Simplicius: On Aristotle On the Heavens 1.3-4

232 Pages·2011·1.15 MB·English

by  Aristotle.

SIMPLICIUS
On Aristotle
On the Heavens 1.3-4
IAN MUELLER
Ian Mueller’s unexpected death in August 2010 is a great loss to the
profession as well as to his family, friends and students. He contrib-
uted no fewer than eleven volumes of translation (two of them
part-volumes) to the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle translation
series; three will be published after his death. He wrote at a very
steady pace and his complete mastery of the philosophy of the exact
sciences in antiquity was established by his 1981 book on Euclid, and
by some 50 articles in the subject. He wrote with exemplary clarity,
and was always patient and kind in explaining to those who were
slower to follow.
Ian would typically visit the office of the Ancient Commentators
project at King’s College, London, to finalise his volumes with the
research associates, and he always dealt with complications in a calm
and helpful manner. His colleagues were looking forward to welcom-
ing him as a visiting research fellow in King’s, as he had planned to
spend more time in London. He had made other contributions to the
Ancient Commentators project, including a seminal article, ‘Aris-
totle’s doctrine of abstraction in the commentators’, in the project’s
collected volume, Aristotle Transformed, and a number of transla-
tions in its three-volume Sourcebook on the commentators. He gave
generous advice over the years to the editor and to a large number of
translators to whom he sent comments on request. His contribution
will be sadly missed.
The Editor
SIMPLICIUS
On Aristotle
On the Heavens 1.3-4
Translated by
Ian Mueller
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First published in 2011
Paperback edition fi rst published 2014
© 2011 by Ian Mueller
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to be identifi ed as Author of this work.
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in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
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be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
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ISBN HB: 978-0-7156-4063-0
PB: 978-1-4725-5795-7
ePDF: 978-1-4725-0170-7
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Acknowledgements
The present translations have been made possible by generous
and imaginative funding from the following sources: the National
Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Research
Programs, an independent federal agency of the USA; the
Leverhulme Trust; the British Academy; the Jowett Copyright
Trustees; the Royal Society (UK); Centro Internazionale A. Beltrame
di Storia dello Spazio e del Tempo (Padua); Mario
Mignucci; Liverpool University; the Leventis Foundation; the
Arts and Humanities Research Council; Gresham College; the
Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust; the Henry Brown Trust; Mr
and Mrs N. Egon; the Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c
Research (NWO/GW); the Ashdown Trust; Dr Victoria Solomonides,
the Cultural Attaché of the Greek Embassy in London.
The editor wishes to thank Dirk Baltzly, Ian Crystal, Sebastian
Gertz, Pantelis Golitsis, and Alan Lacey for their comments,
Michael Griffi n for preparing the volume for press, and Deborah
Blake at Bristol Classical Press, who has been the publisher
responsible for every volume since the fi rst.
Typeset by Ray Davies
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
Translation of the text commented on (On the Heavens 1.3, 25
270a12-4); outline of the commentary
Translation of the commentary 33
Notes 145
Appendix 1. The ‘fragments’ of Philoponus, Against Aristotle 169
Appendix 2. The ‘fragments’ of Alexander’s commentary on 171
De Caelo
Appendix 3. On the purity of the elements 175
Appendix 4. The signs of the zodiac 176
Bibliography 177
Textual Questions 181
English-Greek Glossary 185
Greek-English Index 203
Index of Passages 213
(a) Passages quoted by Simplicius 213
(b) Early texts cited in the notes 213
Index of Names 217
(a) Names mentioned by Simplicius 217
(b) Scholars cited in the Introduction and Notes to the 220
Translation
Subject Index 223
v
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Abbreviations
In most cases works are referred to by author or editor’s name and
date of publication, full information being provided in the Biblio-
graphy. However, the following abbreviations are used:
Against Proclus = Hugo Rabe (ed.), Ioannes Philoponus, De Aeterni-
tate Mundi contra Proclum, Leipzig: Teubner, 1899.
CAG = Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 23 vols, Berlin: G. Re-
imer, 1882-1909.
DK = Hermann Diels and Walther Kranz (ed. and tr.), Die Fragmente
der Vorsokratiker, 6th edn, 3 vols, Berlin: Weidmann, 1954.
LSJ = George Henry Liddell and Robert Scott (comps), Henry Stuart-
Jones (rev.), A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
and New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.
RE = Paulys Realencyclopaedie der Classischen Altertumswissen-
schaft, 51 vols, Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 1893-1997.
In addition the following names are used without dates:
Bessarion for emendations by the Renaissance humanist recorded in
Heiberg’s apparatus.
Hankinson for Hankinson (2002).
Heiberg for Heiberg (1894)
Karsten for Karsten (1865).
Moerbeke for Latin readings found in Bossier (2004).
Moraux for Moraux (1965).
Rescigno for Rescigno (2004).
Rivaud for Rivaud (1925).
Ross for Ross (1936).
vii
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Introduction
This volume translates the second half of Simplicius of Cilicia’s
commentary on Aristotle’s De Caelo 1.2-4, in which Aristotle argues
that the world is everlasting;1 the first half is in Mueller (2010).
Approximately 29% of this material is commentary in the ordinary
sense, that is passage-by-passage explication of what Aristotle is
saying. Another 11% (20,1-25,22 and 92,22-109,15) is more general
philosophical discussion and treatment of some alternative views.
The explications and general discussions, roughly 40% of 1.2-4,
have already been translated into English in Hankinson (2002), a
work to which I am much indebted. The other 60% is Simplicius’
discussion of the objections raised by his Christian contemporary
John Philoponus2 (in a lost work which I shall call Against Aristotle)
to Aristotle’s attempt to prove the everlastingness of the world. About
40% of that material containing Philoponus’ objections (roughly a
fourth of 1.2-4) is translated in Wildberg (1987), another work to
which I am much indebted. So what is new in this translation,
somewhat more than one third of the whole, could be characterised
as Simplicius’ responses to Philoponus. Since the debate between
Simplicius and Philoponus is an extremely important item in the late
stages of the transition from paganism to Christianity in the Byzan-
tine Empire, it seemed desirable to include Simplicius’ responses in
the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series. But to print them in
isolation did not seem reasonable since they obviously have to be read
in connection with what they are responses to. Moreover, it is clear
that a considerable portion of the material translated by Hankinson,
e.g., the long excursus on coming to be at 92,22-109,15, is introduced
by Simplicius in anticipation of his attack on Philoponus. The possi-
bility of incorporating the two earlier translations into this one was
considered, but it was decided that this was not feasible because of
(hardly unexpected or surprising) differences in predilections be-
tween the two previous translators and between them and myself.
Hence the decision to make a new translation which could rely on
its predecessors for discussions of many issues3 and give readers
direct access to a historically and philosophically important docu-
ment in its entirety.
1