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Philoponus on the Nature of the Heavens and the Movement of Elements in Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World

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Philoponus on the Nature of the Heavens and the Movement of Elements in Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World _full_journalsubtitle: Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography _full_abbrevjournaltitle: SCRI _full_ppubnumber: ISSN 1817-7530 (print version) _full_epubnumber: ISSN 1817-7565 (online version) _full_issue: 1 _full_issuetitle: 0 _full_alt_author_running_head (change var. to _alt_author_rh): Varlamova _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (change var. to _alt_arttitle_rh): Philoponus on the Nature of the Heavens _full_alt_articletitle_toc: 0 _full_is_advance_article: 0 446 Scrinium 14 (2018) 446-461 Varlamova www.brill.com/scri Philoponus on the Nature of the Heavens and the Movement of Elements in Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World Maria Varlamova Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation [email protected] Abstract This paper deals with the John Philoponus' arguments against the eternity of the heav- ens in context of the dispute against the eternity of the world. The theory of eternity of the heavens was defended by Aristotle in his Physics and in the 1st book On the Heavens. In his treatise On Eternity of the World against Aristotle Philoponus attacks the argu- ments of Aristotle in order to prove the essential finititude of the heavens. The Philoponus' arguments are related to the nature and motion of elements and especially to the nature of fire. In order to explore the Philoponus' arguments against Aristotle I compare his doctrine with the Aristotle's theories of elemental nature and celestial motion. Keywords eternity of the heavens – elements – aether – fire – movement – Philoponus – Aristotle * The present study is a part of the project Nr. 16-03-00047, “Nature and movement in the ‘Commentaryon the Physics of Aristotle’ by Michael Psellos. Study of the influence of the late antique tradition, of the correlation between physics and the Orthodox theology, and of the reception in the later Peripatetic physics”, implemented with a financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. © Maria Varlamova, 2018 | doi 10.1163/18177565-00141P29 DownloadedScrinium from 14Brill.com10/03/2021 (2018) 446-461 01:49:00AM This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing CC-BY-NC License. via free access _full_journalsubtitle: Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography _full_abbrevjournaltitle: SCRI _full_ppubnumber: ISSN 1817-7530 (print version) _full_epubnumber: ISSN 1817-7565 (online version) _full_issue: 1 _full_issuetitle: 0 _full_alt_author_running_head (change var. to _alt_author_rh): Varlamova _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (change var. to _alt_arttitle_rh): Philoponus on the Nature of the Heavens _full_alt_articletitle_toc: 0 _full_is_advance_article: 0 Philoponus On The Nature Of The Heavens 447 Introduction Out of all polemical works of Philoponus, On Eternity of the World Against Pro- clus is the most famous one, since it has been preserved in near entirety. How- ever, Simplicius, the main opponent of Philoponus, considered the work On Eternity of the World against Aristotle to be more significant. By his own admis- sion, Simplicius did not even bother reading the work against Proclus,1 but he did narrate and challenge the key points of Philoponus’ work against Aristotle in his own commentary on Aristotle’s On the Heavens. The largest part of Philo- ponus’ treatise is dedicated to proving the fundamental finititude of the heav- ens. This issue is of such high importance, because the eternity of the heavens is one of the key arguments in defense of the eternity of the world. The heav- ens are understood as a certain part of the universe as well as something that on one hand, makes the world whole and on the other hand, is the reason for constant movement in the sublunary world. Therefore, in order to prove that world was created, Philoponus must likewise prove that the heavens were cre- ated and can be destroyed. The following article is going to first of all, look at Philoponus’ arguments against the commonly-held view in cosmology of the Antiquity according to which, the heavens are eternal; these arguments can be found in On the Eter- nity of the World against Aristotle and correlate with the way he viewed celestial matter. Secondly, the article will compare these views with those of Aristotle to see what kind of changes in understanding of world’s structure and views on elements and matter underpin Philoponus’ arguments. Of course the discus- sions on the structure of the heavens have a rich history in the Antiquity.2 In one way or another, the questions concerning the movement of the heavens and the heavenly matter were delved into by the Neoplatonists, Aristotelians and Stoics. However, the following article will limit itself to comparing Aristo- tle and Philoponus, since the latter refers in the aforementioned work directly to Aristotle. Other reason for such limit is the analysis of the whole context of the argument is barely possible in the limited format of a research article. That is why the author will not go into the Neoplatonist component of the discus- sions on the heavens and instead, will focus on analyzing the criticism directed 1 Simplicius. In de Caelo, in: I.L. Heiberg, Simplicii In Aristotelis de Caelo commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, VII), Berlin, 1894, p. 135, 27-31. 