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Paul Lettinck has restored a lost text of Philoponus by translating
it for the first time from Arabic (only limited fragments have
survived in the original Greek). The text, recovered from
annotations in an Arabic translation of Aristotle, is an abridging
paraphrase of Philoponus' commentary on Physics Books 5-7, with two
final comments on Book 8. The Simplicius text, which consists of
his comments on Aristotle's treatment of the void in chapters 6-9
of Book 4 of the Physics, comes from Simplicius' huge commentary on
Book 4. Simplicius' comments on Aristotle's treatment of place and
time have been translated by J. O. Urmson in two earlier volumes of
this series.
In this part of the Posterior Analytics, Aristotle elaborates his
assessment of how universal truths of science can be scientifically
explained as inevitable in demonstrative proofs. But he introduces
complications: some sciences discuss phenomena that can only be
explained by higher sciences and again sometimes we reason out a
cause from an effect, rather than an effect from a cause.
Philoponus takes these issues further. Reasoning from particular to
universal is the direction taken by induction, and in mathematics
reasoning from a theorem to the higher principles from which it
follows is considered particularly valuable. It corresponds to the
direction of analysis, as opposed to synthesis. This volume
contains an English translation of Philoponus' commentary, a
detailed introduction, extensive explanatory notes and a
bibliography.
Philoponus' commentary on the last part of Aristotle's Physics Book
4 does not offer major alternatives to Aristotle's science, as did
his commentary on the earlier parts, concerning place, vacuum and
motion in a vacuum. Aristotle's subject here is time, and his
treatment of it had led to controversy in earlier writers.
Philoponus does offer novelties when he treats motion round a bend
as in one sense faster than motion on the straight over the same
distance in the same time, because of the need to consider the
greater effort involved. And he points out that in an earlier
commentary on Book 8 he had argued against Aristotle for the
possibility of a last instant of time.This book is in the
prestigious series, The Ancient Commentators on Aristotle, which
translates the works of the ancient commentators into English for
the first time.
In one of the most original books of late antiquity, "Philoponus"
argues for the Christian view that matter can be created by God out
of nothing. It needs no prior matter for its creation. At the same
time, "Philoponus" transforms Aristotle's conception of prime
matter as an incorporeal 'something - I know not what' that serves
as the ultimate subject for receiving extension and qualities. On
the contrary, says "Philoponus", the ultimate subject is extension.
It is three-dimensional extension with its exact dimensions and any
qualities unspecified. Moreover, such extension is the defining
characteristic of body. Hence, so far from being incorporeal, it is
body, and as well as being prime matter, it is form - the form that
constitutes body. This uses, but entirely disrupts, Aristotle's
conceptual apparatus. Finally, in Aristotle's scheme of categories,
this extension is not to be classified under the second category of
quantity, but under the first category of substance as a
substantial quantity.
The earlier part of the commentary by 'Philoponus' on Aristotle's
On the Soul is translated by William Charlton in another volume in
the series. This volume includes the latter part of the commentary
along with a translation of Stephanus' commentary on Aristotle 's
On Interpretation. It thus enables readers to assess for themselves
Charlton's view that the commentary once ascribed to Philoponus
should in fact be ascribed to Stephanus. The two treatises of
Aristotle here commented on are very different from each other. In
On Interpretation Aristotle studies the logic of opposed pairs of
statements. It is in this context that Aristotle discusses the
nature of language and the implications for determinism of opposed
predictions about a future occurrence, such as a sea-battle. And
Stephanus, like his predecessor Ammonius, brings in other
deterministic arguments not considered by Aristotle ('The Reaper'
and the argument from God's foreknowledge). In On the Soul 3.9-13,
Aristotle introduces a theory of action and motivation and sums up
the role of perception in animal life. Despite the differences in
subject matter between the two texts, Charlton is able to make a
good case for Stephanus' authorship of both commentaries. He also
sees Stephanus as preserving what was valuable from Ammonius'
earlier commentary On Interpretation, while bringing to bear the
virtue of greater concision. At the same time, Stephanus reveals
his Christian affiliations, in contrast to Ammonius, his pagan
predecessor.
