Philoponus
Subtitle: On Aristotle's on Coming-To-Be and Perishing 1.1-5 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
Contributors: C. J. F. Williams (Translator)
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: June 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780801436154
Subjects: Ancient Western philosophy to c 500; Other prose: classical, early & medieval; Greek Philosophy; Philosophy; Ancient Greece; History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical; General; Aristotle; Aristotle.; De generatione et corruptione
Description: The first five chapters of Aristotle's De Generatione et Corruptione distinguish creation and destruction from mere qualitative change and from growth. But what inspires Philoponus most in his commentary on these chapters is the topic of organic growth. How does it take place without ingested matter getting into the same place as the growing body? And how is personal identity preserved, if our matter is always in flux, and our form depends on our matter? If we do not depend on the persistence of matter why are we not immortal? Analogous problems of identity arise also for inanimate beings. These topics of identity over time and the principles of causation are still matters of intense philosophical discussion.