Pneuma of sight (right eye)

Visual extension — anatomical right

The pneumatic extension of vision. In Stoic physiology a current of pneuma reaches from the hēgemonikon through the optic structures to each eye, encountering the visible world via a tensional contact (the 'visual cone' of Stoic optics, attested by Aetius IV.15). Diogenes Laertius VII.157 specifies that the extensions of pneuma to each sense organ are continuous with the hēgemonikon, not separable parts. This point and its mirror represent the two terminations of the visual pneumatic extension. They are placed at the eye-line landmark height (~0.06 in the silhouette's vertical), flanking the midline at the inner margins of the orbits.

HēgemonikonPneuma of sight (right eye)Pneuma of sight (right eye)Pneuma of sight (left eye)Pneuma of hearingPneuma of smellPneuma of tastePneuma of touchPneuma of voice (phōnē)Pneuma of generation

Point 2 of 9 in Stoic Hēgemonikon — Central Commanding Faculty + Seven Pneumatic Extensions

Cross-tradition overlaps

No overlapping points are registered for this point.

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Sources

Diogenes Laertius, Lives VII.157 (primary_canonical)

“The senses are pneumas extending from the ruling part to the organs.”

Aetius, Placita IV.15 (primary_canonical)

Placita IV.15 preserves a doxographical Stoic account of vision as a pneumatic process involving the visual organ and the governing faculty. It supports the visual extension shown here, not a claim that the eye is an independent soul-part.

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