Theophrastus And The Greek Physiological Psychology Before Aristotle On Sense Perception

The following book was written by Theophrastus, the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. A treatise On Sense Perception and its objects is important for a knowledge of the doctrines of the more ancient Greek philosophers regarding the subject. A paraphrase and commentary on this work was written by Priscian of Lydia in the sixth century. With this type of work we may connect the fragments on Smells, on Fatigue, on Dizziness, on Sweat, on Swooning, on Palsy, and on Honey.

First published in 1917, Theophrastus and the Greek Physiological Psychology Before Aristotle is on the history of ancient Greek physiological psychology. It includes the author's essays on Theophrastus and his writings on sense perception; the original Greek text and his own translation of On the Senses, which had not previously been translated in full into English. This book will be of interest to students of medicine, psychology and philosophy.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ...still a third quality for some other group. For the figure cannot possibly be a subjective effect, nor can one and the same figure be spherical for certain persons and of another shape for others (although such an assumption were perhaps inevitable if what is sweet for some is bitter for others), nor can the shapes of atoms change according to differences of state in us. And, in general, the atomic figure has an absolute existence, while sweetness and the sensuous object generally, as he says, is relative and existent in something beyond itself. It is strange, furthermore, to insist that to all those who perceive the same things there comes the same subjective appearance,162 and to examine the true character of these things, when he has already said that to persons in different conditions there come different subjective appearances, and again that no one attains the truth of things better than does another. For it is 70 probable that in the attainment of truth the better surpasses the worse, and the well the sick; since the better and healthier are more in accord with the reality of things.l63 But if there be no objective reality in sensory objects because they do not appear the same to all, there is manifestly none in animals or other bodies; for men disagree about these things, too. And yet even if the cause of sweet and bitter is not the same for us all, at least the bitterness t64 and sweetness appear the same for all. Democritus himself seems a witness to this; for how could that which is bitter for us be sweet or astringent for others, unless these very qualities had a definite nature? This he makes even more explicit in 71 those passages where he says that the being of anything and the process by which it originated are real; l6s...

Excerpt from Theophrastus and the Greek Physiological Psychology Before Aristotle The Greek text of the De Sensions used and here repro duced is substantially that of Diels in his Doxogmpfzi Graeei, with such changes as he himself has made in those portions of it included in his Fragmente der Vorsokmtiker. Departures from the readings of Diels I have tried faithfully to indicate; but to a very few minor changes in punctua tion I have thought it unnecessary to draw attention. Nor in the translation have I carried through in stubborn consistency my general purpose to indicate by angular brackets, those English expressions that have no cor responding words in the Greek. I have omitted these marks when I felt that the occasion was very slight for troubling in this way the reader's eye. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In his work On Sense Perception, Aristotle discusses the material conditions of perception, starting with the sense organs and moving to the material basis of colour, flavour and odour. His Pythagorean account of hues as a ratio of dark to light was enthusiastically endorsed by Goethe against Newton as being true to the painter's experience. Aristotle finishes with three problems about continuity. First, in what sense are indefinitely small colour patches or colour variations perceptible? Secondly, which perceptible leap discontinuously like light to fill a whole space, which have to reach one point before another; and do observers of the latter perceive the same thing if they are at different distances? Thirdly, how does the central sense permit genuinely simultaneous, rather than staggered, perception of different objects? Alexander's highly explanatory commentary is most expansive on these problems of continuity. His battery of objections to vision involving travel, which would lead to collisions and interference by winds, inspired a tradition of grading the five senses in respect of degrees of immateriality and of intentionality. He also introduces us to paradoxes of Diodorus Cronus about the relations of the smallest perceptible to the largest perceptible size.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Theophrastus And The Greek Physiological Psychology Before Aristotle George Malcolm Stratton, Theophrastus G. Allen & Unwin, 1917 Philosophy; History & Surveys; Ancient & Classical; Philosophy / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical; Psychology; Psychology / Physiological Psychology; Psychophysiology; Senses and sensation