Well before Philoponus’ attack against eternalism and Simplicius’ response, taking the form of a colossal commentary on Aristotle’s De Caelo, another thinker, the 4th century rhetorician and philosopher Themistius, had embarked upon a running exegesis of the this Aristotelian work. Themistius still had at his disposal the commentary on the De Caelo penned by Alexander of Aphrodisias, lost to us. Notwithstanding its importance, Themistius’ paraphrase of the De Caelo is poorly known: the Greek text is lost; a medieval Hebrew translation made on the basis of a lost Arabic one survives, together with a Latin translation of the Hebrew text, made during the Renaissance. From this unpromising material it is however possible to unravel important issues. This article deals with Themistius’ and Alexander’s exegeses of the meaning of the key terms “generated” and “ungenerated” and argues that Themistius attests the classification made by Alexander, but in his own exegesis endorses the typical Neoplatonic distinction between “generated” as “temporally generated”, on the one hand, and “generated” as “having a cause of its coming into being”, on the other.
Un fragment du commentaire perdu au De Caelo d’ Alexandre d’ Aphrodise sur les différents sens des termes “engendré” et “inengendré” (Thémistius, In De Caelo, p. 43.3-44.17 Landauer)
CODA, ELISA
2015-01-01
Abstract
Well before Philoponus’ attack against eternalism and Simplicius’ response, taking the form of a colossal commentary on Aristotle’s De Caelo, another thinker, the 4th century rhetorician and philosopher Themistius, had embarked upon a running exegesis of the this Aristotelian work. Themistius still had at his disposal the commentary on the De Caelo penned by Alexander of Aphrodisias, lost to us. Notwithstanding its importance, Themistius’ paraphrase of the De Caelo is poorly known: the Greek text is lost; a medieval Hebrew translation made on the basis of a lost Arabic one survives, together with a Latin translation of the Hebrew text, made during the Renaissance. From this unpromising material it is however possible to unravel important issues. This article deals with Themistius’ and Alexander’s exegeses of the meaning of the key terms “generated” and “ungenerated” and argues that Themistius attests the classification made by Alexander, but in his own exegesis endorses the typical Neoplatonic distinction between “generated” as “temporally generated”, on the one hand, and “generated” as “having a cause of its coming into being”, on the other.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
2-SGA_V_2015_CODA.pdf
accesso aperto
Tipologia:
Versione finale editoriale
Licenza:
Tutti i diritti riservati (All rights reserved)
Dimensione
859.56 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
859.56 kB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.