{{Short description|Byzantine philosopher (c.490–c.570)}} {{Infobox philosopher | region = Christian philosophy | era = Byzantine philosophy | image = | caption = | name = John Philoponus | birth_date = c. 490 | birth_place = Alexandria, Province of Egypt, Eastern Roman Empire | death_date = c. 570 | death_place = | main_interests = Theology, natural philosophy, mathematics | notable_ideas = Theory of impetus }} '''John Philoponus''' (English pron.: {{IPAc-en|f|ɪ|ˈ|l|ɒ|p|ə|n|ə|s}}; Greek: {{lang|grc|Ἰωάννης ὁ Φιλόπονος}}, ''Ioánnis o Philóponos''; c. 490 – c. 570), also known as '''John the Grammarian''' or '''John of Alexandria''', was a Coptic Miaphysite<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Maccoull |first=Leslie S. B. |date=1995 |title=A New Look at the Career of John Philoponus |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/244827 |journal=Journal of Early Christian Studies |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=47–60 |doi=10.1353/earl.0.0042 |issn=1086-3184|url-access=subscription }}</ref> philologist, Aristotelian commentator and Christian theologian from Alexandria, Byzantine Egypt, who authored a number of philosophical treatises and theological works. John Philoponus broke from the Aristotelian–Neoplatonic tradition, questioning methodology and eventually leading to empiricism in the natural sciences. He was one of the first to propose a "theory of impetus" similar to the modern concept of inertia over Aristotelian dynamics. He is also the historical founder of what is now called the Kalam cosmological argument.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Erasmus |first=Jacobus |title=The Kalam cosmological argument: a reassessment |date=2018 |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-319-73437-8 |location=New York, NY |pages=41–52}}</ref>
Later in life Philoponus turned to Christian apologetics, arguing against the eternity of the world in his ''De opificio mundi'', a theory which formed the basis of pagan attacks on the Christian doctrine of Creation. He also wrote on Christology, espousing a Miaphysite view. His by-name {{lang|grc|ὁ Φιλόπονος}} translates as "lover of toil", i.e. "diligent," referring to a miaphysite confraternity in Alexandria, the ''philoponoi,'' who were active in debating pagan (i.e. Neoplatonic) philosophers.
His posthumous condemnation limited the spread of his writing, but copies of his work, ''Contra Aristotelem'', resurfaced in medieval Europe, through translations from Arabic of his quotes included in the work of Simplicius of Cilicia, which was debated in length by Muslim philosophers such as al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali and later Averroes, influencing Bonaventure and Buridan in Christian Western Europe, but also Rabbanite Jews such as Maimonides and Gersonides, who also used his arguments against their Karaite rivals. His work was largely debated in the Arabic scholarly tradition, where he is known as {{lang|ar-Latn|Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī}} (i.e. "John the Grammarian"), and his views against Aristotelian physics were defended by philosophers at the court of Fatimid Imam Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, particularly Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, who debated Avicenna on the topic, and Hamza ibn Ali. His critique of Aristotle in the ''Physics'' commentary was a major influence on Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Galileo Galilei, who cited Philoponus substantially in his works.<ref name="Mitrovic, B 2004 pp. 424-439">Branko Mitrović, "Leon Battista Alberti and the Homogeneity of Space", ''The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'', vol. 63, No. 4 (2004), pp. 424–439.</ref><ref>Willam A. Wallace, ''Prelude to Galileo: Essays on Medieval and Sixteenth Century Sources of Galileo's Thought'' (Dordrecht, 1981), pp. 136, 196–97.</ref>
==Life== Although John Philoponus possibly came from a Christian family, nothing is known of his early life. He studied at the school of Alexandria and began publishing from about 510. He was a pupil and sometime amanuensis to the Neoplatonic philosopher Ammonius Hermiae, who had studied at Athens under Proclus.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
According to historian Leslie S. B. Maccoull:<ref name=":0" /> {{Blockquote|text=Philoponus, a committed Egyptian Monophysite, chose particular philosophical texts and problems as objects of his work because they were the material of current Monophysite debate. His intention was to provide the nascent Coptic church with a powerful set of tools for argument, with which Egyptian Monophysites could defeat their Chalcedonian opponents.}}
