| Title | Simplicius, On Aristotle ‘On the Heavens 1.1-4’ |
| Type | Monograph |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2014 |
| Publication Place | London |
| Publisher | Bristol Classical Press |
| Series | Ancient Commentators on Aristotle |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | Simplicius, Cilicius |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) | Hankinson, R. J.(Hankinson, Robert J.) , |
| In chapter 1 of On the Heavens Aristotle defines body, and then notoriously ruptures dynamics by introducing a fifth element, beyond Plato's four, to explain the rotation of the heavens, which, like nearly all Greeks, Aristotle took to be real, not apparent. Even a member of his school, Xenarchus, we are told, rejected his fifth element. The Neoplatonist Simplicius seeks to harmonise Plato and Aristotle. Plato, he says, thought that the heavens were composed of all four elements but with the purest kind of fire, namely light, predominating. That Plato would not mind this being called a fifth element is shown by his associating with the heavens the fifth of the five convex regular solids recognised by geometry. Simplicius follows Aristotle's view that one of the lower elements, fire, also rotates, as shown by the behaviour of comets. But such motion, though natural for the fifth elements, is super-natural for fire. Simplicius reveals that the Aristotelian Alexander of Aphrodisias recognised the need to supplement Aristotle and account for the annual approach and retreat of planets by means of Ptolemy's epicycles or eccentrics. Aristotle's philosopher-god is turned by Simplicius, following his teacher Ammonius, into a creator-god, like Plato's. But the creation is beginningless, as shown by the argument that, if you try to imagine a time when it began, you cannot answer the question, 'Why not sooner?' In explaining the creation, Simplicius follows the Neoplatonist expansion of Aristotle's four 'causes' to six. The final result gives us a cosmology very considerably removed from Aristotle's. |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/SmNqBfzLbVSwQK3 |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"106","_score":null,"_source":{"id":106,"authors_free":[{"id":126,"entry_id":106,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"},"free_name":"Hankinson, R. J.","free_first_name":"R. J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":2245,"entry_id":106,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":62,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Simplicius, Cilicius","free_first_name":"Cilicius","free_last_name":"Simplicius","norm_person":{"id":62,"first_name":"Cilicius","last_name":"Simplicius ","full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/118642421","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.1-4\u2019","main_title":{"title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.1-4\u2019"},"abstract":"In chapter 1 of On the Heavens Aristotle defines body, and then notoriously ruptures dynamics by introducing a fifth element, beyond Plato's four, to explain the rotation of the heavens, which, like nearly all Greeks, Aristotle took to be real, not apparent. Even a member of his school, Xenarchus, we are told, rejected his fifth element. The Neoplatonist Simplicius seeks to harmonise Plato and Aristotle. Plato, he says, thought that the heavens were composed of all four elements but with the purest kind of fire, namely light, predominating. That Plato would not mind this being called a fifth element is shown by his associating with the heavens the fifth of the five convex regular solids recognised by geometry.\r\nSimplicius follows Aristotle's view that one of the lower elements, fire, also rotates, as shown by the behaviour of comets. But such motion, though natural for the fifth elements, is super-natural for fire. Simplicius reveals that the Aristotelian Alexander of Aphrodisias recognised the need to supplement Aristotle and account for the annual approach and retreat of planets by means of Ptolemy's epicycles or eccentrics.\r\nAristotle's philosopher-god is turned by Simplicius, following his teacher Ammonius, into a creator-god, like Plato's. But the creation is beginningless, as shown by the argument that, if you try to imagine a time when it began, you cannot answer the question, 'Why not sooner?' In explaining the creation, Simplicius follows the Neoplatonist expansion of Aristotle's four 'causes' to six. The final result gives us a cosmology very considerably removed from Aristotle's.","btype":1,"date":"2014","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/SmNqBfzLbVSwQK3","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"}},{"id":62,"full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":106,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Bristol Classical Press","series":"Ancient Commentators on Aristotle","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":[2014]}
| Title | Simplicius, On Aristotle ‘On the Heavens 1.5-9’ |
| Type | Monograph |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2014 |
| Publication Place | London |
| Publisher | Duckworth |
| Series | Ancient Commentators on Aristotle |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | Simplicius, Cilicius |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) | Hankinson, R. J.(Hankinson, Robert J.) , |
