Philoponus and the rejection of Aristotelian Science

Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 1989

Phronesis, 1999

In recent years much research has been done on the Greek Aristotelian commentators. Numerous texts edited about a century ago in the collection Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca (CAG) have lately become available for the rst time in an English translation and some of them are being reedited. However, certain Greek exegetical writings on Aristotelian treatises still await their editio princeps. One such writing is a commentary on the Metaphysics ascribed in some manuscripts to John Philoponus. 1 A lacunose Latin translation of this text was published in 1583 under the title Ioannis Philoponi breves, sed apprime doctae et utiles expositiones in omnes XIV Aristotelis libros eos qui vocantur Metaphysici by the Italian humanist Francesco Patrizi da Cherso also known as Franciscus Patritius Venetus (1529-97). 2 As the Latin title emphasizes, this is an

2013

The first issue of the seventh volume (January 2013) is dedicated to Ancient cosmology and psychology. The first article is concerned with the physical side of Stoic anthropology, while the second and the third ones are dedicated to the discussions on the eternity of the world in Antiquity and the image of Demiurge in Ancient cosmogony. The studies are followed by three translations: Pseudo-Timaeus of Locri, On the nature of the world and the soul, Porphyry, On how embryos are ensouled, and Priscianus, Solutiones ad Chosroes (Introduction and Chapter 1). The second issue of the volume (June 2013) contains a series of articles, translations and reviews, dedicated to various aspects of Ancient philosophy and culture, including the articles on Heraclitus, Plato, the concepts of beauty and justice in Antiquity, the archaic concept of law, etc. Our next thematic issue (January 2014) will be dedicated to the Athenian school of Neoplatonism. Studies and translations are due by November 2013. Interested persons are welcome to contribute. I wish to express my gratitude to all those friends and colleagues who participate in our collective projects and seminars and would like to remind that the journal is abstracted / indexed in The Philosopher's Index and SCOPUS, wherefore the prospective authors are kindly requested to supply their contributions with substantial abstracts and the lists of keywords. All the issues of the journal are available online at the following addresses: www.nsu.ru/classics/schole/ (home page); www.elibrary.ru (Russian Index of Scientific Quotations); and www.ceeol.com (Central and Eastern European Online Library).

Modern Greek Studies Australia and New Zealand, 15: 207-219. A more thorough discussion of the same issues in French is in Byzantinische Forschungen XXI 25-49, 2013., 2011

In F. Baghdassarian, I. Papapchristou, S. Toulouse (eds.), Relectures néoplatoniciennes de la théologie d'Aristote, Academia Verlag: Baden-Baden, 2020

The careful and expert scholarship of this well annotated translation, and the judicious argument of its eagerly anticipated introduction, make this volume even more welcome than the importance of the arguments of Philoponus and the influence of this treatise in the subsequent history themselves demand. It consists of the first five of the 18 arguments of Proclus (410-485 AD), one of the Neoplatonic "successors" of Plato as head of the Academy in Athens, for the eternity of the world together with part of the first and the full text of the other four attempted refutations by John Philoponus (c490-570 AD), a Neoplatonic philosopher and Christian from birth (of the Monophysite persuasion) working in Alexandria, where, in contradistinction from Athens, such a combination was possible. In his Preface, Richard Sorabji, the General Editor of the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series, points to "original arguments and ideas in these chapters" (p. vii). These Sorabji locates 1) in the use by Philoponus against Proclus of Aristotle's concept of infinity, 2) in the notions that an eternal blueprint belonging to the divine mind need not have an eternal effect and that willing a change does not require a change in the divine will (both possible deductions from the general Neoplatonist principle, here associated with Iamblichus, that a thing is known according to the mode of the knower), and 3) in the notion of a "when" without time. There are new ideas in Philoponus as Helen Lang has shown, 1 but whether all the arguments or conceptions Sorabji lists are "original" with Philoponus is doubtful and no demonstration of their originality is given. More importantly, the treatises of Philoponus, Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World 2 and Against Proclus on the Eternity of the World are crucial to Sorabji's great interest, his view that the idea of the temporal beginning of the world is fundamental to the creation of modern natural