Philoponus's early writings are based on lectures given by Ammonius, but gradually he established his own independent thinking in his commentaries and critiques of Aristotle's ''On the Soul'' and ''Physics''. In the latter work Philoponus became one of the earliest thinkers to reject Aristotle's dynamics and propose the "theory of impetus":<ref>Philoponus's term for impetus is "ἑνέργεια ἀσώματος κινητική" ("incorporeal motive ''enérgeia''"); see ''CAG'' XVII, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dVcqvVDiNVUC ''Ioannis Philoponi in Aristotelis Physicorum Libros Quinque Posteriores Commentaria''], Walter de Gruyter, 1888, p. 642: "λέγω δὴ ὅτι ἑνέργειά τις ἀσώματος κινητικὴ ἑνδίδοται ὑπὸ τοῦ ῥιπτοῦντος τῷ ῥιπτουμένῳ [I say that impetus (incorporeal motive energy) is transferred from the thrower to the thrown]."</ref> i.e., an object moves and continues to move because of an energy imparted in it by the mover and ceases the movement when that energy is exhausted. This insightful theory was the first step towards the concept of inertia in modern physics, preceding Galileo Galilei's supposed supposed experiment at the Leaning Tower of Pisa by centuries.<ref name="autogenerated1">[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/ "John Philoponus"], ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (2018)</ref> However, his theory was largely ignored at the time because he was too radical in his rejection of Aristotle: {{blockquote|But this [view of Aristotle] is completely erroneous, and our view may be completely corroborated by actual observation more effectively than by any sort of verbal argument. For if you let fall from the same height two weights, one many times heavier than the other you will see that the ratio of the times required for the motion does not depend [solely] on the weights, but that the difference in time is very small. ... — John Philoponus' refutation of the Aristotelian claim that the elapsed time for a falling body is inversely proportional to its weight<ref>Morris R. Cohen and I. E. Drabkin (eds. 1958), ''A Source Book in Greek Science'' (p. 220), with several changes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, as referenced by David C. Lindberg (1992), ''The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450'', University of Chicago Press, p. 305, {{ISBN|0-226-48231-6}} *Note the influence of Philoponus's statement on Galileo's ''Two New Sciences'' (1638)</ref>}}
Philoponus is the only writer of antiquity to have formally presented such a concept. As the discovery of the principle of inertia is the hallmark achievement of modern science as it emerges in the 16th to 17th centuries, Pierre Duhem argues that its invention would put Philoponus among the "great geniuses of Antiquity" and the "principal precursors to modern science", although he holds it more likely that Philoponus may have received the idea from an earlier, otherwise unrecorded Alexandrian school of mechanics.<ref>Pierre Duhem, ''Le système du monde'', 1913, [https://archive.org/stream/lesystmedumond01duhe#page/398/mode/2up p. 398].</ref>
We must note that Aristotle himself observes in his Physica (Book IV, Part 8), that "why a thing once set in motion should stop anywhere; for why should it stop here rather than here? So that a thing will either be at rest or must be moved ad infinitum, unless something more powerful get in its way", a very good description of the concept of inertia in vacuum. He does, however, proceed to dismiss this idea on the grounds that a vacuum cannot exist.
In 529 Philoponus wrote his critique ''On the Eternity of the World Against Proclus'' in which he systematically defeats every argument put forward for the eternity of the world, a theory which formed the basis of pagan attack of the Christian doctrine of Creation. The intellectual battle against eternalism became one of Philoponus's major preoccupations and dominated several of his publications (some now lost) over the following decade.
He introduced a new period of scientific thought based heavily on three premises: (1) The universe is a product of one single God, (2) the heavens and the earth have the same physical properties, (3) and the stars are not divine.<ref name="Lindberg1980">{{citation|author=David C. Lindberg|title=Science in the Middle Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOCriv4rSCUC&pg=PA11|access-date=12 January 2013|date=15 March 1980|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-48233-0|page=11ff}}</ref> With these principles Philoponus went after his rival, Simplicius of Cilicia, by questioning Aristotle's' view of dynamics and cosmology.<ref name="Lindberg1980"/> He argued that motion can occur in a void and that the velocity of a falling object is not based on its weight.<ref name="Lindberg1980"/> He also held that God created all matter with its physical properties and with natural laws that would allow matter to progress from a state of chaos to an organized state forming the present universe.<ref name="Lindberg1980"/> What remains of his writings indicate that he used the same didactic methods of reasoning that modern science uses and that he performed genuine experiments.<ref name="Lindberg1980"/>
The style of his commentaries and his conclusions made Philoponus unpopular with his colleagues and fellow philosophers, and he appears to have ceased his study of philosophy around 530, devoting himself to theology instead. Around 550 he wrote a theological work ''On the Creation of the World'' as a commentary on the Bible’s creation account, using the insights of Greek philosophers and Basil of Caesarea. In this work he transfers his theory of impetus to the motion of the planets, whereas Aristotle had proposed different explanations for the motion of heavenly bodies and for earthly projectiles. Thus, Philoponus's theological work is recognized in the history of science as the first attempt at a unified theory of dynamics. Another of his major theological concerns was to argue that all material objects were brought into being by God (''Arbiter'', 52A–B).
