"Of those who ascribe perception to something other than similarity, Alcmaeon states... the difference between men and animals. For man, he says, differs from other creatures "inasmuch as he alone has the power to understand. Other creatures perceive by sense but do not understand"; since to think and to perceive by sense are different processes and not, as Empedocles held, identical. not Empedocles held He next speaks of the senses severally. ...Eyes see through the water round about. And the eye obviously has fire within, for when one is struck flashes out. Vision is due to the gleaming,—that is to say, the transparent character of that which [in the eye] reflects the object; and sight is the more perfect, the greater the purity of this substance."
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Sources
, Theophrastus, Theophrastus and the Greek Physiological Psychology Before Aristotle (1917) II. Theophrastus on the Senses, p. 89.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/History_of_optics
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History of optics
begins with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, followed by theories on light and vision developed by ancient Greek philosophers, and the development of in the Greco-Roman world. The word optics is derived from the Greek term τα ὀπτικά meaning "appearance or look". Optics was significantly reformed by the developments in the medieval Islamic world, such as the beginnings of physical and physiological optics, and then significantly advanced in early modern Europe
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