In On the Soul 3.1-8, Aristotle first discusses the functions
common to all five senses, such as self-awareness, and then moves
on to Imagination and Intellect. This commentary on Aristotle's
text has traditionally been ascribed to Philoponus, but William
Charlton argues here that it should be ascribed to a later
commentator, Stephanus. (The quotation marks used around his name
indicate this disputed authorship.) 'Philoponus' reports the
postulation of a special faculty for self-awareness, intended to
preserve the unity of the person. He disagrees with 'Simplicius',
the author of another commentary on On the Soul (also available in
this series), by insisting that Imagination can apprehend things as
true or false, and he disagrees with Aristotle by saying that we
are not always free to imagine them otherwise than as they are. On
Aristotle's Active Intellect. 'Philoponus' surveys different
interpretations, but ascribes to Plutarch of Athens, and rejects,
the view adopted by the real Philoponus in his commentary on
Aristotle's On Intellect that we have innate intellectual knowledge
from a previous existence. Instead he takes the view that the
Active Intellect enables us to form concepts by abstraction through
serving as a model of something already separate from matter. Our
commentator further disagrees with the real Philoponus by denying
the Idealistic view that Platonic forms are intellects. Charlton
sees 'Philoponus' as the excellent teacher and expositor that
Stephanus was said to be.
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Coming to be, 1. 6-2. 4 (Hardcover)
John Philoponus; Volume editing by C.J.F. Williams; Translated by C.J.F. William
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These chapters of Aristotle's treatise are about physical
interactions. In his innovative commentary, Philoponus discusses
Aristotle's idea that certain qualities of the elements are basic.
In what way are they basic? he asks. To what extent can the other
qualities be reduced to the basic ones? And if the other qualities
depend on the basic ones, how is it that they can vary
independently of each other when the basic qualities change?
Philoponus develops the idea that the other qualities merely
supervene on the basic ones, rather than resulting from them.
Moreover, physical qualities admit of different ranges of
variation, and so have different thresholds at which they appear or
disappear. Philoponus also discusses Aristotle's idea that the
elements and their basic qualities survive potentially when mixed
together. He explains this by drawing a third sense of 'potential'
out of Aristotle's texts to take the place of the two senses which
Aristotle explicitly recognises. Philoponus adds further
restrictions to Aristotle's principles of causation. Black can
contaminate white, but the black in ebony does not have the right
matter for affecting the white of milk. He asks why fluids can
affect each other more easily than solids. In every case,
Philoponus takes Aristotle's discussions further, and his ideas on
the dependence of some qualities on others are very relevant to the
continuing philosophical debate on the subject.
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Coming to be, 1-1. 5 (Hardcover)
John Philoponus; Volume editing by C.J.F. Williams; Translated by C.J.F. Williams
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R4,037
Discovery Miles 40 370
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The first five chapters of Aristotle's De Generatione et
Corruptione distinguish creation and destruction from mere
qualitative change and from growth. They include a fascinating
debate about the atomists' analysis of creation and destruction as
due to the rearrangement of indivisible atoms. Aristotle's rival
belief in the infinite divisibility of matter is explained and
defended against the atomists' powerful attack on infinite
divisibility. But what inspired Philoponus most in his commentary
is the topic of organic growth. How does it take place without
ingested matter getting into the same place as the growing body?
And how is personal identity preserved, if our matter is always in
flux, and our form depends on our matter? If we do not depend on
the persistence of matter why are we not immortal? Analogous
problems of identity arise also for inanimate beings. Philoponus
draws out a brief remark of Aristotle's to show that cause need not
be like effect. For example, what makes something hard may be cold,
not hard. This goes against a persistent philosophical prejudice,
but Philoponus makes it plausible that Aristotle recognized this
truth. These topics of identity over time and the principles of
causation are still matters of intense discussion.
