From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordKath' hauto means in itself or intrinsically; kata symbebēkos means incidentally or by concomitance.
- In this workThe issue is whether breathing itself causes smelling.
- In this editionThe source's spelling uses an ordinary apostrophe in καθ' αὑτό.
- A place to readRequires a cause common to smelling animals and tests sufficiency of abundant inhalation.
Meaning
Kath' hauto means in itself or intrinsically; kata symbebēkos means incidentally or by concomitance. The contrast belongs to Theophrastus's analysis of causation. It is not evidence that Empedocles used this later technical distinction.
Use in the book
The issue is whether breathing itself causes smelling. Some animals smell without breathing, and some humans who draw much air smell poorly. These countercases lead Theophrastus to suggest that respiration accompanies smell incidentally rather than constituting its intrinsic cause. His wording is tentative: “presumably,” as the edition translates the qualification.
This distinction refines the preceding demand for a cause common to all relevant cases. A frequent association may be real without being universally explanatory; increasing one associated process may also fail to increase the effect. The point is therefore not a blanket denial of breathing's involvement, but a challenge to the level at which it explains. Nearby insistence that odour must itself be present similarly prevents mere lightness from serving as a complete account. The article records witness vocabulary central to the criticism rather than assimilating it to the earlier poet's own conceptual scheme.
Places to read
- A 86 §§ 20–21 (polemical)2Theophrastus, On the Senses 21. Requires a cause common to smelling animals and tests sufficiency of abundant inhalation.
- A 86 §§ 22–23 (polemical)Theophrastus, On the Senses 22. Explicitly distinguishes intrinsic from incidental causation in the case of breathing.
Translation in this edition
The source's spelling uses an ordinary apostrophe in καθ' αὑτό. Modern typography may replace it, but the form should be indexed without pretending that incidental causation is an Empedoclean quotation.