| A discourse between Simplicius and Aristotle on whether there is more than one physical world and whether the universe exists beyond the outermost stars. Here, Simplicius tells of the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy. Aristotle argues in On the Heavens 1.5-7 that there can be no infinitely large body, and in 1.8-9 that there cannot be more than one physical world. As a corollary in 1.9, he infers that there is no place, vacuum or time beyond the outermost stars. As one argument in favour of a single world, he argues that his four elements: earth, air, fire and water, have only one natural destination apiece. Moreover they accelerate as they approach it and acceleration cannot be unlimited. However, the Neoplatonist Simplicius, who wrote the commentary in the sixth century AD (here translated into English), tells us that this whole world view was to be rejected by Strato, the third head of Aristotle's school. At the same time, he tells us the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy. |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/RObfex5zBlY7T10 |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"108","_score":null,"_source":{"id":108,"authors_free":[{"id":128,"entry_id":108,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"},"free_name":"Hankinson, R. J.","free_first_name":"R. J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":2247,"entry_id":108,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":62,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Simplicius, Cilicius","free_first_name":"Cilicius","free_last_name":"Simplicius","norm_person":{"id":62,"first_name":"Cilicius","last_name":"Simplicius ","full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/118642421","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.5-9\u2019","main_title":{"title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.5-9\u2019"},"abstract":"A discourse between Simplicius and Aristotle on whether there is more than one physical world and whether the universe exists beyond the outermost stars. Here, Simplicius tells of the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy.\r\nAristotle argues in On the Heavens 1.5-7 that there can be no infinitely large body, and in 1.8-9 that there cannot be more than one physical world. As a corollary in 1.9, he infers that there is no place, vacuum or time beyond the outermost stars. As one argument in favour of a single world, he argues that his four elements: earth, air, fire and water, have only one natural destination apiece. Moreover they accelerate as they approach it and acceleration cannot be unlimited. However, the Neoplatonist Simplicius, who wrote the commentary in the sixth century AD (here translated into English), tells us that this whole world view was to be rejected by Strato, the third head of Aristotle's school. At the same time, he tells us the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy.","btype":1,"date":"2014","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/RObfex5zBlY7T10","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"}},{"id":62,"full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":108,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Duckworth","series":"Ancient Commentators on Aristotle","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":[2014]}
| Title | Simplicius, On Aristotle ‘On the Heavens 1.10-12’ |
| Type | Monograph |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2006 |
| Publication Place | London |
| Publisher | Duckworth |
| Series | Ancient Commentators on Aristotle |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | Simplicius, Cilicius |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) | Hankinson, R. J.(Hankinson, Robert J.) , |
| Here is a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander on the origins, if any, of the universe. A parallel battle had already been conducted by Philoponus and Proclus, arguing that Plato's "Timaeus" gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius denies this. In the three chapters of On the Heavens dealt with in this volume, Aristotle argues that the universe is ungenerated and indestructible. In Simplicius' commentary, translated here, we see a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander, whose lost commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens Simplicius partly preserves. Simplicius' rival, the Christian Philoponus, had conducted a parallel battle in his Against Proclus but had taken the side of Alexander against Proclus and other Platonists, arguing that Plato's Timaeus gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius takes the Platonist side, denying that Plato intended a beginning. The origin to which Plato refers is, according to Simplicius, not a temporal origin, but the divine cause that produces the world without beginning. |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/P8NKlsIgNfIjL2l |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"107","_score":null,"_source":{"id":107,"authors_free":[{"id":127,"entry_id":107,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"},"free_name":"Hankinson, R. J.","free_first_name":"R. J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":2246,"entry_id":107,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":62,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Simplicius, Cilicius","free_first_name":"Cilicius","free_last_name":"Simplicius","norm_person":{"id":62,"first_name":"Cilicius","last_name":"Simplicius ","full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/118642421","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.10-12\u2019","main_title":{"title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.10-12\u2019"},"abstract":"Here is a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander on the origins, if any, of the universe. A parallel battle had already been conducted by Philoponus and Proclus, arguing that Plato's \"Timaeus\" gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius denies this.\r\nIn the three chapters of On the Heavens dealt with in this volume, Aristotle argues that the universe is ungenerated and indestructible. In Simplicius' commentary, translated here, we see a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander, whose lost commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens Simplicius partly preserves. Simplicius' rival, the Christian Philoponus, had conducted a parallel battle in his Against Proclus but had taken the side of Alexander against Proclus and other Platonists, arguing that Plato's Timaeus gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius takes the Platonist side, denying that Plato intended a beginning. The origin to which Plato refers is, according to Simplicius, not a temporal origin, but the divine cause that produces the world without beginning.","btype":1,"date":"2006","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/P8NKlsIgNfIjL2l","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"}},{"id":62,"full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":107,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Duckworth","series":"Ancient Commentators on Aristotle","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":[2006]}
