Air-Imprints or Eidola: Democritus' Aetiology of Vision

Abstract

Democritus' explanation of vision, i known to us mainly, if not solely, through the critical account of Theophrastus, De sensu 50-55, has been subject to severe criticism ever since.Theophrastus wrote: "Democritus wants to make some points in an original manner, but he raises still more problems," a judgment which becomes much more negative in the translations of Stratton and Guthrie: "In trying to say something original he has left the problem even farther from solution," 2 as if raising problems were a setback.There have been recently penetrating and illuminating studies of this complex of Democritean problems by Kurt von Fritz and Peter Bicknell.Still the interpretation and even the reading of the basic text may need further discussion in some places, and there are some general, disquieting perspectives involved as to the consistency of Democritus' system and the reliability of the doxographical tradition as a whole.