Katalepsis - Wikipedia Katalepsis From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Stoic concept of the criterion of truth Part of a series on Stoicism Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius Background Socrates Plato Aristotle Crates of Thebes Philosophy Apatheia Ekpyrosis Katalepsis Kathekon Logos Stoic logic Stoic categories Stoic passions Stoic physics Virtue ethics Stoics Zeno of Citium Cleanthes Chrysippus Panaetius Posidonius Seneca the Younger Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus Epictetus Junius Rusticus Marcus Aurelius Stoic works Discourses of Epictetus Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium The Meditations Similar positions Cynicism Aristotelianism Middle Platonism Contrary positions Pyrrhonism Academic Skepticism Epicureanism  Philosophy portal v t e Katalepsis (Greek: κατάληψις, "grasping") in Stoic philosophy, meant comprehension.[1] To the Stoic philosophers, katalepsis was an important premise regarding one's state of mind as it relates to grasping fundamental philosophical concepts, and it represents the Stoic solution to the problem of the criterion. Stoicism[edit] According to the Stoics, the mind is constantly being bombarded with impressions (phantasiai). (An impression arising from the mind was called a phantasma.)[2] Some of these impressions are true and some false. Impressions are true when they are truly affirmed, false if they are wrongly affirmed, such as when one believes an oar dipped in the water to be broken because it appears so.[3] When Orestes, in his madness, mistook Electra for a Fury, he had an impression both true and false: true inasmuch as he saw something, viz., Electra; false, inasmuch as Electra was not a Fury.[3] Believing that the mind instinctively discriminated between real and false impressions, the Stoics said that one ought not to give credit to everything which is perceived, but only to those perceptions which contain some special mark of those things which appeared.[4] Such a perception then was called a kataleptic phantasia (Greek: φαντασία καταληπτική), or comprehensible perception.[4] The kataleptic phantasia is that which is impressed by an object which exists, and which is a copy of that object and can be produced by no other object.[3] Cicero relates that Zeno would illustrate katalepsis as follows: he would display his hand in front of one with the fingers stretched out and say "A visual appearance is like this"; next he closed his fingers a little and said, "An act of assent is like this"; then he pressed his fingers closely together and made a fist, and said that that was comprehension (and from this illustration he gave to that process the actual name of katalepsis, which it had not had before); but then he used to apply his left hand to his right fist and squeeze it tightly and forcibly, and then say that such was knowledge, which was within the power of nobody save the wise man[5] Katalepsis was the main bone of contention between the Stoics and the two schools of philosophical skepticism during the Hellenistic period: the Pyrrhonists and the Academic Skeptics of Plato's Academy.[4] These Skeptics, who chose the Stoics as their natural philosophical opposites, eschewed much of what the Stoics believed regarding the human mind and one's methods of understanding greater meanings.[6] To the Skeptics, all perceptions were acataleptic, i.e. bore no conformity to the objects perceived, or, if they did bear any conformity, it could never be known.[7] Notes[edit] ^ Charles Porterfield Krauth, William Fleming, Henry Calderwood, (1878), A vocabulary of the philosophical sciences, page 589 ^ Diogenes Laërtius (2000). Lives of eminent philosophers. Transl. R D Hicks. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. VII.49 ^ a b c George Henry Lewes, (1880), The history of philosophy: from Thales to Comte, page 360 ^ a b c Thomas Woodhouse Levin, (1871), Six lectures introductory to the philosophical writings of Cicero, page 71 ^ Cicero (1967). De natura deorum academica. Transl. H Rackham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. II.145 ^ See Ancient Greek Skepticism at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy for information about katalepsis and the Skeptics' attack on it. ^ George Henry Lewes, (1863), The biographical history of philosophy, Volume 1, page 297 v t e Stoicism Philosophers Early Zeno of Citium Persaeus Aristo Sphaerus Herillus Cleanthes Chrysippus Zeno of Tarsus Crates of Mallus Diogenes of Babylon Dioscorides Zenodotus Dionysius of Cyrene Apollodorus Antipater of Tarsus Middle Panaetius Dardanus Mnesarchus Hecato Posidonius Diodotus Diotimus Geminus Antipater of Tyre Athenodorus Cananites Late Seneca Cornutus Musonius Rufus Euphrates Cleomedes Epictetus Hierocles Junius Rusticus Marcus Aurelius Chaeremon Mara bar Serapion Philosophy Stoicism categories logic passions physics Neostoicism Modern Stoicism Concepts Adiaphora Apatheia Ataraxia Ekpyrosis Eudaimonia Katalepsis Kathekon Logos Oikeiôsis Pneuma Prohairesis Sophos Works Epictetus Discourses Enchiridion Marcus Aurelius Meditations Seneca Letters to Lucilius Essays: Anger Benefits Clemency Constancy Happiness Leisure Providence Shortness of Life Tranquillity Consolations Other Lectures (Musonius Rufus) On Passions (Chrysippus) Republic (Zeno) Related articles Paradoxa Stoicorum Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta Stoic Opposition Moral intellectualism v t e Ancient Greek philosophical concepts Adiaphora (nonmoral) Anamnesis (recollection) Apatheia (equanimity) Apeiron (the unlimited) Aponia (pleasure) Aporia (impasse) Arche (first principle) Arete (excellence) Ataraxia (tranquility) Becoming Being Cosmos (order) Demiurge (creator) Diairesis (division) Diegesis (narrate) Differentia / Genus Doxa (common opinion) Dunamis / Energeia (potentiality / actuality) Episteme (knowledge) Epoché (suspension) Ethos (character) Eudaimonia (flourishing) Henosis (oneness) Hexis (active condition) Hyle (matter) Hylomorphism (matter and form) Hylozoism (matter and life) Hypokeimenon (substratum) Hypostasis (underpinning) Idea (Idea) Katalepsis (comprehension) Kathēkon (proper function) Logos (reasoned discourse) Metempsychosis (reincarnation) Mimesis (imitation) Monad (unit) Nous (intellect) Oikeiôsis (affinity) Ousia (substance) Pathos (emotional) Phronesis (practical wisdom) Physis (natural law) Sophia (wisdom) Telos (purpose) Tetractys (fourth triangular number) Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katalepsis&oldid=974046651" Categories: Stoicism Concepts in ancient Greek epistemology Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Articles containing Greek-language text Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages Ελληνικά 한국어 Português Suomi Edit links This page was last edited on 20 August 2020, at 19:47 (UTC). 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