From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Soulless
ἄψυχος
apsuchosApsychos means without soul.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordApsychos means without soul.
- In StobaeusThe Hermetic classification adds a kind associated with things without soul and explains its activity as external to their bodies.
- In this edition“Things without soul” is clearest where the argument contrasts mover and recipient.
- A place to beginExternal psychic activity is distinguished from the soulless bodies it moves.
- English renderings
- soulless; without soul; inanimate
Meaning
Apsychos means without soul. A body moved from outside can be called soulless without denying that a soul acts upon it.
Use in the book
The Hermetic classification adds a kind associated with things without soul and explains its activity as external to their bodies. The apparent contradiction is reduced by distinguishing what moves from what is moved. The formulation remains tentative in the Greek.
Places to read
- I.49.5.5External psychic activity is distinguished from the soulless bodies it moves.
Translation in this edition
“Things without soul” is clearest where the argument contrasts mover and recipient.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 323–324. This fourth kind follows an initial threefold list. Its addition and the qualified “would be” should both remain visible.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Soulless bodies
ἀψύχων (apsychōn)
Ἄψυχος means without soul or inanimate; the genitive plural here describes the primary bodies in Plato’s presentation of a naturalist account.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordἌψυχος means without soul or inanimate; the genitive plural here describes the primary bodies in Plato’s presentation of a naturalist account.
- In this workA48 says that later bodies, including the earth, sun, moon and stars, arise through primary bodies that are wholly soulless.
- In this editionAvoid using Plato’s hostile collective portrait to resolve all evidence about Empedoclean cognition or theology.
- A place to readDescribes the primary bodies of an unnamed naturalist account as entirely soulless.
Meaning
Ἄψυχος means without soul or inanimate; the genitive plural here describes the primary bodies in Plato’s presentation of a naturalist account. It is a negative predicate within that argument, not a direct quotation of an Empedoclean definition of matter.
Use in the book
A48 says that later bodies, including the earth, sun, moon and stars, arise through primary bodies that are wholly soulless. The phrase prepares the denial that mind, god or art directs world-formation. It helps explain why Plato can treat the account as a target in a discussion of impiety.
That characterization should be compared cautiously with the divine elements reported in A32 and A40, and with other testimonia about cognition and soul. Divinity and soul are not simply identical predicates, but the dossier plainly resists reduction to the single slogan that Empedocles taught dead matter. Plato does not name Empedocles in this excerpt; the association is mediated through Diels’ placement among testimonia about followers.
The headword is worth preserving because it records a decisive interpretative move: material constituents are defined negatively so that the resulting cosmos lacks intelligent production. What it does not record is an explicit Empedoclean denial of soul to every root.
Places to read
- A 48 (polemical)Plato, Laws X 889b. Describes the primary bodies of an unnamed naturalist account as entirely soulless.
- A 32 (testimony)Aëtius I 7,28 (D. 303). Provides the contrasting report that the elements are gods, without making “divine” and “ensouled” synonyms.
Translation in this edition
Avoid using Plato’s hostile collective portrait to resolve all evidence about Empedoclean cognition or theology. The attribution and the negative predicate are both part of the critical framing.