From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordPhōs means light; the participle pheromenou presents it as being carried or travelling.
- In this workAristotle twice attributes a temporal ordering to Empedocles: sunlight first reaches the intervening region and subsequently reaches sight or the earth.
- In this editionThe edition calls this the earliest recorded finite-speed doctrine.
- A place to readRejects unnoticed transit between earth and the surrounding region; the apparatus gives 418b20.
Meaning
Phōs means light; the participle pheromenou presents it as being carried or travelling. The issue is not simply whether the sun illuminates something, but whether illumination involves a motion that successively occupies intervening places. Speed, tachytēs, names Philoponus' explanation of why such a motion would escape observation.
Use in the book
Aristotle twice attributes a temporal ordering to Empedocles: sunlight first reaches the intervening region and subsequently reaches sight or the earth. In On the Soul he rejects the suggestion that this travel can pass unnoticed across an enormous distance, while conceding that unnoticed transit across a short interval might be possible. The distinction matters: the testimony records an argument about the detectability of transit, not a measurement of its duration or a numerical estimate of light's speed. Philoponus gives a more explicit material account: light is a body streaming from an illuminating body, and its movement is imperceptible because it is rapid. That formulation makes emission, corporeality, and speed parts of one explanatory sequence. Since it comes from a much later commentator, its added precision cannot simply be retrojected into Empedocles' own wording. The notices securely support successive arrival as an attributed doctrine; their relationship does not establish three independent witnesses or an ancient equivalent of a modern optical theory.
Places to read
- A 57 (polemical)Aristotle, On the Soul. Rejects unnoticed transit between earth and the surrounding region; the apparatus gives 418b20.
- A 57 (testimony)Aristotle, On Sense and Sense-Objects. Reports sunlight reaching the intervening region before sight or earth; the apparatus gives 446a26.
- A 57 (testimony)Philoponus, On Aristotle's On the Soul. Explains the unnoticed movement of corporeal light through its speed.
Translation in this edition
The edition calls this the earliest recorded finite-speed doctrine. Its text supports the attribution, but not an exhaustive historical priority claim. The variant ton metaxy for to metaxy could alter the reference of the intervening term; the apparatus even suggests the visible sun. The interpretation should not suppress that uncertainty.