The series Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina: Series academica is published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and functions as a complement to the series Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina: Sources and Studies. The editions and source collections of the Series academica provide a basis for research on Byzantine philosophy and education and on the lasting impact of peripatetic philosophy in the Greek middle ages. The series succeeds to the Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca directed by Hermann Diels and (...) published by the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. The publication schedule of the series includes editions of commentaries by Alexander of Aphrodisias, Simplicius, John Philoponus, Michael of Ephesus, Nicephorus Blemmydes, George Pachymeres, Theodore Metochites, George Scholarius, and Bessarion. The series is also open for preliminary studies and companion volumes. https://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/CAGB-B. (shrink)

This article aims to unravel the doctrine of the “sign from the manifest to the hidden” of Abū Hāšim al-Ğubbāʾī. It shows that Abū Hāšim tended to interpret this sign as an inference, of which he recognized two main types: Type-1 proceeds by analytical deduction of concepts by neutralizing the conditions of their realization, i. e. their ontological basis. This is, typically, the procedure most directly consonant with Abū Hāšim's modal ontology. Type-2 exhibits the same causal relationship at the known (...) and unknown levels and considers causality at the known level to be itself the cause of causality at the unknown level. This partition was completely new in philosophy and kalām at the time of Abū Hāšim, but it is foreshadowed in al-Ḫwārizmī’s Algebra. In this book, al-Ḫwārizmī distinguishes between proof “by cause”, which consists in transferring a certain geometric deduction to algebra, and proof “by expression”, which operates directly on algebraic expressions, which it reduces analytically. A text by Abū Hāšim devoted to human knowledge that seems to refer to the work of al-Ḫwārizmī suggests, finally, that the close parallel between al-Ḫwārizmī’s doctrine of proof and Abū Hāšim's doctrine of the sign may not be a mere coincidence. Two appendices have been added. The first deals with al-Fārābī’s reading of Abū Hāšim's theory of inference. The second, based on all available data, establishes for the first time the correct and precise dates of Abū Hāšim's life. (shrink)

The present article aims to show that the treatise On the Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages the Divine Plato and Aristotle cannot have been written by al-FbwillryAdAdrr in the field of cosmology, for theological reasons.

The reference to Albinus in a refutation of Bardesanes by Ephrem the Syrian is not unknown to modern commentators. This text, edited and translated into English since the beginning of the twentieth century, is regularly mentioned, albeit rather cursorily, by scholars of Middle Platonism. Although much has been clarified between the first publication of the book just over a century ago and the present day, the following pages aim to continue the exploration. The aim will be to better understand what (...) has so far remained unnoticed: the dependence of Albinus’ work on Posidonius on three crucial points: his classification of incorporeals, his doctrine of comprehensive representation, and the deep relationship between and. (shrink)

In this paper, we highlight a number of difficulties concerning the relationship between theCritiasand theTimaeus, notably a contradiction betweenTimaeus27a-b andCritias108a-c. On this basis we argue that theCritiasmust be considered spurious.

This article proposes a reconstitution of the philosophical tenor of al-Fb al-Mawdayyira). It is shown that this work is not only a response to book VI of John Philoponus' Contra Aristotelem, but that its real issues can only be grasped in the context of the author's metaphysical system. Although, for al-Fbī, genuine demonstrations proceed from the cause to the caused, thus following the order of being, it will be explained how he also admits a strictly physical proof of the simple (...) fact, independently of its cause, and that the physical demonstration of the eternity of the world pertains to this type of proof. This physical proof is specifically directed against the Kindian doctrine of creation. (shrink)

This article aims at reconstructing the most damaged part of the Strasbourg papyrus of Empedocles (fragment f-d), by taking into account all the parameters at our disposal: palaeography, metre and, of course, content. According to this attempt, Empedocles would be describing the very moment in the phase of increasing Strife when the whole-natured creatures (the ολοφυ) were split into male and female beings. Thus, the first part of the fragment becomes very similar, in its content, to fr. 62 D.-K. and (...) to Plato's parody of Empedocles in Aristophanes' myth in the Symposium , while its second part emerges as containing new details of the process by which double creatures were split into two. If this reconstruction is accepted, its implication will be that Aetius' presentation of Empedocles' cosmic cycle as a fourfold continuous process is deeply inadequate. (shrink)

