Transparency

Use in the book

The brief report on Alcmaeon explains sight through apprehension of the transparent. It does not identify the transparent’s precise location or explain the mechanism in detail. The compressed wording supports a lexical identification but leaves considerable uncertainty about the full theory of vision intended.

Places to read

1. I.52.8Sight is associated with apprehension of the transparent.

Translation in this edition

“The transparent” preserves the substantive adjective without supplying an unattested organ or medium.

Use in the book

Crowded words resemble transparent globules that flatten, stick, and become a pasty mass. Separation preserves their transparency as well as their distinctness. Metaphysics is said to give a transparent body to what has none, while false thoughts deprive words of transparency. The pearl comparison then distinguishes transparency from luster. These examples prevent the term from collapsing into either mere brightness or a colorless absence of form.

Places to read

1. I, p. 66, entry 2, ¶3Crowding destroys the transparency of verbal globules.
2. I, p. 289, entry 4, ¶1Metaphysics gives bodiless things a transparent body.
3. II, p. 481, entry 3, ¶1False thoughts diminish the transparency of words.
4. II, p. 616, entry 6, ¶1A pearl can possess transparency without luster.

Translation in this edition

The English retains “transparent body,” “pasty body,” and the distinct pearl and glass comparisons. Transparency is not substituted for every occurrence of clarté, lumière, or netteté.

Use in the book

Aristotle reports that some thinkers explain seeing through air, water, and other transparent bodies by closely packed passages arranged in rows. Greater transparency corresponds to having more of them. The report then names Empedocles as one who applies a passage mechanism in certain cases, extending it to mixture when passages are commensurate.

The syntax matters: the detailed transparency account is initially assigned to a group, not introduced as a direct quotation of Empedocles. It forms the context for Aristotle's placement of him within a pore-based explanatory family. The passage can therefore illuminate what such theories tried to explain, but its every detail should not become certain personal doctrine. It is also distinct from the eye's own structure: a medium through which an object is seen is not simply another sense-organ.

Places to read

1. A 87 (testimony)2Aristotle, On Coming-to-be and Passing-away. Describes invisible, ordered pores in transparent bodies before identifying Empedocles among pore theorists.

Translation in this edition

The heading supplies no precise ancient section number. Cite the work as printed and preserve the distinction between the general plural report and the explicit naming of Empedocles.

Use in the book

The account of mind, soul, and body compares their conjunction to the transmission of light. A luminous body is joined to a dense one through a transparent medium; analogously, clear mind reaches opaque body through transparent soul. The middle is neither the illuminating source nor the wholly obstructive recipient. That distinction explains why mediation is required while denying that the mediator must already possess every excellence of the source in the same way.

The metaphor accompanies the claim that God joined mind to soul and soul to body, attributed here to Plato's Timaeus. It prepares the more explicit account of shared properties: soul resembles angel through indivisibility and body through mutability. Later the transparency of parts of air and fire helps explain their alleged fitness to receive minds. That is a cosmological application, not proof that optical transparency by itself is rationality.

Places to read

1. IV.1.29transparent soul mediates between luminous mind and opaque body
2. IV.1.32–3423the shared and differing properties explain the mediation behind the image
3. IV.1.92position and transparency are features fitting some regions of air and fire for minds

Translation in this edition

“Translucent—that is, transparent” renders the explicit gloss of diaphanum. The description that the medium lacks its own light but admits light is essential and should survive any paraphrase that simply calls soul luminous.

e regione / suscipere

e regione / suscipere. Printed forms: e regione; suscipiendas.

Opposite or facing; to receive. Some parts of air and fire answer the stars directly and are said to be prepared by their influxes for minds. References: IV.1.92. See Transparency and opacity.

impedire / obesse

impedire / obesse. Printed forms: impediat; impedit; obstat.

To impede; stand in the way. The transparent medium does not obstruct light, and an interrogative asks what prevents higher circular causes from giving heaven a circuit. References: IV.1.29, IV.2.21. See Transparency and opacity.

opacus / clarus

opacus / clarus. Printed forms: clara; lucidum; opaco.

Opaque; clear or bright; luminous. Optical vocabulary distinguishes source, medium, and obstructive recipient in the analogy of causal mediation. References: IV.1.29. See Transparency and opacity.

perspicuus / diaphanus

perspicuus / diaphanus. Printed forms: diaphanum; perspicuam; perspicuum.

Transparent, admitting light without necessarily originating it. Soul mediates mind and body as a transparent medium joins luminous and opaque bodies. References: IV.1.29. See Transparency and opacity.