From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Perceptible
αἰσθητός
aisthētosAisthētos describes an object accessible to sense-perception.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAisthētos describes an object accessible to sense-perception.
- In StobaeusThe report about Plato contrasts intelligible patterns with the perceptible sun, moon, stars, earth, and containing cosmos.
- In this edition“Perceptible” is often clearer than “sensible” for modern readers.
- A place to beginVisible cosmic bodies are distinguished from intelligible patterns.
- English renderings
- perceptible; sensible
Meaning
Aisthētos describes an object accessible to sense-perception. “Sensible” has this technical meaning here, rather than reasonable or prudent.
Use in the book
The report about Plato contrasts intelligible patterns with the perceptible sun, moon, stars, earth, and containing cosmos. A separate classification identifies resistant bodies as perceptible objects. These uses concern how things are apprehended and their position in an account of reality, not merely whether someone is currently attending to them.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Perceptible” is often clearer than “sensible” for modern readers. Preserve its wider range than visible.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 37, 316–317. The account at I.1.29b.6 is an ancient report about Plato with textual qualifications, not a direct dialogue quotation.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Perceptible
τὸ αἰσθητόν (to aisthēton); αἰσθητός (aisthētos); ἀναίσθητα (anaisthēta)
Aisthētos means accessible to perception; as a substantive it designates the perceptible object.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAisthētos means accessible to perception; as a substantive it designates the perceptible object.
- In this workTheophrastus measures pore widths against “the perceptible,” keeping the object of perception distinct from the channel through which it is encountered.
- In this editionThe adjective in Plato is part of a staged Gorgian answer attributed broadly to an Empedoclean manner of explanation.
- A place to readMakes the perceptible object the standard relative to which passages are too large or too small.
Meaning
Aisthētos means accessible to perception; as a substantive it designates the perceptible object. Its privative form in the taste testimony means imperceptible, not an assertion that the object lacks consciousness.
Use in the book
Theophrastus measures pore widths against “the perceptible,” keeping the object of perception distinct from the channel through which it is encountered. Plato's Meno then makes perceptibility an explicit part of its definition of colour, alongside effluence and commensurability with sight. The definition is not simply “whatever fits”: it includes an experiential condition, although the dialogue does not here explain its relation to physical fit.
Aristotle's taste report provides the complementary case. Kinds of flavour may be present in water yet imperceptible because of smallness. The sensible and the presently sensed are therefore not interchangeable categories. The excerpt licenses a distinction between presence and detectability; it does not supply a modern threshold theory or guarantee that every imperceptible ingredient later becomes perceptible by the same process.
Places to read
- A 86 §§ 7–8 (testimony)2Theophrastus, On the Senses 7. Makes the perceptible object the standard relative to which passages are too large or too small.
- A 92 (reception)Plato, Meno. Includes perceptibility in the definition of colour.
- A 94 (testimony)Aristotle, On Sense and Sense-Objects. Attributes to Empedocles flavours imperceptible through smallness.
Translation in this edition
The adjective in Plato is part of a staged Gorgian answer attributed broadly to an Empedoclean manner of explanation. It is not a verbatim definition recovered from the poem.