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Single Idea 20792

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 5. Interpretation]

Full Idea

The Stoics did not make sense-perception consist in presentation alone but made its substance depend on assent; for perception is an assent to a perceptual presentation, the assent being voluntary.

Gist of Idea

Stoic perception is a presentation to which one voluntarily assents

Source

report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.49.25

A Reaction

[Stobaeus cites Porphyry's De Anima] Thus you only perceive a hallucination if you do not realise that it is false. This is more subjective than I would want to be. If you only think you perceive, but you are wrong, then I say you don't perceive.

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.23