| Title | Xenarchus, Alexander, and Simplicius on Simple Motions, Bodies and Magnitudes |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2002 |
| Journal | Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies |
| Volume | 46 |
| Pages | 19-42 |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | Hankinson, Robert J. |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| Aristotle accounted for the fundamental dynamics of the cosmos in terms of the tendencies of the various elements to distinct types of natural motions, and (in the case of the sublunary elements) to rest in their natural places. In so doing, he introduced a fifth element, the ether, with a natural and unceasing tendency to revolve, as the matter for the heavenly bodies. This paper deals with some of the objections raised to this model, and to its conceptual underpinnings, raised by Xenarchus of Seleuceia, an unorthodox Peripatetic of the 1 st century BC, and of the attempts of later philosophers to rebut them. In so doing it casts light on a little-known, but historically important and interesting, episode in the development of physical dynamics. [Author's abstract] |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/RSvLdEVU9fp7UMM |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"576","_score":null,"_source":{"id":576,"authors_free":[{"id":818,"entry_id":576,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","free_first_name":"Robert J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Xenarchus, Alexander, and Simplicius on Simple Motions, Bodies and Magnitudes","main_title":{"title":"Xenarchus, Alexander, and Simplicius on Simple Motions, Bodies and Magnitudes"},"abstract":"Aristotle accounted for the fundamental dynamics of the cosmos in terms of the tendencies of the various elements to distinct types of natural motions, and (in the case of the sublunary elements) to rest in their natural places. In so doing, he introduced a fifth element, the ether, with a natural and unceasing tendency to revolve, as the matter for the heavenly bodies. This paper deals with some of the objections raised to this model, and to its conceptual underpinnings, raised by Xenarchus of Seleuceia, an unorthodox Peripatetic of the 1 st century BC, and of the attempts of later philosophers to rebut them. In so doing it casts light on a little-known, but historically important and interesting, episode in the development of physical dynamics. [Author's abstract]","btype":3,"date":"2002","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/RSvLdEVU9fp7UMM","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":576,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies","volume":"46","issue":"","pages":"19-42"}},"sort":[2002]}
| Title | Simplicius, On Aristotle ‘On the Heavens 1.1-4’ |
| Type | Monograph |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2014 |
| Publication Place | London |
| Publisher | Bristol Classical Press |
| Series | Ancient Commentators on Aristotle |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | , Simplicius, Cilicius |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) | Hankinson, R. J.(Hankinson, Robert J.) , |
In chapter 1 of On the Heavens Aristotle defines body, and then notoriously ruptures dynamics by introducing a fifth element, beyond Plato's four, to explain the rotation of the heavens, which, like nearly all Greeks, Aristotle took to be real, not apparent. Even a member of his school, Xenarchus, we are told, rejected his fifth element. The Neoplatonist Simplicius seeks to harmonise Plato and Aristotle. Plato, he says, thought that the heavens were composed of all four elements but with the purest kind of fire, namely light, predominating. That Plato would not mind this being called a fifth element is shown by his associating with the heavens the fifth of the five convex regular solids recognised by geometry. Simplicius follows Aristotle's view that one of the lower elements, fire, also rotates, as shown by the behaviour of comets. But such motion, though natural for the fifth elements, is super-natural for fire. Simplicius reveals that the Aristotelian Alexander of Aphrodisias recognised the need to supplement Aristotle and account for the annual approach and retreat of planets by means of Ptolemy's epicycles or eccentrics. Aristotle's philosopher-god is turned by Simplicius, following his teacher Ammonius, into a creator-god, like Plato's. But the creation is beginningless, as shown by the argument that, if you try to imagine a time when it began, you cannot answer the question, 'Why not sooner?' In explaining the creation, Simplicius follows the Neoplatonist expansion of Aristotle's four 'causes' to six. The final result gives us a cosmology very considerably removed from Aristotle's. |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/SmNqBfzLbVSwQK3 |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"106","_score":null,"_source":{"id":106,"authors_free":[{"id":126,"entry_id":106,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"},"free_name":"Hankinson, R. J.","free_first_name":"R. J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":2245,"entry_id":106,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":62,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Simplicius, Cilicius","free_first_name":"Cilicius","free_last_name":"Simplicius","norm_person":{"id":62,"first_name":"Cilicius","last_name":"Simplicius ","full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/118642421","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.1-4\u2019","main_title":{"title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.1-4\u2019"},"abstract":"In chapter 1 of On the Heavens Aristotle defines body, and then notoriously ruptures dynamics by introducing a fifth element, beyond Plato's four, to explain the rotation of the heavens, which, like nearly all Greeks, Aristotle took to be real, not apparent. Even a member of his school, Xenarchus, we are told, rejected his fifth element. The Neoplatonist Simplicius seeks to harmonise Plato and Aristotle. Plato, he says, thought that the heavens were composed of all four elements but with the purest kind of fire, namely light, predominating. That Plato would not mind this being called a fifth element is shown by his associating with the heavens the fifth of the five convex regular solids recognised by geometry.