La diffusion d'Alexandre d'Aphrodise, en raison de la qualité inégalée de son exégèse d'Aristote, est celle des textes vivants. Simplicius est plus érudit, Philopon plus critique, Averroès plus savant. Mais Alexandre possédait un art de la synthèse entre l'analyse philologique de la lettre et la saisie de l'orientation générale d'un texte, qui fait de lui l'Exégète par excellence. On comprend, dans ces conditions, que sa transmission ne soit pas le relais linéaire d'un ‘‘témoin” figé. Citons aussi bien le recours extensif (...) de Simplicius, au VIe siècle, à ses commentaires physiques que la renaissance philosophique des IXe–Xe siècles en terre d’Islam, qui s'accompagne d'un mouvement massif de traduction de textes alexandriques. Or s'il apparaît de plus en plus clairement que c'est la nécessité de bâtir une ontologie du sensible aristotélicienne, subordonnée à l'ontologie platonicienne des Formes divines, qui a poussé le ‘‘platonicien” Simplicius à puiser dans les commentaires de son prédécesseur, on ne s’est pas encore assez interrogé sur le sens de l'intérêt aigu des philosophes islamiques pour Alexandre. Pourquoi, par exemple, alors que les Byzantins, quand ils ont eu le choix entre Alexandre et Simplicius, ont choisi Simplicius, les Arabes se sont-ils systématiquement décidés pour Alexandre? (shrink)

This book is the first study of the ontological system of Alexander of Aphrodisias (floruit c. 200 AD), famous for his commentaries on the works of Aristotle.

Le présent article réunit deux études indépendantes. Elles étaient cependant si intimement liées par les divers aspects d’un sujet commun, par des investigations complémentaires et des conclusions qui se rejoignent et se recoupent, que leurs auteurs ont décidé de les fondre dans un article commun.

RésuméCet article se propose de mettre au jour les relations profondes qui existent entre l'argument de l’« homme volant » d'Avicenne et des considérations modales de l’école d'Abū Hāšim al-Ǧubbā’ī. Il montre qu'Avicenne réemploie des arguments développés originellement par Abū Hāšim pour démontrer la présence d'un mode de la totalité dans le cas du vivant – argument lui-même opposé à la psychologie aristotélicienne et néoplatonicienne – pour établir, contre l'ontologie modale de ce dernier, la nature incorporelle de l’âme. On voit (...) ainsi se dessiner le jeu subtil d'Avicenne par rapport à celui qu'il avait très probablement identifié, fût-ce à son corps défendant, comme l'un des plus grands métaphysiciens de langue arabe. (shrink)

The editing of three anonymous Greek texts preserved in the Parisinus Suppl. gr. 643 allows us to clarify certain ideas on the transmission of knowledge in the Mediterranean during the second half of the 13th century. These texts are in fact translations from Latin probably made at Salerno at the end of the Norman period or at the beginning of the Angevin dynasty. They allow us to establish the influence of the Parisian Faculty of Arts on the Sicilian intellectual milieu (...) of the period and to illustrate how, whilst remaining true to its medical vocation, the University of Salerno evolved nonetheless towards a model of general education in the Arts. Finally these texts reveal the considerable influence of Arabic learning on the Aristotelian teaching of their author. This very fact, combined with the presence of the Parisinus in Byzantium, in an environment of advanced philological learning, a few decades after its composition, leads us to question our understanding of the Palaeologan Renaissance as well as its independence with regard to the Arabo-latin scholarly tradition of the 13th century. (shrink)

Le fr. 2 de Boéthos de Sidon est transmis par deux commentateurs alexandrins des Catégories d'Aristote. En voici le texte grec:[2a] Ioannes Philoponus, In Aristotelis Categorias commentarium, 5.15-20Τρίτον ἦν ἐφεξῆς κεφάλαιον τὸ πόθεν δεῖ ἄρχεσθαι τῶν Ἀριστοτελι-[16]κῶν συγγραμμάτων. Βόηθος μὲν οὖν φησιν ὁ Σιδώνιος δεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς [17] φυσικῆς ἄρχεσθαι πραγματείας ἅτε ἡμῖν συνηθεστέρας καὶ γνωρίμου, δεῖν [18] δὲ ἀεὶ ἀπὸ τῶν σαφεστέρων ἄρχεσθαι καὶ γνωρίμων. ὁ δὲ τούτου δι-[19]δάσκαλος Ἀνδρόνικος ὁ Ῥόδιος ἀκριβέστερον ἐξετάζων ἔλεγε χρῆναι πρό-[20]τερον ἀπὸ τῆς λογικῆς (...) ἄρχεσθαι, ἥτις περὶ τὴν ἀπόδειξιν καταγίνεται. (shrink)

This paper presents a new fragment of Philoponus' treatise De aeternitate mundi contra Aristotelem. The fragment, preserved only in an Arabic translation by al-Bīrūnī, derives in all probability from the third book of the treatise, and it deals with the moonstone or selenite. It is hypothesized that this mirabile, which is described by Damascius in his Life of Isidore, was deployed by Philoponus at the point of his polemic against Aristotle.