We have to begin, he says, with the phainomena –whence comes our ‘phenomena’, but perhaps the best translation is ‘appearances’, for he means by this not only what he sees with his own eyes, but also what other people have seen, and their opinions about it. He favours reports from ‘wise’ and ‘reputable’ people. He’s conscious that one man can’t see everything; sometimes you just have to trust what other people tell you (the Greeks inherited huge astronomical catalogues from Babylon and Egypt).
