Books in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series

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.

Concerning embryos, Porphyry takes an original view on issues that had been left undecided by his teacher Plotinus and earlier by the doctor Galen. What role is played in the development of the embryo by the souls or the natures of the father, of the mother, of the embryo, or of the whole world?

On the General Science of Mathematics is the third of four surviving works out of ten by Iamblichus (c. 245 CE-early 320s) on the Pythagoreans. He thought the Pythagoreans had treated mathematics as essential for drawing the human soul upwards to higher realms described by Plato, and downwards to understand the physical cosmos, the products of arts and crafts and the order required for an ethical life. His Pythagorean treatises use edited quotation to re-tell the history of philosophy, presenting Plato and Aristotle as passing on the ideas invented by Pythagoras and his early followers. Although his quotations tend to come instead from Plato and later Pythagoreanising Platonists, this re-interpretation had a huge impact on the Neoplatonist commentators in Athens. Iamblichus' cleverness, if not to the same extent his re-interpretation, was appreciated by the commentators in Alexandria.

The 15,000 pages of the ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle, written mainly between 200 and 600 AD, constitute the largest corpus of extant Greek philosophical writings. This series of translations with introductions, notes and indexes fills an important gap in the history of European thought.

Philoponus is engaged in an exegesis of Plato's Timaeus which aims to settle 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. His exegetical concerns culminate with a discussion of Plato's attitude to poetry and myth.

This series translates the 15,000 pages of philosophical writings by the ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle, written mainly between 200 and 600 AD. Now translated into English, these works include introductions, notes and comprehensive indexes, filling a gap in the history of European thought.

In Posterior Analytics Aristotle elaborates his assessment of how universal truths of science can be scientifically explained as inevitable in demonstrative proofs. In this commentary Philoponus takes these issues further.

A volume in the prestigious series, The Ancient Commentators on Aristotle, which translates the works of the ancient commentators into English for the first time.

Until the launch of this series nearly twenty years ago, the 15,000 volumes of the ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle constituted the largest corpus of extant Greek philosophical writings not translated into English or other European languages. Over 60 volumes have now appeared in the series, which is planned in some 80 volumes altogether.

In this, the first half of Philoponus' analysis of book one of "Aristotle's Physics", the principal themes are metaphysical. Philoponus explains the apparent conflict between the 'didactic method' and the strict demonstrative method described in the "Analytics".

A volume in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series, a pathbreaking enterprise which for the first time translates the commentaries of the Neoplatonic commentators on the works of Aristotle into English.

A volume in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series, a path breaking enterprise which for the first time translates the commentaries of the Neoplatonic commentators on the works of Aristotle into English.

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 the Corollaries on Place and Void, Philoponus attacks Aristotle's conception of place as two-dimensional, adopting instead the view more familiar to us that it is three-dimensional, inert and conceivable as void. Philoponus' denial that velocity in the void would be infinite anticipated Galileo, as did his denial that speed of fall is proportionate to weight, which Galileo greatly developed. In the second document Simplicius attacks a lost treatise of Philoponus which argued for the Christians against the eternity of the world. He exploits Aristotle's concession that the world contains only finite power. Simplicius' presentation of Philoponus' arguments (which may well be tendentious), together with his replies, tell us a good deal about both Philosophers.

In the chapters of his 'Physics' commented on here, Aristotle disagrees with Pre-Socratic philosophers about the basic principles that explain natural changes. But he finds some agreement among them that at least two contrary properties must be involved, for example hot and cold.

Aristotle's "On Interpretation" studies the relationship between conflicting pairs of statements. The first eight chapters, studied in this text, explain what statements are; they start from their basic components, the words, and work up to the character of opposed affirmations and negations.

Reveals how Aristotelian metaphysics was formalized and transformed by a philosophy which found its deepest roots in Pythagoras and Plato. This book shows how metaphysics, as a philosophical science, was conceived by the Neoplatonic philosopher of Late Antiquity.

Aristotle's "Meteorology" influenced generations of speculation about the earth sciences - ranging from atmospheric phenomena to earthquakes. This title presents the commentary of John Philoponus (6th century AD) on the opening three chapters of "Meteorology", building on the work of L G Westerink.

In this commentary of Aristotle's Meteorology, the Neoplatonist Philoponus discusses subjects such as 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.

Discusses the core ideas in Aristotle's account of change, his theory of the continuum, and his doctrine of the unmoved mover. This book covers the central features of Aristotle's physical theory, synthesized and epitomized in a manner that has always marked Aristotelian exegesis.

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.

The ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle constitute a large body of Greek philosophical writings, not previously translated into European languages. This volume includes notes and indexes and forms part of a series to fill this gap.

"On the Soul" was one of the most widely published of all the Aristotle commentaries in the Renaissance. The best-known of Themistius's discussions is that concerned with Aristotle's active intellect, which leads to his wider musings on the nature of the self.