Confusing quote?

    It seems to me it says that the actual object changes; or the "object of perception" is not the object itself?


    Epicurus Reader

    TEXT 68: Sextus M 7.203-16 (247 Usener)


    But rather [I would say] that [the vision] tells the

    truth, since when the object of perception appears to it [as] small and

    of such a shape it is genuinely small and of such a shape (for the edges of

    the images are broken off by the movement through the air), and when it

    again appears big and of a different shape, again it is in a similar manner

    big and has that different shape-

    the object being, however, now not the

    same in the two cases. For it remains for distorted opinion to think that

    the same object of presentation was observed from close up and from a

    distance.

    The "object of perception" are the atoms impacting the eyes, and thus are not the object itself. Thus, they are different than the object itself, and are relayed to our minds as they are, so the vision is relaying to the mind what it perceives, which is indeed different from the actual object far away.

    Camotero we haven't discussed Sextus Empericus lately so I am going to have to review that.


    However I would at first glance expect "object of perception refers to the thing we are looking at, such as the tower at a distance, all the way through the conversation.


    Maybe someone reads that differently? The point generally being made in these discussions is that the eyes report simply what they receive and it is our opinion (a separate process) that determines what we surmise. I am not sure is Empericus is saying something else (?)