Bias was an ancient Greek philosopher and one of the Seven Sages, known for his wisdom and moral integrity.
13 Notes
460 BC - 370 BC
Abdera, Greece
"In fact, Homer and Empedocles have nothing in common except their meter; the former can be called a poet, but the latter should be termed a scientist."
"On this basis, Democritus says that the soul is a sort of fire or hot stuff. Because the atomic shapes are infinite, he calls the spherical ones fire (like what are called motes in the air, which appear in the substance that pass through windows), and the ‘all engendering seed-bed consisting of these things was what he called the elements of all nature."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p5
#Quotes"Democritus has also given a more polished discussion of both of these features, declaring that the soul is the same thing as thought, which is a primary and indivisible body, capable of brining about movement due to its smallness of parts and shape. Among shapes, he says the spherical is the most easily moved, and thought and fire are of this sort"
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p7
#Quotes"Some even say that the soul moves the body containing it in the same way that it is moved itself. For example, Democritus sound like Philip the comic dramatist, who says that Deadalus made his wooden Aphrodite move by pouring quicksilver into it. In a similar vein, Democritus says that the indivisible spheres, which are in movement because they naturally never stay still, draw the entire body with them and move it. But we shall ask whether the same thing also produces rest. How it will do so is difficult or even impossible to say. In general, the soul does not appear to move the animal in this way, but though some choice or thought -process."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p10
#Disagree"It would seem to make no difference whether we speak of units or tiny little bodies. For even if points should emerge from the little spheres of Democritus with only their quantity remaining, there will be in each of them something which brings about movement and something which is moved, just as in a continuous thing. For what was just described does not happen because the spheres differ in largeness or smallness, but because they have quantity. That is why there must be something that moves the units."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p15
#Disagree"Democritus did not speak correctly when he opined that if the medium were a void, one could see distinctly even an ant in the heavens, for this is impossible, since seeing occurs when the perceptive faculty is affected, but it cannot be affected by the medium, so that the medium must exist. But if there were a void, it is not the case that it would be seen with precision; rather, nothing at all would be seen."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p35
#Disagree"Democritus is correct when he says that the eye is water, but incorrect when he says that seeing is mirroring. For this occurs because the eye is smooth, and it exists not in it but in that which sees; for the phenomenon involves reflection. But it seems that there was not yet any clear general theory of mirrored objects and reflection. And it is strange to that it did not occur to him to be puzzled about why the eye alone sees, and none of the other things in which reflected images are mirrored."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p73
#Disagree"Democritus and most of the natural theorists who talks about sense perception advance a very strange thesis: they treat all perceptible objects as tangible. And yet, if this is the case, it is clear that each of the senses is a mode of touch: but that this is impossible is not hard to see at glance."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p80
#Disagree"Now consider dreams that involve starting-points which are not such as we have described but are outlandish in times or places or magnitudes, or which are outlandish in none of these respects, while yet those who see the dream do not have control of the starting point. Unless the foresight occurs by happenstance, the following seems better than the explanation of Democritus, who treats semblances and effluence as causes."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p124
#Disagree"But if one ought to believe the previous claim that not all animals' breath, it must be supposed that Democritus has described the cause not of all death, but only the cause of the death of those animals that breath. But he is not correct even in their case, as is clear from the facts and what we all experience. For in warm weather when we all feel hotter, we feel more short of breath, and we breathe more rapidly. And whenever the surrounding atmosphere is cold, and it contracts and freezes the body, we hold our breath as a result. Yet, it is at this time that the particles should come in from outside and prevent the squeezing process. But in fact, on the contrary, it is when too much heat is collected because people do not breathe by breathing in. When they are hot they breathe frequently, which indicates that they breathe in order to cool off, whereas, on Democritus theory, they would add fire to fire"
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p141
#Disagree"Herein you could by no means accept the teaching, which the judgement of the holy man, Democritus, sets before us, that the first-beginnings of soul and body alternate, set each next to each, first one and then the other, and so weave the web of our limbs. For, as the particles of soul are far smaller than those of which our body and flesh are composed, so too they are less in number, and only here and there are scattered through our frame;"
Book & Page: Lucretius pdf p.118
#Disagree"I answer that, Certain persons totally denied the existence of providence, as Democritus and the Epicureans, maintaining that the world was made by chance."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1125
#Quotes"Apparently it was this argument that moved those who withdrew the course of nature from the care of divine providence, attributing it rather to the necessity of matter, as Democritus, and others of the ancients."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1127
#Quotes"Therefore those only can assert that many worlds exist who do not acknowledge any ordaining wisdom, but rather believe in chance, as Democritus, who said that this world, besides an infinite number of other worlds, was made from a casual concourse of atoms."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1470
#Quotes"I answer that, On this point, the philosophers held three opinions. For Democritus held that "all knowledge is caused by images issuing from the bodies we think of and entering into our souls,"
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1975
#Quites"The third opinion is that of Democritus, who held that action takes place through the issue of atoms from the corporeal agent, while passion consists in the reception of the atoms in the pores of the passive body."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.2369
#Quites"And therefore the natural philosophy of Democritus and some others, who did not suppose a mind or reason in the frame of things, but attributed the form thereof able0 to maintain itself to infinite essays or proofs0 of nature, which they term 'fortune', seems to me (as far as I can judge by the recital and fragments which remain unto us) in particularities of physical causes more real and better inquired than that of Aristotle and Plato;"