\r\nSimplicius follows Aristotle's view that one of the lower elements, fire, also rotates, as shown by the behaviour of comets. But such motion, though natural for the fifth elements, is super-natural for fire. Simplicius reveals that the Aristotelian Alexander of Aphrodisias recognised the need to supplement Aristotle and account for the annual approach and retreat of planets by means of Ptolemy's epicycles or eccentrics.\r\nAristotle's philosopher-god is turned by Simplicius, following his teacher Ammonius, into a creator-god, like Plato's. But the creation is beginningless, as shown by the argument that, if you try to imagine a time when it began, you cannot answer the question, 'Why not sooner?' In explaining the creation, Simplicius follows the Neoplatonist expansion of Aristotle's four 'causes' to six. The final result gives us a cosmology very considerably removed from Aristotle's.","btype":1,"date":"2014","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/SmNqBfzLbVSwQK3","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"}},{"id":62,"full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":106,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Bristol Classical Press","series":"Ancient Commentators on Aristotle","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":["Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.1-4\u2019"]}
| Title | Simplicius, On Aristotle ‘On the Heavens 1.10-12’ |
| Type | Monograph |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2006 |
| Publication Place | London |
| Publisher | Duckworth |
| Series | Ancient Commentators on Aristotle |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | , Simplicius, Cilicius |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) | Hankinson, R. J.(Hankinson, Robert J.) , |
Here is a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander on the origins, if any, of the universe. A parallel battle had already been conducted by Philoponus and Proclus, arguing that Plato's "Timaeus" gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius denies this. In the three chapters of On the Heavens dealt with in this volume, Aristotle argues that the universe is ungenerated and indestructible. In Simplicius' commentary, translated here, we see a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander, whose lost commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens Simplicius partly preserves. Simplicius' rival, the Christian Philoponus, had conducted a parallel battle in his Against Proclus but had taken the side of Alexander against Proclus and other Platonists, arguing that Plato's Timaeus gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius takes the Platonist side, denying that Plato intended a beginning. The origin to which Plato refers is, according to Simplicius, not a temporal origin, but the divine cause that produces the world without beginning. |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/P8NKlsIgNfIjL2l |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"107","_score":null,"_source":{"id":107,"authors_free":[{"id":127,"entry_id":107,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"},"free_name":"Hankinson, R. J.","free_first_name":"R. J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":2246,"entry_id":107,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":62,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Simplicius, Cilicius","free_first_name":"Cilicius","free_last_name":"Simplicius","norm_person":{"id":62,"first_name":"Cilicius","last_name":"Simplicius ","full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/118642421","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.10-12\u2019","main_title":{"title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.10-12\u2019"},"abstract":"Here is a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander on the origins, if any, of the universe. A parallel battle had already been conducted by Philoponus and Proclus, arguing that Plato's \"Timaeus\" gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius denies this.\r\nIn the three chapters of On the Heavens dealt with in this volume, Aristotle argues that the universe is ungenerated and indestructible. In Simplicius' commentary, translated here, we see a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander, whose lost commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens Simplicius partly preserves. Simplicius' rival, the Christian Philoponus, had conducted a parallel battle in his Against Proclus but had taken the side of Alexander against Proclus and other Platonists, arguing that Plato's Timaeus gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius takes the Platonist side, denying that Plato intended a beginning. The origin to which Plato refers is, according to Simplicius, not a temporal origin, but the divine cause that produces the world without beginning.","btype":1,"date":"2006","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/P8NKlsIgNfIjL2l","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"}},{"id":62,"full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":107,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Duckworth","series":"Ancient Commentators on Aristotle","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":["Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.10-12\u2019"]}
| Title | Simplicius, On Aristotle ‘On the Heavens 1.5-9’ |
| Type | Monograph |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2014 |
| Publication Place | London |
| Publisher | Duckworth |
| Series | Ancient Commentators on Aristotle |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | , Simplicius, Cilicius |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) | Hankinson, R. J.(Hankinson, Robert J.) , |
