Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
From Thales to Avicenna

Explores ancient biology and cosmology as two sciences that shed light on one another in their goals and methods.

Ricardo Salles (Edited by)

9781108812597, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 March 2023

323 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.47 kg

In antiquity living beings are inextricably linked to the cosmos as a whole. Ancient biology and cosmology depend upon one another and therefore a complete understanding of one requires a full account of the other. This volume addresses many philosophical issues that arise from this double relation. Does the cosmos have a soul of its own? Why? Is either of these two disciplines more basic than the other, or are they at the same explanatory level? What is the relationship between living things and the cosmos as a whole? If the cosmos is an animate intelligent being, what is the nature of its thoughts and actions? How do these relate to our own thoughts and actions? Do they pose a threat to our autonomy as subjects and agents? And what is the place of zoogony in cosmogony? A distinguished international team of contributors provides original essays discussing these questions.

Introduction. The intersection of biology and cosmology in ancient philosophy Ricardo Salles
1. Souls and cosmos before Plato: five short doxographical studies André Laks
2. The ensouled cosmos in Plato's Timaeus: biological science as a guide to cosmology? Barbara Sattler
3. Platonic 'desmology' and the body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c-34a) Dimitri el Murr
4. The world-soul takes command. The doctrine of the world-soul in the Epinomis of Philip of Opus and in the Academy of Polemon John Dillon
5. Begotten and made: creation as cosmogony in Middle Platonism George Boys-Stones
6. The De Motu Animalium on the movement of the heavens John M. Cooper
7. Biology and cosmology in Aristotle James G. Lennox
8. Recapitulation theory and transcendental morphology in antiquity James Wilberding
9. The Stoics' empiricist model of divine thought George Boys-Stones
10. Why is the cosmos intelligent? Stoic cosmology and Plato, Timaeus 30a2-c1 Ricardo Salles
11. Cardiology and cosmology in post-Chrysippean Stoicism Emmanuele Vimercati
12. The agency of the world Katja Maria Vogt
13. God and the material world: biology and cosmology in Galen's physiology R. J. Hankinson
14. At the intersection of cosmology and biology: Plotinus on nature Lloyd P. Gerson
15. Is the heaven an animal? Avicenna's celestial psychology between cosmology and biology Tomasso Alpina.

Subject Areas: Cosmology & the universe [PGK], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Philosophy [HP]