From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPathētos and pathētikos concern undergoing an effect rather than producing it.
- In StobaeusThe account under Pythagoras’s name aligns one principle with productive and formal causation, the other with the receptive and material side represented by the visible world.
- In this edition“Receptive” is often clearer than “passive” for matter’s role.
- A place to beginThe receptive and material principle is contrasted with productive intellect.
- English renderings
- capable of affection; receptive; passive
Meaning
Pathētos and pathētikos concern undergoing an effect rather than producing it. Receptivity is relational: it is receptivity to some action, condition, or determination.
Use in the book
The account under Pythagoras’s name aligns one principle with productive and formal causation, the other with the receptive and material side represented by the visible world. “Passive” therefore does not mean nonexistent or causally irrelevant. It identifies the role of what receives an operation in this particular explanation.
Places to read
- I.10.12.10The receptive and material principle is contrasted with productive intellect.
- I.41.6.8The contrast between acting and being acted upon distinguishes bodies.
Translation in this edition
“Receptive” is often clearer than “passive” for matter’s role. “Capable of affection” makes the relation to pathos explicit.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 124–125, 286. The first selected passage uses the related adjective pathētikos; related forms are treated together in this article.