Books by of Cilicia Simplicius

The "Enchiridion" or "Handbook" of the first-century AD Stoic Epictetus was used as an ethical treatise both in Christian monasteries and by the sixth-century pagan Neoplatonist Simplicius. This is the first volume of a translation of Simplicius' commentary on Epictetus' "Handbook".

This is a translation of Simplicius' commentary on Aristotles' "Categories". Falling into two parts, it examines first of all the six categories dealt with in chapter 9 of "Categories"; then it examines the so-called "Postpraedicamenta" consisting of chapters 10-15.

In "Categories" chapters 7 and 8 Aristotle considers his third and fourth categories - those of Relative and Quality. This text provides a translation of Simplicius' commentary on "Categories".

Simplicius produced detailed commentaries on several of the works of Aristotle. This is Urmson's translation of Simplicius' commentary on "Physics 5" in which Aristotle lays down some of the principles of his dynamics and theory of change.

There has recently been considerable renewed interest in Book 7 of the Physics of Aristotle, once regarded as merely an undeveloped forerunner to Book 8. The debate surrounding the importance of the text is not new to modern scholarship: for example, in the fourth century BC Eudemus, the Peripatetic philosopher associate of Aristotle, left it out of his treatment of the Physics. Now, for the first time, Charles Hagen''s lucid translation gives the English reader access to Simplicius'' commentary on Book 7, an indispensable tool for the understanding of the text. Its particular interest lies in its explanation of how the chapters of Book 7 fit together and its reference to a more extensive second version of Aristotle''s text than the one which survives today.

Chapters 5 and 6 of Aristotle's "Categories" describe his first two categories, Substance and Quantity. Simplicius' commentary is our most comprehensive account of the debate on the validity of these categories. This text provides a translation of Simplicius' work, with an introduction.

In this volume the commentator, Simplicius, covers the first half of Aristotle's "On the Soul", comprising Aristotle's survey of his predecessor's and his own rival account of the nature of the soul. It is a source for late Neoplatonist theories of thought and sense perception.

This companion to J. O. Urmson's translation in the same series of Simplicius' Corollaries on Place and Time contains Simplicius' commentary on the chapters on place and time in Aristotle's Physics book 4. It is a rich source for the preceding 800 years' discussion of Aristotle's views. Simplicius records attacks on Aristotle's claim that time requires change, or consciousness. He reports a rebuttal of the Pythagorean theory that history will repeat itself exactly. He evaluates Aristotle's treatment of Zeno's paradox concerning place. Throughout he elucidates the structure and meaning of Aristotle's argument, and all the more clearly for having separated off his own views into the Corollaries.

Is there such a thing as three-dimensional space? Is space inert or dynamic? Is the division of time into past, present and future real? Does the whole of time exist all at once? Does it progress smoothly or by discontinuous leaps?Simplicius surveys ideas about place and time from the preceding thousand years of Greek Philosophy and reveals the extraordinary ingenuity of the late Neoplatonist theories, which he regards as marking a substantial advance on all previous ideas.

An ancient commentary on Aristotle's philosophical text, "On the Soul". The book also includes an assessment of the authorship of the commentary by the editor, Henry Blumenthal.