Sight and The Philosophy of Vision in Classical Greece

Many early Greek thinkers analysed vision, though (as the previous chapter has suggested) we have rather scanty evidence for their theories. ¹ This essay focusses on three Greek philosophers who offered detailed and very different accounts of vision: Democritus (ca. 460–370 bce), Plato (424–348 bce) and Aristotle (384–322 bce). I focus in particular on their conceptions of the seeing subject and the object of vision. How does the eye see things? And how does the “mind” or “soul” register this visual event? ² In order to understand the philosophers’ ideas on these topics, I examine theories of “extramission” (in which light emanating from the eyes streams out and grasps an external object) and “intromission” (in which images or effluences of an object hit the eye, arriving from outside). As we will see, these different theories are predicated on specific conceptions of the physical world and of the “mind” or “soul”. ³ Finally, I want to consider the difference between passive seeing and active looking. The latter involves attention. One can direct one’s attention to some things rather than others (consciously or unconsciously). By deliberately directing one’s gaze, one places a given object or scene in the foreground and pushes everything else into the background. As I argue, desire and passion are at the root of visual attention.