In 'On The Soul 2.1-6', Aristotle gives a very different account of
the sould from Plato's by tying the soul to the body. The soul is
the life-manifesting capacities that we all have and that
distinguish living things, and explain their behaviour. He defines
sould and life by reference to the capacities for using food to
maintain structure and reproduce, for perceiving and desiring, and
for rational thought. Capacities have to be defined by reference to
the objects to which they are directed. The five senses, for
example, are defined by reference to their objects, which are
primarily forms like colour. And in perception we are said to
receive these forms without matter.;Philoponus understands this
reception not physiologically as the eye jelly's taking on colour
patches, but 'cognitively', like Brentano, who much later thought
that Aristotle was treating the forms as intentional objects.
Philoponus is the patron of non-physiological interpretations,
which are still a matter of controversy today.
This is one of the most interesting of all post-Aristotelian Greek
philosophical texts, written at a crucial moment in the defeat of
paganism by Christianity, AD 529, when the Emperor Justinian closed
the pagan Neoplatonist school in Athens. Philoponus in Alexandria
was a brilliant Christian philosopher, steeped in Neoplatonism, who
turned the pagans' ideas against them. Here he attacks the most
devout of the earlier Athenian pagan philosophers, Proclus,
defending the distinctively Christian view that the universe had a
beginning against Proclus' eighteen arguments to the contrary,
which are discussed in eighteen chapters. Chapters 6-8 are
translated in this volume.
This is a post-Aristotelian Greek philosophical text, written at a
crucial moment in the defeat of paganism by Christianity, AD 529,
when the Emporor Justinian closed the pagan Neoplatonist school in
Athens. Philoponus in Alexandria was a brilliant Christian
philosopher, steeped in Neoplatanism, who turned the pagans' ideas
against them. Here he attacks the most devout of the earlier
Athenian pagan philosophers, Proclus, defending the distinctively
Christian view that the universe had a beginning against Proclus'
eighteen arguments to the contrary, which are discussed in eighteen
chapters. Chapters 1-5 are translated in this volume.
Book 2 of the Physics is arguably the best introduction to
Aristotle's work, both because it explains some of his central
concepts, such as nature and the four causes, and because it asks
questions that are still debated today: Is chance something real?
If so, what? Can nature be explained by chance, necessity and
natural selection, or is it purposive? Philoponus' commentary is
not only a valuable guide, but also a work of Neoplatonism with its
own views on causation, the Providence of Nature, the problem of
evil and the immortality of the soul. Includes notes on the text,
and English-Greek glossary and index.
Of Philoponus' commentary on the" Meteorology" only that on
chapters 1-9 and 12 of the first book has been preserved. It is
translated in this series in two volumes, the first covering
chapters 1-3; the second (this volume) chapters 4-9 and 12. The
subjects discussed here include the nature of fiery and light
phenomena in the sky, the formation of comets, the Milky Way, the
properties of moist exhalation, and the formation of hail.
Philoponus pays special attention to the distinction between the
apparent and the real among the sky phenomena; he criticises
Aristotle's theory of the Milky Way as sublunary, and argues for
its origin in the heavenly realm; gives a detailed exposition of
Aristotelian theory of antiperistasis, mutual replacement of the
hot and the cold, as the mechanism of condensation and related
processes. As in the first volume, Philoponus demonstrates
scholarly erudition and familiarity with methods and results of
post-Aristotelian Greek science. Despite the fragmented state of
the work and the genre of commentary, the reader will find the
elements of a coherent picture of the cosmos based on a radical
re-thinking of Aristotelian meteorology and physics. The volume
will be of interest to all students of ancient and medieval
philosophy, history of Early Modern philosophy, history and
philosophy of science.
Aristotle's Meteorology influenced generations of speculation about
the earth sciences - ranging from atmospheric phenomena to
earthquakes. The commentary of John Philoponus (6th century AD) on
the opening three chapters of Meteorology is here translated for
the first time into English by Dr Inna Kupreeva, building on the
work of L.G. Westerink. Philoponus - who today is increasingly
respected as a philosopher in his own right - here engages
critically with Aristotle's views about the building-blocks of our
world, its size and relationship to other heavenly bodies, and
reception of warmth from the sun. This volume will be of interest
to all students of ancient and medieval philosophy, history and
philosophy of science.