A discourse between Simplicius and Aristotle on whether there is more than one physical world and whether the universe exists beyond the outermost stars. Here, Simplicius tells of the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy. Aristotle argues in On the Heavens 1.5-7 that there can be no infinitely large body, and in 1.8-9 that there cannot be more than one physical world. As a corollary in 1.9, he infers that there is no place, vacuum or time beyond the outermost stars. As one argument in favour of a single world, he argues that his four elements: earth, air, fire and water, have only one natural destination apiece. Moreover they accelerate as they approach it and acceleration cannot be unlimited. However, the Neoplatonist Simplicius, who wrote the commentary in the sixth century AD (here translated into English), tells us that this whole world view was to be rejected by Strato, the third head of Aristotle's school. At the same time, he tells us the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy. |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/RObfex5zBlY7T10 |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"108","_score":null,"_source":{"id":108,"authors_free":[{"id":128,"entry_id":108,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"},"free_name":"Hankinson, R. J.","free_first_name":"R. J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":2247,"entry_id":108,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":62,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Simplicius, Cilicius","free_first_name":"Cilicius","free_last_name":"Simplicius","norm_person":{"id":62,"first_name":"Cilicius","last_name":"Simplicius ","full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/118642421","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.5-9\u2019","main_title":{"title":"Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.5-9\u2019"},"abstract":"A discourse between Simplicius and Aristotle on whether there is more than one physical world and whether the universe exists beyond the outermost stars. Here, Simplicius tells of the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy.\r\nAristotle argues in On the Heavens 1.5-7 that there can be no infinitely large body, and in 1.8-9 that there cannot be more than one physical world. As a corollary in 1.9, he infers that there is no place, vacuum or time beyond the outermost stars. As one argument in favour of a single world, he argues that his four elements: earth, air, fire and water, have only one natural destination apiece. Moreover they accelerate as they approach it and acceleration cannot be unlimited. However, the Neoplatonist Simplicius, who wrote the commentary in the sixth century AD (here translated into English), tells us that this whole world view was to be rejected by Strato, the third head of Aristotle's school. At the same time, he tells us the different theories of acceleration in Greek philosophy.","btype":1,"date":"2014","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/RObfex5zBlY7T10","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":3,"role_name":"translator"}},{"id":62,"full_name":"Simplicius Cilicius","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":108,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Duckworth","series":"Ancient Commentators on Aristotle","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":["Simplicius, On Aristotle \u2018On the Heavens 1.5-9\u2019"]}
| Title | Xenarchus, Alexander, and Simplicius on Simple Motions, Bodies and Magnitudes |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2002 |
| Journal | Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies |
| Volume | 46 |
| Pages | 19-42 |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | Hankinson, Robert J. |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
Aristotle accounted for the fundamental dynamics of the cosmos in terms of the tendencies of the various elements to distinct types of natural motions, and (in the case of the sublunary elements) to rest in their natural places. In so doing, he introduced a fifth element, the ether, with a natural and unceasing tendency to revolve, as the matter for the heavenly bodies. This paper deals with some of the objections raised to this model, and to its conceptual underpinnings, raised by Xenarchus of Seleuceia, an unorthodox Peripatetic of the 1 st century BC, and of the attempts of later philosophers to rebut them. In so doing it casts light on a little-known, but historically important and interesting, episode in the development of physical dynamics. [Author's abstract] |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/RSvLdEVU9fp7UMM |
{"_index":"sire","_type":"_doc","_id":"576","_score":null,"_source":{"id":576,"authors_free":[{"id":818,"entry_id":576,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":168,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","free_first_name":"Robert J.","free_last_name":"Hankinson","norm_person":{"id":168,"first_name":"Robert J.","last_name":"Hankinson","full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","short_ident":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/129477370","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Xenarchus, Alexander, and Simplicius on Simple Motions, Bodies and Magnitudes","main_title":{"title":"Xenarchus, Alexander, and Simplicius on Simple Motions, Bodies and Magnitudes"},"abstract":"Aristotle accounted for the fundamental dynamics of the cosmos in terms of the tendencies of the various elements to distinct types of natural motions, and (in the case of the sublunary elements) to rest in their natural places. In so doing, he introduced a fifth element, the ether, with a natural and unceasing tendency to revolve, as the matter for the heavenly bodies. This paper deals with some of the objections raised to this model, and to its conceptual underpinnings, raised by Xenarchus of Seleuceia, an unorthodox Peripatetic of the 1 st century BC, and of the attempts of later philosophers to rebut them. In so doing it casts light on a little-known, but historically important and interesting, episode in the development of physical dynamics. [Author's abstract]","btype":3,"date":"2002","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/RSvLdEVU9fp7UMM","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":168,"full_name":"Hankinson, Robert J.","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":576,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies","volume":"46","issue":"","pages":"19-42"}},"sort":["Xenarchus, Alexander, and Simplicius on Simple Motions, Bodies and Magnitudes"]}