Single Idea 1524

[catalogued under 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 1. Thought]

Full Idea

Empedocles assumes that thinking is either identical to or very similar to sense-perception.

Gist of Idea

For Empedocles thinking is almost identical to perception

Source

report of Empedocles (fragments/reports [c.453 BCE], A86) by Theophrastus - On the Senses 9

Book Reference

'The First Philosophers', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 2000], p.157


A Reaction

Not to be sniffed at. We can, of course, control our thinking (though we can't control the controller) and we contemplate abstractions, but that might be seen as a sort of perception. Vision is not as visual as we think.