2 See С.В. Месяц, “Дискуссии об эфире в античности” in: Космос и душа. Учения о вселенной и человеке в античности и в средние века, изд. П. Гайденко, В. Петров, [S. Mesyats, “Antient discussions on aether” in: Cosmos and Soul. Teachings on the univerce and man in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, ed. P. Gaidenko, V. Petrov,], Moscow, 2005, pp. 63-113. Scrinium 14 (2018) 446-461 Downloaded from Brill.com10/03/2021 01:49:00AM via free access 448 Varlamova at Aristotle. This criticism by itself is of high significance, since it allows to point out some changes in terminology, i.e. the difference in understanding a number of fundamental terms in physics.3 Arguments and Counter-Arguments in the Discussion on the Eternity of the World Aristotle sees the heavens not simply as one of the parts of this world but also as something whole or as something that makes the world whole. He contrasts the movement of the heavens with the movement of sublunary things not only as something that is different by virtue of having more dignity and perfection, but also as the movement of a whole related to its parts. In the cosmology of Aristotle, the heavens are the extreme sphere of the world, outside of which there is nothing: neither matter, nor a place, nor a thing. Instead, the heavens 3 On the Eternity of the World against Aristotle was compiled and published as a separate treatise only in English with translation by Christian Wildberg with his commentaries. See: Philoponus: Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World, reconstr. and trans. C. Wildberg, London, 1987. Wildberg also wrote a separate book, in which he analyzes Philoponus’ argumentation in comparison with that of Aristotle (C.J. Wildberg, Philoponus’ Criticism of Aristotle’s Theory of Aether. Berlin, 1988). Although there are a number of works dedicated to the discussion on the eternity of the world and the analysis of Philoponus’ view on the composition of the world as well as a number of fundamental questions of physics. See: R. Sorabji, Matter, Space, and Motion, London, 1988, pp. 227-248; R. Sorabji, “Infinite Power Impressed: the Transformation of Aristotle’ Physics and Theology”, in: Aristotle Transformed, ed. R. Sorabji, London, 1990, pp. 181-199; R.Sorabji, “John Philoponus”, in: Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian Science, 2nd edition, ed. R. Sorabji, London, 2010, pp. 1-81; R. Sorabji, “The Ancient Commentators on Arisototle”, in: Aristotle Transformed, ed. R. Sorabji, London, 1990, pp. 1-31; R. Sorabji, Time, Creation and the Continuum, London, 1983. pp. 193-231; F.A.J. de Haas, John Philoponus‘ New Definition of Prime Matter, Leiden, 1997; C. Scholten, Antike Naturphilosophie und christliche Kosmologie in der Schrift “De opificio mundi” des Johannes Philoponos, Berlin, 1996; M. Wolff, Fallgesetz und Massebegriff. Zwei wissenschaftshistorische Untersuchungen zum Ursprung der klassischen Mechanik, Berlin, 1971; M. Wolff, Geschichte der Impetustheorie. Untersuchungen zum Ursprung der klassischen Mechanik. Frankfurt/M., 1978; M. Wolff, “Philoponus and the Rise of Preclassical Dynamics”, in: Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian science, ed. R. Sorabji, 2nd edition, London, 2010, pp. 125-160; L. Judson “God or Nature? Philoponus on Generability and Perishability”, in: Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian science, ed. R. Sorabji, 2nd edition, London, 2010, pp. 221-239; H.S. Lang, The order of Nature in Aristotle’s Physics: Place and The Elements. Cambridge, 1998; and others. The treatise against Aristotle itself is insufficiently studied. In the following article, we will attempt to show Philoponus’ arguments, take his criticism of aether theory and include Philoponus’ theory of matter and nature. DownloadedScrinium from 14Brill.com10/03/2021 (2018) 446-461 01:49:00AM via free access Philoponus On The Nature Of The Heavens 449 themselves form the entirety of a place, in which moving physical bodies are located. The movement of the lower celestial spheres, the movement of stars and of the sun and hence the change of natural phenomena and seasons - all depend on the movement of the heavens. That is why the movement of the heavens allows for the eternity of movement in the world and thus, the eter- nity of the heavens allows for an eternal existence of sublunary
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