From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAnaimos means bloodless and enaimos blooded; anaimotata means least supplied with blood.
- In this workTheophrastus considers thinking with blood especially problematic because many animals are bloodless.
- In this editionThe printed ἐναίμων is Schneider's correction of manuscript ἀναίμων.
- A place to readChallenges cognition through blood by bloodless animals and relatively blood-poor sensory parts.
Meaning
Anaimos means bloodless and enaimos blooded; anaimotata means least supplied with blood. These are the critic's bodily classifications. They must not be confused with modern distinctions among circulatory systems or with the absence of all internal fluids.
Use in the book
Theophrastus considers thinking with blood especially problematic because many animals are bloodless. In blooded animals, moreover, the parts surrounding sensory apparatus are least bloody. These are separate objections: one tests whether blood can be universally necessary for animal cognition; the other tests whether its distribution fits the places where perception occurs.
Their force depends on the broader comparison of thought and sensation made earlier in the report. Theophrastus is not offering a survey of animal intelligence or naming particular species here. Nor is he recording Empedocles' reply. Aëtius's later consequence that no animal is strictly irrational belongs to a different compressed argument from mind–soul identity. The two can be compared, but the latter does not settle the physiological challenge posed by the former.
Places to read
- A 86 §§ 22–23 (polemical)Theophrastus, On the Senses 23. Challenges cognition through blood by bloodless animals and relatively blood-poor sensory parts.
- A 96 (testimony)Aëtius. Provides a distinct argument concerning rationality in animals.
Translation in this edition
The printed ἐναίμων is Schneider's correction of manuscript ἀναίμων. That correction supports the contrast between bloodless animals and blooded animals’ sensory parts, and should be retained in discussing the argument.