Around 553 John Philoponus made some theological contributions to the Second Council of Constantinople concerning Christology through his Christological ''opus magnum'', ''Arbiter''. His miaphysite position drew upon Cyril of Alexandria, a point of reference to both Miaphysite and Chalcedonian positions, and the Miaphysite theologian Severus of Antioch<ref name="Choniates, N 1997 pp. 540-548"/> but explicitly contradicted the position of the Cappadocian Fathers and their "rejection of particular natures". As a result, his position was posthumously condemned as "Tritheist" at the Third Council of Constantinople in 680/681.<ref name="autogenerated2"/><ref name=Zachhuber>Johannes Zachhuber, "Personhood in Miaphysitism: Severus of Antioch and John Philoponus", in: ''Personhood in the Byzantine Christian Tradition: Early, Medieval, and Modern Perspectives'', ed. A. Torrance and S. Paschalides, New York: Routledge (2018), pp. 29–43.</ref>
==Legacy== John Philoponus's condemnation as a heretic limited the spread of his ideas in the following centuries, but in his own time and afterwards he was translated into Syriac and Arabic, and many of his works survived and were studied by the Arabs. Some of his works continued to circulate in Europe in Greek or Latin versions and influenced Bonaventure. The theory of impetus was taken up by Buridan in the 14th century.
Philoponus and his contemporaries, Simplicius of Cilicia and Strato developed the Aristotelian concept of space further, eventually influencing the Renaissance theory of perspective, particularly the one highlighted by Leon Battista Alberti, and other architectural masters.<ref name="Mitrovic, B 2004 pp. 424-439"/><ref>Richard Sorabji, ed., ''Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian Science'' (London, 1987), pp. 55ff.</ref>
==Works== ===Philosophical commentaries===
The commentaries of the late antiquity and early Middle Ages aimed to teach an audience. In that regard, the repetitive nature of Philoponus’s commentaries demonstrates his pedagogical awareness. Although abstract in manner, Philoponus is chiefly focused on the concept in question.
Most of Philoponus’s early philosophical works strive to define the distinction between matter, extension, place, and various kinds of change. For example, the commentary ''On the Eternity of the World against Aristotle'' represents a standardized description of Aristotelian natural philosophy.<ref>Pearson, C., John Philoponus, ''On Aristotle’s One Coming to Be and Perishing 1.1-5 and 1.6-2.4''. (book review). Early Science and Medicine vol. 4 (2004), p. 424-439</ref> Both Aristotle and Philoponus argue that in kinds of change there are differences, in their form and matter.
In ''Physics'', Aristotle operates with the idea of places, but dismisses the existence of space. The idea that came from Plato and was developed by Aristotle has been evolved by Philoponus. Philoponus attempts to combine the idea of homogeneous space with the Aristotelian system.<ref name="Mitrovic, B 2004 pp. 424-439" /> The argument made by Philoponus is that substances by themselves require some determinate quantity for their being. Similarly to Aristotle, who rejected the immaterial things, and in contrast to Plato who accepted immaterial substances in his metaphysics, Philoponus’s concept of substance refers to the material objects.
Concerning the discussion of space, Philoponus’s claim that from every point in space is possible to draw identical figures, made him be perceived as an innovative thinker who influenced later Renaissance scholars, for instance, Gianfranceso Pico della Mirandola and Galileo Galilei. Thus, Philoponus's idea of perspective signifies the concept of space as immaterial three-dimensional medium in which objects are located.<ref name="Mitrovic, B 2004 pp. 424-439"/>
In the third book of ''De Anima'', entitled ''De Intellectu'', Philoponus analyzes the doctrine of the intellect. The author (Philoponus or pseudo-Philoponus?) sets the theory on the role and functioning of the active intellect.<ref>{{Cite journal| issn = 0009-8388| volume = 42| issue = 2| pages = 510–522| last = Lautner| first = Peter| title = Philoponus, in De Anima III: Quest for an Author| journal = The Classical Quarterly| series = New Series| year = 1992| jstor = 639426| doi=10.1017/s0009838800016116}}</ref> On one hand, there is the active intellect, and on the other, the idea of perception awareness or how we are aware that we are perceiving. In other words, in this reflective philosophy, there is a rationalist conclusion which emphasizes a relation between self and truth which leads to the discussion of the nature of knowledge.
