Format:
1 Online-Ressource (182 p)
,
ill
Edition:
London Bloomsbury Publishing 2014 Electronic reproduction; Available via World Wide Web
Edition:
Also issued in print
ISBN:
9781472551795
Series Statement:
Ancient commentators on Aristotle
Content:
Introduction -- Textual Emendations -- Translation -- Notes -- Bibliography -- English-Greek Glossary -- Greek-English Index -- Index of Passages Cited -- General Index
Content:
Philoponus' treatise Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World, an attack on Aristotle's astronomy and theology is concerned mainly with the eternity and divinity of the fifth element, or 'quintessence', of which Aristotle took the stars to be composed. Pagans and Christians were divided on whether the world had a beginning, and on whether a belief that the heavens were divine was a mark of religion. Philoponus claimed on behalf of Christianity that the universe was not eternal. His most spectacular arguments, where wrung paradox out of the pagan belief in an infinite past, have been wrongly credited by historians of science to a period 700 years later. The treatise was to influence Islamic, Jewish, Byzantine and Latin thought, though the fifth element was defended against Philoponus even beyond the time of Copernicus. The influence of the treatise was not easy to trace before the fragments were assembled. Dr. Wildberg has brought them together for the first time and provided a summary which makes coherent sense of the whole. He has also studied a Syriac fragment, which reveals that the treatise originally contained an explicitly theological section on the Christian expectation of a new heaven and a new earth
Note:
Includes bibliographical references
,
Includes indexes
,
Translation from the Greek
,
Also issued in print.
,
Electronic reproduction; Available via World Wide Web
,
Barrierefreier Inhalt: Compliant with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Content is displayed as HTML full text which can easily be resized or read with assistive technology, with mark-up that allows screen readers and keyboard-only users to navigate easily
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780715621516
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9781472500007
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9781780933603
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9781780933597
Additional Edition:
Available in another form
Language:
English
DOI:
10.5040/9781472551795
