PHILOPONUS Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World Translated by Christian Wildberg __ Duckworth Ancient Commentators on AristotleTHE ANCIENT COMMENTATORS ON ARISTOTLE General Editor: Richard Sorabji Professor of Ancient Philosophy, King’s College, London Philoponus Philoponus: Against Aristotle, on the Eternity of the World, translated by Christian Wildberg . Against Aristotle, Forthcoming on the Eternity of the World Simplicius and Themistius: Commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics 6, translated by David Konstan Alexander: Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics 1-5, translated by W. E. Dooley S. J. and Arthur Madigan Translated by Christian Wildberg DuckworthFirst published in 1987 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. The Old Piano Factory 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1 © 1987 by Christian Wildberg All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 0 7156 2151 3 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Philoponus, John Philoponus: against Aristotle, on the eternity of the world. 1. Aristotle 2. Eternal return L. Title 113 B491.E6/ ISBN 0-7156-2151-3 Phototypeset by Input Typesetting Ltd., London Printed in Great Britain by Redwood Burn Limited, Trowbridge. Contents General Introduction Richard Sorabji The contra Aristotelem (i) Purpose, context and significance Richard Sorabji (ii) Sources, structure and authenticity Christian Wildberg Conventions and textual emendations Abbreviations Translation Prologue Book I (fr. 1-36) Book II (fr. 37-51) Book III (fr. 52-61) Book IV (fr. 62-80) Book V (fr. 81-107) Book VI (fr. 108-133) Book VIII (fr. 134) Indexes English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Subject Index Index Locorum 18 18 24 32 149 151 173 178