• ISBN13: 9781472557704
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: N/A
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publisher Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication Date: April 10, 2014
• Pages: 240
• Original Price: GBP 37.99
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 286 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, Criticism, and Space Science / Cosmology

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.

Griffin, Michael: - Michael Griffin is Associate Professor of Classics and Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is co-editor of the series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle and translator of two of its volumes: Olympiodorus: Life of Plato and On Plato First Alcibiades 1-9 (Bloomsbury 2014) and Olympiodorus: On Plato First Alcibiades 10-28 (Bloomsbury 2015).

Philoponus: - Inna Kupreeva is Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Edinburgh.

Sorabji, Richard: - Richard Sorabji is Research Professor of Philosophy at King's College London and a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, UK. He is the author of many books, including Necessity, Clause and Blame, Matter, Space and Motion, and Time, Creation and the Continuum, all published by Bloomsbury, and general editor of the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series.

Wilberding, James: - James Wilberding is Professor of Philosophy at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He has published widely on ancient philosophy, including two volumes in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series: Philoponus Against Proclus on the Eternity of the World 12-18 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2006) and Porphyry to Gaurus on How Embryos are Ensouled and On What is in Our Power (Bloomsbury Academic, 2011).