Single Idea 20802

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 1. Perception]

Full Idea

Anaxagoras not only denied that snow was white, but because he knew that the water from which it was composed was black, even denied that it appeared white to himself.

Gist of Idea

Snow is not white, and doesn't even appear white, because it is made of black water

Source

report of Anaxagoras (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Academica II.100

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.45


A Reaction

Not ridiculous. Can you deny that red and yellow balls look orange from a distance? A failure of discrimination on your part. It sounds okay to say 'what I am really perceiving is red and yellow'. [see 'Anaxagoras' poem by D.H.Lawrence!]