Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 50 · I.50.5.1–I.50.6

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 794 of 879

Book I Chapter 50 · I.50.5.1–I.50.6

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Ancient Greek

p. 1584

5.1

I.50.5.1

Ἀριστοτέλης τὴν αἴσθησιν ἑτεροίωσιν αἰσθητοῦ καὶ μεσότητα· κοινὴν δὲ αἴσθησιν τὴν τῶν συνθέτων εἰδῶν κριτικήν, εἰς ἣν πᾶσαι συμβάλλουσιν αἱ ἁπλαῖ τὰς ἰδίας ἑκάστη ⟨φαντασίας⟩, ἐν ᾗ τὸ μεταβατικὸν ἀφ᾽ ἑτέρου εἰς ἕτερον οἷον σχήματος ⟨καὶ⟩ κινήσεως σώματος,

5.2

I.50.5.2

ἐν μεθορίῳ τοῦ λογικοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀλόγου, μνήμης καὶ νοῦ μετέχουσα, διατείνουσα καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἄλογα τῶν ζῴων, καθὸ ποσὴν διανοίας ἀναλογίαν ἔχει· κοινὰ δ᾽ ἐστὶν ὄψεως μὲν καὶ ἁφῆς σχῆμα, ὄψεως δὲ καὶ ἀκοῆς διάστημα, πασῶν δὲ κίνησις καὶ μέγεθος καὶ ἀριθμός.

6

I.50.6

⟨Οἱ⟩ Στωικοὶ τήνδε τὴν κοινὴν αἴσθησιν ἐντὸς ἁφὴν προσαγορεύουσι, καθ᾽ ἣν καὶ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ἀντιλαμβανόμεθα.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 50

p. 1585

5.1 · The common sense

I.50.5.1

Aristotle holds that perception is an alteration of what is perceptible and a mean; and that common perception is the faculty that judges composite forms. To it all the simple senses contribute, each its own ⟨impressions⟩, and in it resides the capacity to pass from one thing to another, for example between a body’s shape ⟨and⟩ movement.¹⁹¹⁵

5.2 · Objects shared by the senses

I.50.5.2

It lies on the boundary between the rational and the nonrational, sharing in memory and intellect, and extends also to nonrational animals insofar as it possesses a certain analogy to thought. Shape is common to sight and touch; distance to sight and hearing; and movement, magnitude, and number to all the senses.¹⁹¹⁶

6 · An inward touch

I.50.6

⟨The⟩ Stoics call this common perception an inward touch, by which we apprehend ourselves as well.¹⁹¹⁷

1915.Common perception, often called the common sense, here combines and judges what the individual senses supply. It does not mean ordinary practical good judgment. The difficult genitive aisthētou is retained as of what is perceptible, and mesotēs as a mean. Both printed supplements are marked; no gap is added after mean.

1916.The participles continue to describe common perception. The phrase posēn dianoias analogian indicates some resemblance to thought, without identifying animal perception with fully rational thinking. Every shared object in the printed list is retained; the account is the excerpt’s own classification.

1917.The supplied article is retained. Inward touch translates entos haphēn: the report uses tactile language for awareness directed within, including awareness of oneself. This closes the group of excerpts attributed to Aëtius IV.8.4-7.

About This Reading Edition

Stobaeus gathered Greek philosophy and poetry for his son Septimius. Volume I presents the dedication testimony, On Arithmetic, Book I through chapter 60, and the ancient contents of all four books. This complete bilingual edition includes an introduction and 2,117 explanatory notes.

Historical Text and Translation

The Greek follows Curt Wachsmuth’s 1884 Volume I, checked against the supplied scan. Gaps, lost-chapter headings, and uncertain attributions remain visible. Chapter 2 includes a labeled proposed reconstruction. The appendix outlines Books I–IV; the full texts of Books II–IV are outside this volume. Reader pages preserve the companion PDF’s numbering.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the Greek. Prose and verse retain their distinct forms, with mixed passages preserving their quoted verse. Every passage is paired with its Greek and identified by the edition’s reference number. All 2,117 notes remain linked to their passages, with continuous numbering across the introduction and text.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 printing are in the public domain. The independent English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The complete supplied edition is available as PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown. The PDF retains the fixed page locations used by the companion lexicon.