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Single Idea 22761

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / D. Scepticism / 2. Types of Scepticism ]

Full Idea

Our lack of sureness in the senses is shown if we take two colours, back and white, and pour one into the other drop by drop, we are unable to distinguish the gradual alterations although they subsist as actual facts.

Gist of Idea

We reveal unreliability in the senses when we cannot discriminate a slow change of colour

Source

report of Anaxagoras (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE]) by Sextus Empiricus - Against the Logicians (two books) I.090

Book Ref

Sextus Empiricus: 'Against the Logicians', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Harvard Loeb 1997], p.47

A Reaction

[Sextus calls Anaxagoras 'the greatest of the physicists'] I'm not sure what this proves. People with bad eyesight can distinguish very little, but that doesn't prove scepticism. And there are things too small for anyone to see.

The 23 ideas from Anaxagoras

21822 Anaxagoras's concept of supreme Mind has a simple First and a multiple One [Anaxagoras, by Plotinus]
17995 Basic is the potentially perceptible, then comes the contrary qualities, and finally the 'elements' [Anaxagoras]
20802 Snow is not white, and doesn't even appear white, because it is made of black water [Anaxagoras, by Cicero]
22761 We reveal unreliability in the senses when we cannot discriminate a slow change of colour [Anaxagoras, by Sext.Empiricus]
13784 Mind is self-ruling, pure, ordering and ubiquitous [Anaxagoras, by Plato]
5118 Anaxagoras says mind remains pure, and so is not affected by what it changes [Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
2629 Anaxagoras was the first to say that the universe is directed by an intelligence [Anaxagoras, by Cicero]
7488 Anaxagoras was the first recorded atheist [Anaxagoras, by Watson]
631 For Anaxagoras the Good Mind has no opposite, and causes all movement, for a higher reason [Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
22727 Mind creates the world from a mixture of pure substances [Anaxagoras, by ]
550 Anaxagoras said that the number of principles was infinite [Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
21383 The ultimate constituents of reality are the homoeomeries [Anaxagoras, by Vlastos]
13208 Anaxagoreans regard the homoeomeries as elements, which compose earth, air, fire and water [Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
367 Anaxagoras says mind produces order and causes everything [Anaxagoras, by Plato]
22726 When things were unified, Mind set them in order [Anaxagoras]
5956 Anaxagoras was charged with impiety for calling the sun a lump of stone [Anaxagoras, by Plutarch]
18231 Anaxagoras said a person would choose to be born to contemplate the ordered heavens [Anaxagoras]
21382 Things get smaller without end [Anaxagoras]
21381 Germs contain microscopic organs, which become visible as they grow [Anaxagoras]
13256 Nous is unlimited, self-ruling and pure; it is the finest thing, with great discernment and strength [Anaxagoras]
480 Past, present and future, and the movements of the heavens, were arranged by Mind [Anaxagoras]
481 Nothing is created or destroyed; there is only mixing and separation [Anaxagoras]
13257 The senses are too feeble to determine the truth [Anaxagoras]