According to this view, the knowledge is identical to its object, since the self-awareness of perception is divorced from the irrational soul. Therefore, the understanding arises through the identification of the intellect and its object. More specifically, perception deals only with material things.<ref>Hubler, N. The Perils of Self-Perception: Explanations of Appreciation in the Greek Commentaries on Aristotle. ''The Review of Metaphysics'', vol. 59, Number 2, pp. 287–311</ref>
Philoponus has raised the central question of the scientific and philosophical Aristotle's work on chemistry. The work called ''On Generation and Corruption'' examines the question of how is the mixture (chemical combination) possible? Philoponus’s contribution to the topic is in his new definition of potential, the third of the seven elements criteria. There are various interpretations of the theory of mixture, but it seems that Philoponus is rather refining Aristotle's approach than rejecting it. One of interpreters of Philophonus’ work on the theory of mixture, De Haas, implies that "no element can possess a quality essential to it except to a superlative extent".<ref>De Haas, in Wood & Weisberg, 2004</ref><ref>Wood, R. & Weisberg, M. Interpreting Aristotle on mixture: problems about elemental composition from Philoponus to Cooper. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 35 (2004), pp. 681–706</ref>
===Theological treatises===
Philoponus’s major Christological work is ''Arbiter''. The work was written shortly before the Second Council of Constantinople of 553.<ref>Translated and edited by A. Sandra in 1930</ref> It became famous in regard to its doctrine on resurrection. Similarly to ideas presented in ''Physics'', Philoponus in ''Arbiter'' states that our corrupted bodies (material things) will be eventually brought into being (matter and form) by God.<ref name="Choniates, N 1997 pp. 540-548">{{Cite journal| issn = 0022-5185| volume = 48| issue = 2| pages = 540–548| last = Lang| first = U. M.| title = Nicetas Choniates, a Neglected Witness to the Greek Text of John Philoponus' Arbiter| journal = The Journal of Theological Studies| year = 1997| doi=10.1093/jts/48.2.540}}</ref>
=== List of works === John Philoponus wrote at least 40 works on a wide array of subjects including grammar, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and theology. Some of these include:
* ''On words with different meanings in virtue of a difference of accent'' (''De vocabulis quae diversum significatum exhibent secundum differentiam accentus'')<ref>Ed. L.W. Daly, ''American Philosophical Society Memoirs'' 151, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society 1983</ref> *''Commentary on Aristotle's On Generation and Corruption''<ref>Ed. H. Vitelli, Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca (CAG) XIV 2, Berlin: Reimer, 1897.</ref> *''Commentary on Aristotle's De Anima''<ref>Ed. M. Hayduck, ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'' XV, Berlin, Reimer, 1897</ref> *''Commentary on Aristotle's Categories''<ref>Ed. A. Busse, ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'', XIII, Berlin, Reimer, 1898</ref> *''Commentary on Aristotle's Prior Analytics''<ref>Ed. M. Wallies, ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'' XIII, Berlin, Reimer, 1905</ref> *''Commentary on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics''<ref>Ed. M. Wallies, ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'', XIII, Berlin, Reimer, 1909</ref> *''Commentary on Aristotle's Physics''<ref>Ed. H. Vitelli ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'' XVI–XVII, Berlin, Reimer, 1887. trans. A. R. Lacey, ''Philoponus On Aristotle's Physics'', London, Duckworth, 1993. trans. M. Edwards, ''Philoponus, On Aristotle's Physics'', London, Duckworth 1994. P. Lettinck, ''Philoponus, On Aristotle's Physics'', London, Duckworth, 1993. D. Furley, ''Philoponus, Corollaries on Place and Void'', London Duckworth, 1991</ref> – In which he challenges Aristotle on time, space, void, matter and dynamics. *''Commentary on Aristotle's Meteorology''<ref>Ed. M. Hayduck, ''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'' XIV, Berlin, Reimer, 1901</ref> *''Commentary on Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic''<ref>Ed. R. Hoche, Part I/II Wesel: A. Bagel, 1864/65, Part III Berlin: Calvary, 1867.</ref> *''On the Eternity of the World against Proclus'' (''De aeternitate mundi contra Proclum'')<ref>Ed. H. Rabe, Leipzig: B. G. Teubner 1899 repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1984.</ref> *''On the Eternity of the World against Aristotle'' (''De aeternitate mundi contra Aristotelem'')<ref>C. Wildberg ''Philoponus, Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World'' London: Duckworth, 1987.