Simplicius: On Aristotle on the Heavens 1.1-4 Contributor(s): Simplicius (Author), Hankinson, Jim (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1472557379 ISBN-13: 9781472557377 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic OUR PRICE: $51.43 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2014 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Criticism - Philosophy | History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical - Science | Astronomy |
Dewey: 523 |
Series: Ancient Commentators on Aristotle |
Physical Information: 0.38" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (0.57 lbs) 240 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: In chapter 1 of On the Heavens Aristotle defines body, and then notoriously ruptures dynamics by introducing a fifth element, beyond Plato's four, to explain the rotation of the heavens, which, like nearly all Greeks, Aristotle took to be real, not apparent. Even a member of his school, Xenarchus, we are told, rejected his fifth element. The Neoplatonist Simplicius seeks to harmonise Plato and Aristotle. Plato, he says, thought that the heavens were composed of all four elements but with the purest kind of fire, namely light, predominating. That Plato would not mind this being called a fifth element is shown by his associating with the heavens the fifth of the five convex regular solids recognised by geometry. |