PHILOPONUS On Aristotle Physics 1.1-3 This page intentionally left blank PHILOPONUS On Aristotle Physics 1.1-3 Translated by Catherine Osborne Duckworth Ancient Commentators on Aristotle LONGDeOnNe(cid:2)r(cid:222)(cid:2)a(cid:48)l(cid:39) e(cid:57)d(cid:2)(cid:38)it(cid:39)o(cid:46)r(cid:42):(cid:43) R(cid:2)(cid:222)(cid:2)i(cid:48)c(cid:39)h(cid:57)a(cid:2)rYdO (cid:52)S(cid:45)o(cid:2)r(cid:222)(cid:2)aSYbDjiN(cid:39)(cid:59) Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in 2006 by 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. London New York WC910B-9 33D CPowcross Street, London ECN1YM 1 060B1F8 UK Tel: 020 7490 7300 USA Fax: 020 7490 0080 www.bloomsbury.com [email protected] www.ducknet.co.uk Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First publish©ed 2 i0n 0260 0b6y b Cy Gatehraelrdi nDeu cOkwsborotrhn &e Co. Ltd. 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Beltrame di Storia dello Spazio e del Tempo (Padua); Mario MAcikgnnouwcclei;d Lgeivmeernptosol University; the Leventis FouTnhdea ptiroense;n tth ter aAnrsltast iaonnds hHavuem baeenni tmieasd eR peossesaibrlceh b yB goeanredro oufs t ahned British Aicmaadgeinmatyi;v et hfuen Edisnmg féreo mF athireb foalilronw iCngh saoruirtcaebs:l eth Te rNuastti;o nthale E Hndeonwrmy eBnrtown for the Humanities, Division of Research Programs, an Trust; Mr and Mrs N. Egon; the Netherlands Organisation for independent federal agency of the USA; the Leverhulme Trust; the Scientific Research (NWO/GW), Dr Victoria Solomonides, the Cul- British Academy; the Jowett Copyright Trustees; the Royal Society tural Attaché of the Greek Embassy in London. The editor wishes (UK); Centro Internazionale A. Beltrame di Storia dello Spazio e del to tTheamnpko P(Peatdeura )L; aMuatrnioe Mr,i gInaunc cMi; Luievlelrepro,o lE Udnwivaerrdsi tHy; uthses eLye,v eanntids Moss- manF oRunoduaetciohné; tfhoer A trhtse airn dc oHmummaennittises, RJeoshenar cShe Blloaarrsd ofof rth pe rBerpitaisrhing the voluAmcaed efomry p; trhees Es,s manéed F Daierbbaoirranh C hBalraiktaeb lae tT Druustc;k twheo Hrtehn,r yw Bhroo whnas been the puTbrluissth; eMrr r aensdp Monrss iNbl. eE gfoorn ;e tvhee rNye vthoelrulamned ss Oinrcgean tihsaet ifoinr sfto.r (cid:54)(cid:70)(cid:76)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:192)(cid:70)(cid:3)(cid:53)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:85)(cid:70)(cid:75)(cid:3)(cid:11)(cid:49)(cid:58)(cid:50)(cid:18)(cid:42)(cid:58)(cid:12)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:39)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:57)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:87)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:76)(cid:68)(cid:3)(cid:54)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:76)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:38)(cid:88)(cid:79)(cid:87)(cid:88)(cid:85)(cid:68)(cid:79) Attaché of the Greek Embassy in London. The editor wishes Typeset by Ray Davies to thank Peter Lautner, Ian Mueller, Edward Hussey, and Mossman Roueché Pforri nthteeidr caonmdm benotusn, Jdo hinn SGerlleaarts fBorr iptraeipna rbinyg the volume for presBs,i danddle Ds eLbotrda,h K Bilnagk’es a Lt yDnunck, wNoortrhf,o wlkho has been (cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:83)(cid:88)(cid:69)(cid:79)(cid:76)(cid:86)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:83)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:86)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:79)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:72)(cid:89)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:92)(cid:3)(cid:89)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:88)(cid:80)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:192)(cid:85)(cid:86)(cid:87)(cid:17) Typeset by Ray Davies Printed and bound in Great Britain Contents Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Textual Emendations 20 Translation 23 Notes 107 Bibliography 131 English-Greek Glossary 133 Greek-English Index 138 Subject Index 147 Index of Passages 150 This page intentionally left blank Abbreviations CAG = Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, ed. H. Diels, 23 vols (Berlin: Reimer, 1882-1909) Charlton = William Charlton, Aristotle’s Physics Books I and II, Claren- don Aristotle Series (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970) DK = Hermann Diels and Walther Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokra- tiker, 3 vols (Berlin: Weidmann, 1951) FHSG = W.W. Fortenbaugh, P.M. Huby, R.W. Sharples, and D. Gutas, Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought, and Influence, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1992) Guthrie = W.K.C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, 6 vols (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962-81) KRS = G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven and M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philo- sophers, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) L&S = A.A. Long and D.N. Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) Ross = W.D. Ross, Aristotle’s Physics: A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936) This page intentionally left blank Introduction Aristotle’sPhysics The work known to us, and to the ancient commentators, as Aristotle’s Physics is a treatise in eight books on a range of topics to do with the structure of the physical world, and the explanation of motion. The topics are not confined to what we would call physics, if by that we mean the scientific analysis of forces and the explanation of why a body moves. Rather, much of what Aristotle has to say falls under what we would describe as metaphysics: questions about place, about time and the structure of matter, and discussion of how change is possible. Nevertheless, Aristotle draws a distinction between enquiries that belong to natural philosophy (or physics) and those that belong to a meta-level of investigation, which John Philoponus calls ‘first philo- sophy’1 and we might be inclined to call ‘metaphysics’. ‘First philosophy’ is how I have translated the expression in this volume, with ‘metaphy- sician’ for the ‘first philosopher’, the expert in this branch of study.2 The fit with our own terminology is not at all exact, however. As we have observed, the philosophical analysis of the structure of time, place, space, and change – as opposed to the empirical investigation of their application – might well belong in metaphysics for us, but Aristotle includes them in natural philosophy, because they are about charac- teristics of natural things (‘adjuncts that belong to all natural things in common’ as Philoponus puts it).3 By contrast, the topics that Aristotle brackets off, to be assigned to first philosophy, are questions about the first principles of a particular discipline such as natural philosophy (or geometry, mathematics, or whatever): that is, the axioms that the subject must take for granted in its investigations. Natural philosophy must begin from some starting points, and those starting points cannot themselves be investigated from within the subject, but must be re- ferred to a different discipline, a meta-discipline that investigates whether the starting points were correct. This meta-discipline, Phi- loponus tells us, is ‘first philosophy’. This description of an architectonic metaphysics, charged with ques- tioning the axioms of the physicist, does not exactly correspond with Philoponus’ initial analysis of the three-fold divisions of theoretical philosophy – into natural philosophy, theological philosophy, and mathematical philosophy.4 Implicitly, one might suppose, that division