92
Alexander of Aphrodisias Commentary on
Aristotle's De Sensu 438a5 ff. CIAG 3.1,
34.18-22 (319 U)
1-98 to 1-105
[1-98][Democritus] himself, and before him Leucippus and after him the
Epicureans, think that certain images, which are of the same shape as
the objects from which they flow, flow from them and strike the eyes of
those who are seeing and that this is how seeing occurs. As a proof of
this he offers the fact that there is always in the pupil of those who are
seeing a reflection and image of what is seen, and this is exactly what
the act of seeing is.Aetius 4.19.2 = Dox.Gr. p. 408 (321 U) [1-99]
Epicurus [says that] the voice is a flow sent out from those who make
utterances or produce sounds or noises. This flow is broken up into
particles of the same shape. ("Of the same shape" means that the round
are like the round and the angular and the triangular are like those of
those types.) And when these strike the organs of hearing the perception
of voice is produced.London Scholiast on Dionysius Thrax,
Grammatici Graeci 1.3, p. 482.13-19 (Hilgard)
(322 U)[1-100]Epicurus, Democritus, and the Stoics say that voice is a body. For
everything which can act or be acted upon is a body. For example, iron:
it is acted upon by fire and acts on men or wood. So if voice can act and
be acted upon, it is a body. But it acts, since we proceed to enjoyment
when we hear a voice or a lyre; and it is acted upon, as when we are
speaking and the wind blows, which makes it harder to hear our voice.Censorinus De Die Natali 4.9 (333 U) [1-101]
Democritus of Abdera first held that men were created from water
and mud. And Epicurus' view is not much different: for he believed that
when the mud became warm, first there grew wombs of some kind or
another which clung to the earth by roots, and these sent forth infants
and then provided a natural supply of milky fluid for them, under the
guidance of nature. When these [infants] had been brought up in this
manner and reached maturity, they then propagated the human race.