Book 3 of Aristotle's Physics primarily concerns two important
concepts for his theory of nature: change and infinity. Change is
important because, in Book 2, he has defined nature - the
subject-matter of the Physics - as an internal source of change.
Much of his discussion is dedicated to showing that the change
occurs in the patient which undergoes it, not in the agent which
causes it. Thus Book 3 is an important step in clearing the way for
Book 8's claims for a divine mover who causes change but in whom no
change occurs. The second half of Book 3 introduces Aristotle's
doctrine of infinity as something which is always potential, never
actual, never traversed and never multiplied. Here, as elsewhere,
Philoponus the Christian turns Aristotle's own infinity arguments
against the pagan Neoplatonist belief in a beginningless universe.
Such a universe, Philoponus replies, would involve actual infinity
of past years already traversed, and a multiple number of past
days. The commentary also contains intimations of the doctrine of
impetus - which has been regarded, in its medieval context, as a
scientific revolution - as well as striking examples of Philoponus'
use of thought experiments to establish philosophical and broadly
scientific conclusions.
Until the launch of this series over ten years ago, the 15,000
volumes of the ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle, written
mainly between 200 and 600 AD, constituted the largest corpus of
extant Greek philosophical writings not translated into English or
other European languages. Over 30 volumes have now appeared in the
series, which is planned in some 60 volumes altogether. In this,
one of the most original ancient texts on sense perception,
Philoponus, the sixth century AD commentator on Aristotle,
considers how far perceptual processes are incorporeal. Colour
affects us in the same way as light which, passing through a
stained glass window, affects the air, but colours only the masonry
beyond. Sounds and smells are somewhat more physical, travelling
most of the way to us with a moving block of air, but not quite all
the way. Only the organ of touch takes on the tangible qualities
perceived, because reception of sensible qualities in perception is
cognitive, not physical. Neither light nor the action of colour
involves the travel of bodies. Our capacities for psychological
activity do not follow, nor result from, the chemistry of our
bodies, but merely supervene on that. On the other hand, Philoponus
shows knowledge of the sensory nerves, and he believes that thought
and anger both warm us. This is used elsewhere to show how we can
tell someone else's state of mind.
In chapters 12-18 of Against Proclus, Philoponus continues to do
battle against Proclus' arguments for the beginninglessness and
everlastingness of the ordered universe. In this final section
there are three notable issues under discussion. The first concerns
the composition of the heavens and its manner of movement.
Philoponus argues against the Aristotelian thesis that there is a
fifth heavenly body that has a natural circular motion. He
concludes that even though the celestial region is composed of fire
and the other three elements, it can move in a circle by the agency
of its soul, and that this circular motion is not compromised in
any way by the innate natural motion of the fire.Chapter 16
contains an extended discussion of the will of God and His relation
to particulars. Here Philoponus addresses issues that become
central to medieval philosophical and theological discussions,
including the unity, timelessness and indivisibility of God's will.
Finally, throughout these seven chapters Philoponus is engaged in a
detailed exegesis of Plato's Timaeus which aims to settle a number
of familiar interpretive problems, notably how we should understand
the pre-cosmic state of disorderly motion, and the statement that
the visible cosmos is an image of the paradigm. Philoponus'
exegetical concerns culminate in chapter 18 with an extensive
discussion of Plato's attitude to poetry and myth.
Philoponus' commentary on the last part of Aristotle's "Physics"
Book 4 does not offer major alternatives to Aristotle's science, as
did his commentary on the earlier parts, concerning place, vacuum
and motion in a vacuum. Aristotle's subject here is time, and his
treatment of it had led to controversy in earlier writers.
Philoponus does offer novelties when he treats motion round a bend
as in one sense faster than motion on the straight over the same
distance in the same time, because of the need to consider the
greater effort involved. And he points out that in an earlier
commentary on Book 8 he had argued against Aristotle for the
possibility of a last instant of time.This volume contains an
English translation of Philoponus' commentary, as well as a
detailed introduction, extensive explanatory notes and a
bibliography.
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