Simplicius on the Planets and Their Motions

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-90-04-22708-8
Verlag: Koninklijke Brill BV

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1520 g

Reihe: Brill

Though the digression closing Simplicius’ commentary on Aristotle’s De caelo 2.12 has long been misread as a history of early Greek planetary theory, it is in fact a creative reading of Aristotle to maintain the authority of the De caelo as a sacred text in Late Platonism and to refute the polemic mounted by the Christian, John Philoponus. This book shows that the critical question forced on Simplicius was whether his school’s acceptance of Ptolemy’s planetary hypotheses entailed a rejection of Aristotle’s argument that the heavens are made of a special matter that moves by nature in a circle about the center of the cosmos and, thus, a repudiation of the thesis that the cosmos is uncreated and everlasting.

Zielgruppe

Teachers and students of ancient philosophy and science, the history of science (especially, astronomy), and cosmology in Late Antiquity, ancient polemic and paganism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bowen, Alan C.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie
• Naturwissenschaften Astronomie Kosmologie, Urknalltheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Acknowledgments
Conventions
List of Figures

The Argument
Introduction
1. The Heresy of Non-Homocentric Aetherial Motion
2. The Heretical Rejection of All Hypotheses
3. Simplicius, the Apologist
4. Simplicius, the Historian
5. Conclusion

Translation
In de caelo 2.10 The proportionality of the planetary speeds
In de caelo 2.11 The sphericity of the wandering stars
In de caelo 2.12 The proportionality of the planetary motions
Figures

Comments
In de caelo 2.10
In de caelo 2.11
In de caelo 2.12

Bibliography
Index of Passages
Passages in I.G. Kidd 1988–1999, vol.1
Index of Names
Index of Subjects

Über Autor(innen)

Bowen, Alan C.
Alan C. Bowen, Ph.D. (1977) Philosophy, University of Toronto, is Director of the Institute for Research in Classical Philosophy and Science (Princeton). He has numerous publications in the history of science and philosophy, including New Perspectives on Aristotle’s De caelo (with Christian Wildberg).