"The Greeks elaborated several theories of vision. According to the Pythagoreans, Democritus, and others vision is caused by the projection of particles from the object seen, into the pupil of the eye. On the other hand Empedocles, the Platonists, and Euclid held the strange doctrine of ocular beams, according to which the eye itself sends out something which causes sight as soon as it meets something else emanated by the object."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Florian Cajori, A History of Physics in its Elementary Branches (1899)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democritus
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Democritus
(c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He is popularly known as "the laughing philosopher" for advocating a cheerful outlook, and for his rhetorical use of irony and ridicule. A pupil of Leucippus, he was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher who formulated an atomic theory of the universe. Of his voluminous writings, only a few fragments of his ethical theory remain, with descriptions by other writers of his atomic theory.
83 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Democritus →
Related Quotes
"δοκεῖ δὲ αὐτῶι τάδε· ἀρχὰς εἶναι τῶν ὅλων ἀτόμους καὶ κενόν, τὰ δ'ἀλλα πάντα νενομίσθαι [δοξάζεσθαι]. (Diogenes Laërt…"
"νόμωι (γάρ φησι) γλυκὺ καὶ νόμωι πικρόν, νόμωι θερμόν, νόμωι ψυχρόν, νόμωι χροιή, ἐτεῆι δὲ ἄτομα καὶ κενόν (Tetralogi…"
"We know nothing accurately in reality, but [only] as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constituti…"
"Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions."
"Coition is a slight attack of apoplexy. For man gushes forth from man, and is separated by being torn apart with a ki…"
"Man is a universe in little [Microcosm]."
"Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character."
"Πολλοὶ πολυμαθέες νοῦν οὐκ ἔχουσιν."
"Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man."
"An evil and foolish and intemperate and irreligious life should not be called a bad life, but rather, dying long draw…"