From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEnallax means alternately or in alternation.
- In this workTheophrastus attributes white recognition to the passages of fire and black recognition to those of water.
- In this editionThe Greek speaks of passages “of” fire and water.
- A place to readStates the alternation and division between white- and black-recognizing passages.
Meaning
Enallax means alternately or in alternation. Here it describes the arrangement of fire-passages and water-passages in sight. The phrase is spatial in this passage, not the temporal alternation of cosmic powers.
Use in the book
Theophrastus attributes white recognition to the passages of fire and black recognition to those of water. Each object fits its corresponding channels. The report therefore connects a physical layout to a division of sensible objects, rather than merely saying that fire and water are both present in the eye.
This arrangement is central to two subsequent criticisms. Excess fire can spread over water-passages, and excess water can overtake fire; the critic asks where obstructing occupants withdraw when perception resumes. More decisively, grey and other mixed colours are assigned neither their own passages nor passages common to fire and water. Theophrastus does not deny that such colours are seen; he argues that the stated channel division fails to account for them. Nothing in the excerpt specifies a microscopic anatomical structure identifiable with a modern visual tissue.
Places to read
- A 86 §§ 7–8 (testimony)2Theophrastus, On the Senses 7. States the alternation and division between white- and black-recognizing passages.
- A 86 §§ 14–15 (polemical)Theophrastus, On the Senses 14. Questions the displacement of material obstructing passages.
- A 86 §§ 16–17 (polemical)Theophrastus, On the Senses 17. Finds no assigned channel for mixed colours.
Translation in this edition
The Greek speaks of passages “of” fire and water. Rendering these simply as modern receptors would conceal the physical vocabulary and overdetermine the mechanism.