Work · Hellenistic, Roman & Late Antique
Against Proclus on the Eternity of the World
Proclus’ eighteen arguments for an eternal world, answered one by one: among other things, an infinite past could never have been traversed.
Introduction
Philoponus’ answer to a lost work of Proclus that gave eighteen arguments for the eternity of the world; he quotes each argument and refutes it at length. The book appeared in 529, the year Justinian put an end to pagan philosophical teaching in Athens. Philoponus argues that Plato’s Timaeus teaches a beginning of the world, that an eternal world would require an actual infinity of past years, which can neither be traversed nor increased, and that God’s eternal goodness and power do not require the world to exist eternally. The opening of the text is lost, but the rest survives in Greek, and parts circulated in Arabic. Through the Arabic tradition its arguments shaped the proofs of creation in al-Kindi, Saadia Gaon and the kalam.
Connections
Builds on
- Timaeusc. 360 BCE · Plato
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