Aristotle S Physics And Its Reception In The Arabic World

Aristotle's Physics and Its Reception in the Arabic World presents a survey of what Arabic philosophers, as commentators of Aristotle's Physics, have contributed to philosophy and science in the Middle Ages. It investigates to what extent they influenced one another and to what extent they were influenced by previous Greek commentators. Besides Ibn Bājja's commentary on the Physics, which had up to now only partially been edited, the commentaries of Ibn as-Samḥ, Abū Bišr Mattā, Abū l-Faraj ibn aṭ-ṭayyib and Ibn Rušd are surveyed and discussed. The book also contains an account of an Arabic paraphrase of Philoponus' commentary on the Physics, which is of special interest because this commentary was partly lost. A special feature of the book is the edition of the unpublished parts of Ibn Bājja's commentary.

An account of what Arabic scholars have written, either as commentators or as more independent authors, on the subjects treated in Aristotle's Meteorology, this work investigates how they were influenced by one another and by previous Greek commentators. For each subject a survey is given of the content of the Greek commentaries (by Alexander, Philoponus and Olympiodorus) as well as of a later treatise, ascribed to Olympiodorus and extant only in Arabic. Then, the Arabic version of Ibn al-Bitrīq is investigated; it was one of the sources used by the Arabic writers which are discussed after that: al-Kindī, Ibn Sīnā and later scholars who were inspired by him, Ibn Bājja and Ibn Rušd. Two Arabic treatises on subjects from the Meteorology are edited and translated.

For many centuries, Aristotle's Physics was the essential starting point for anyone who wished to study the natural sciencesThis book begins with an analysis of change, which introduces us to Aristotle's central concepts of matter and form, before moving on to an account of explanation in the sciences and a defence of teleological explanation. Aristotle then turns to detailed, important, and often ingenious discussionsof notions such as infinity, place, void, time, and conintuity. He ends with an argument designed to show that the changes we experience in the world demand as their cause a single unchanging cause of all change, namely God.This is the first complete translation of Physics into English since 1930. It presents Aristotle's thought accurately, while at the same time simplifying and expanding the often crabbed and elliptical style of the original, so that it is very much easier to read. A lucid introduction and extensivenotes explain the general structure of each section of the book and shed light on particular problems.

Aristotle's theory of eternal continuous motion and his argument from everlasting change and motion to the existence of an unmoved primary cause of motion, provided in book VIII of his Physics, is one of the most influential and persistent doctrines of ancient Greek philosophy. Nevertheless, the exact wording of Aristotle's discourse is doubtful and contentious at many places. The present critical edition of Ishaq ibn Hunayn's Arabic translation (9th c.) is supposed to replace the faulty edition by A. Badawi and aims at contributing to the clarification of these textual difficulties by means of a detailed collation of the Arabic text with the most important Greek manuscripts, supported by comprehensive Greek and Arabic glossaries.

In Aristotle’s Ever-turning World in Physics 8 Blyth analyses the reasoning in Aristotle’s explanation of cosmic movement, with detailed evaluation of ancient and modern commentary on this central text in the history of ancient and medieval philosophy and science.

CONTENTS Paul J.J.M BakkerIntroduction Cristina CeramiL’éternel par soi Jean-Baptiste BrenetAlexandre d’Aphrodise ou le matérialiste malgré lui Dag Nikolaus HasseAverroes’ Critique of Ptolemy and Its Reception by John of Jandun andAgostino Nifo Silvia DonatiIs Celestial Motion a Natural Motion? Cecilia TrifogliThe Reception of Averroes’ View on Motion in the Latin West Edith Dudley SyllaAverroes and Fourteenth-Century Theories of Alteration Craig MartinProvidence and Seventeenth-Century Attacks on Averroes Bibliography Index Codicum Manu ScriptorumIndex Nominum

Examines Aristotle's vast influence upon the medieval Arabic philosophical tradition and includes contributions from every discipline within his corpus.