</ref> – A refutation of Aristotle's doctrines of the fifth element and the eternity of motion and time, consisting of at least eight books. *''On the Creation of the World'' (''De opificio mundi'')<ref>Ed. W. Reichardt, Leipzig: Teubner, 1897</ref> – A theological-philosophical commentary on the Creation story in the Book of Genesis. *''On the Contingency of the World'' (''De contingentia mundi'')<ref>S. Pines, "An Arabic summary of a lost work of John Philoponus", ''Israel Oriental Studies'' 2, 1972, pp. 320–52. Excerpts in Simplicius D. Furley, C. Wildberg, ''Philoponus, Corollaries on Place and Void with Simplicius, Against Philoponus on the Eternity of the World'' London: Duckworth, 1991, pp. 95–141.</ref> *''On the Use and Construction of the Astrolabe''<ref>Trans. into English H.W. Green in R.T. Gunther ''The Astrolabes of the World'' Oxford, 1932, repr. London: Holland Press, 1976, pp. 61–81. Critical edition, greek text, French translation and commentaries by C. Jarry : ''Jean Philopon, Traité de l'astrolabe'', CUF, série grecque, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2015.</ref> – The oldest extant Greek treatise on the astrolabe. *''Arbiter'' (''Διαιτητής [Diaitêtês]'')<ref>A. Sanda, ''Opuscula monophysitica Ioannis Philoponi'' Beirut: Typographia Catholica PP.Soc.Jesu., 1930</ref><ref>W. Böhm ''Johannes Philoponos, Grammatikos von Alexandrien'' München, Paderborn, Wien Schöningh, 1967, pp. 414–29.</ref> – A philosophical justification of monophysitism. Not extant in Greek; Syriac text with Latin translation. *''On the Trinity'' (''De trinitate'')<ref>A. Van Roey, ''Les fragments trithéites de Jean Philopon'', ''Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica'' 11, 1980, pp. 135–63.</ref> – The main source for a reconstruction of Philoponus's trinitarian doctrine.
== See also == * Byzantine science
==References== {{reflist|2}}
== Further reading == * {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Philoponus, Joannes|volume=21|pages=439–440}} * Gleede, Benjamin, ''Platon und Aristoteles in der Kosmologie des Proklos. Ein Kommentar zu den 18 Argumenten für die Ewigkeit der Welt bei Johannes Philoponos'' (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2009) (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity, 54). * Grant, E. ''Much Ado about Nothing: Theories of Space and Vacuum from the Middle Ages to the Scientific Revolution'' (Cambridge, 1981). * Grant, E. ''A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century'' (Cambridge, 2007). * Jammer, M. ''Concepts of Space: The History of Theories of Space in Physics'' (Mineola, NY, 1993), 53–94. * {{cite book|title=Concepts of Space: The History of Theories of Space in Physics|author=Jammer, Max|chapter=The Emancipation of the Space concept from Aristotelianism|pages=[https://archive.org/details/conceptsofspaceh00jamm/page/53 53–94]|year=1993|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|isbn=0-486-27119-6|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/conceptsofspaceh00jamm/page/53}} * {{cite book|title=John Philoponus and the Controversies Over Chalcedon in the Sixth Century: A Study and Translation of the Arbiter |author=Lang, Uwe Michael|publisher=Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense 47, Peeters|year=2001}} * MacCoull, Leslie S. B., "Aristophanes in Philoponus: Did he get the joke?" ''Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik'', 57, 2007, * Scholten, Clemens, "Welche Seele hat der Embryo? Johannes Philoponos und die Antike Embryologie," ''Vigiliae Christianae'', 59,4 (2005), 377–411. * {{cite book|title=Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian Science|author=Sorabji, Richard|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1993}} *Wisnovsky, R., "Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī." ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 2012.
== External links == *{{cite SEP |url-id=philoponus |title=John Philoponus |last=Wildberg |first=Christian}} *{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_Philoponus.aspx#1|title=John Philoponus. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008 (part 1)}} *{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_Philoponus.aspx#2|title=John Philoponus. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008 (part 2)}} {{Platonists}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philoponus, John}} Category:5th-century births Category:6th-century deaths Category:6th-century astronomers Category:6th-century Byzantine scientists Category:6th-century Byzantine writers Category:6th-century Christian theologians Category:6th-century Greek philosophers Category:6th-century philologists Category:Christian apologists Category:Christian Neoplatonists Category:Christologists Category:Greek-language commentators on Aristotle Category:Philosophers in ancient Alexandria Category:Philosophers of mathematics