Da física dos átomos à percepção dos sentidos : os mundos, a humanidade e as percepções sensíveis em Demócrito

Abstract

Our research started from the hypothesis that the special attention given to the problem of sense-perceptions (αἴσθησις) among those who “first philosophized” (πρώτων φιλοσοφησάντων), allows us to recognize among them the emergence of an gnosiological reflection, and that this would have Democritus' philosophy was the most significant development among early thinkers. A key to the interpretation of democritean epistemology lies, in our view, within the scope of what we are calling, albeit in a weak sense, a 'theory of perception'. Unlike what some historians of philosophy thought, his reflection on the limits of the senses does not lead to skepticism, but rather to a sensism, which gives sensitive perception the status of 'positive dimension of appearance' (φαινόμενον). It is important to highlight the nature of the sense-perceptions (αἴσθησις) in Democritus and its importance in the gnosiological process, which occurs through a direct relationship between the sentient (αἰσθητής), configured to receive sensitive data and judge them, and the perceptible (αἰσθητόν), a composite body that constitutes the object of perception of the first. Our thesis is structured in three chapters that complement each other within a sequence that starts from his cosmology to highlight, within the scope of his anthropology, the importance of his investigation of the senses and sensations. At first, we consider atomistic cosmology and physiology, examining the notions of κόσμος and φύσις, the nature of principles, non-visible realities - simple bodies (ἁπλᾶ σώματα) and indivisible (ἄτομα), on the one hand, and the void (τὸ κενόν) of another-, as well as the nature of things that are, that is, of composite bodies (τα συνθέτα), of which the apprehension through the senses is possible. In a second moment, we extend and deepen the examination of the macrocosm, focusing on the human microcosm. We direct our attention to the democritean conception of human nature (ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις) and examine the notions of “body” (σκήνος) and “soul” (ψυχή), and we try to show how human nature is naturally configured to carry out the activities of sensation and intellection. Finally, in our last chapter, we examine sensations, investigating their nature and the mechanism through which they are produced, in order to highlight the originality and scope of the democritean “theory” of perception. In order to do so, we will show how it is articulated in the relationship between those that would be the poles between which the perceptual process takes place, namely the sentient and the perceptible object, that is, the composite bodies. We will explain the results of his investigation about the conformation of the “organs of the senses” (ὑποκειμένας αἰσθήσεις) and how the production of their respective perceptual competences takes place in them, through the action of the soul.