Book & Page: Lucretius pdf p.118
#Quites"On this basis, Democritus says that the soul is a sort of fire or hot stuff. Because the atomic shapes are infinite, he calls the spherical ones fire (like what are called motes in the air, which appear in the substance that pass through windows), and the ‘all engendering seed-bed consisting of these things was what he called the elements of all nature."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p5
#Quotes"Democritus has also given a more polished discussion of both of these features, declaring that the soul is the same thing as thought, which is a primary and indivisible body, capable of brining about movement due to its smallness of parts and shape. Among shapes, he says the spherical is the most easily moved, and thought and fire are of this sort"
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p7
#Quotes"I answer that, Certain persons totally denied the existence of providence, as Democritus and the Epicureans, maintaining that the world was made by chance."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1125
#Quotes"Apparently it was this argument that moved those who withdrew the course of nature from the care of divine providence, attributing it rather to the necessity of matter, as Democritus, and others of the ancients."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1127
#Quotes"Therefore those only can assert that many worlds exist who do not acknowledge any ordaining wisdom, but rather believe in chance, as Democritus, who said that this world, besides an infinite number of other worlds, was made from a casual concourse of atoms."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1470
#Quotes"I answer that, On this point, the philosophers held three opinions. For Democritus held that "all knowledge is caused by images issuing from the bodies we think of and entering into our souls,"
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.1975
#Quites"The third opinion is that of Democritus, who held that action takes place through the issue of atoms from the corporeal agent, while passion consists in the reception of the atoms in the pores of the passive body."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.2369
#Quites"And therefore the natural philosophy of Democritus and some others, who did not suppose a mind or reason in the frame of things, but attributed the form thereof able0 to maintain itself to infinite essays or proofs0 of nature, which they term 'fortune', seems to me (as far as I can judge by the recital and fragments which remain unto us) in particularities of physical causes more real and better inquired than that of Aristotle and Plato;"
Book & Page: Lucretius pdf p.118
#Quites"Some even say that the soul moves the body containing it in the same way that it is moved itself. For example, Democritus sound like Philip the comic dramatist, who says that Deadalus made his wooden Aphrodite move by pouring quicksilver into it. In a similar vein, Democritus says that the indivisible spheres, which are in movement because they naturally never stay still, draw the entire body with them and move it. But we shall ask whether the same thing also produces rest. How it will do so is difficult or even impossible to say. In general, the soul does not appear to move the animal in this way, but though some choice or thought -process."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p10
#Disagree"It would seem to make no difference whether we speak of units or tiny little bodies. For even if points should emerge from the little spheres of Democritus with only their quantity remaining, there will be in each of them something which brings about movement and something which is moved, just as in a continuous thing. For what was just described does not happen because the spheres differ in largeness or smallness, but because they have quantity. That is why there must be something that moves the units."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p15
#Disagree"Democritus did not speak correctly when he opined that if the medium were a void, one could see distinctly even an ant in the heavens, for this is impossible, since seeing occurs when the perceptive faculty is affected, but it cannot be affected by the medium, so that the medium must exist. But if there were a void, it is not the case that it would be seen with precision; rather, nothing at all would be seen."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p35
#Disagree"Democritus is correct when he says that the eye is water, but incorrect when he says that seeing is mirroring. For this occurs because the eye is smooth, and it exists not in it but in that which sees; for the phenomenon involves reflection. But it seems that there was not yet any clear general theory of mirrored objects and reflection. And it is strange to that it did not occur to him to be puzzled about why the eye alone sees, and none of the other things in which reflected images are mirrored."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p73
#Disagree"Democritus and most of the natural theorists who talks about sense perception advance a very strange thesis: they treat all perceptible objects as tangible. And yet, if this is the case, it is clear that each of the senses is a mode of touch: but that this is impossible is not hard to see at glance."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p80
#Disagree"Now consider dreams that involve starting-points which are not such as we have described but are outlandish in times or places or magnitudes, or which are outlandish in none of these respects, while yet those who see the dream do not have control of the starting point. Unless the foresight occurs by happenstance, the following seems better than the explanation of Democritus, who treats semblances and effluence as causes."
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p124
#Disagree"But if one ought to believe the previous claim that not all animals' breath, it must be supposed that Democritus has described the cause not of all death, but only the cause of the death of those animals that breath. But he is not correct even in their case, as is clear from the facts and what we all experience. For in warm weather when we all feel hotter, we feel more short of breath, and we breathe more rapidly. And whenever the surrounding atmosphere is cold, and it contracts and freezes the body, we hold our breath as a result. Yet, it is at this time that the particles should come in from outside and prevent the squeezing process. But in fact, on the contrary, it is when too much heat is collected because people do not breathe by breathing in. When they are hot they breathe frequently, which indicates that they breathe in order to cool off, whereas, on Democritus theory, they would add fire to fire"
Book & Page: Aristotle, On Soul (Oxford) p141
#Disagree"Herein you could by no means accept the teaching, which the judgement of the holy man, Democritus, sets before us, that the first-beginnings of soul and body alternate, set each next to each, first one and then the other, and so weave the web of our limbs. For, as the particles of soul are far smaller than those of which our body and flesh are composed, so too they are less in number, and only here and there are scattered through our frame;"
Book & Page: Lucretius pdf p.118
#Disagree