visible vision white and black