The commentary on Aristotle's "On Generation and Corruption" (Kitab al-kawn wa-l-fasad, lat. De generatione et corruptione) by Ibn Bagga has attracted scant attention so far. This happened primarily for two reasons. The first one is the complicated nature of the Aristotelian text, which addresses a number of key notions in Aristotle’s physics, but at a high level of abstraction. The second reason is that Ibn Bagga's commentaries in general have been eclipsed in subsequent scholarship by the commentaries of Averroes (Arabic: Ibn Rusd). Nevertheless, the importance of Ibn Bagga's commentaries in Averroes' thought is undeniable. The latter extensively quotes from Ibn Bagga's works, adopts his ideas or rejects them. More importantly, Ibn Bagga's commentary is interesting in its own right, inasmuch as it quite often, instead of merely following Aristotle, presents different examples and develops ideas of its own.
The extant parts of Ibn Bagga's commentary are preserved in two manuscripts and comprise a consecutive exposition of the contents of the two books of De generatione et corruptione. The present critical edition provides for the first time a study of the structure of the commentary from the available witnesses. It reproduces the original in such a way that the reader will be able not only to assess the judgments made by the editor but also to reconstruct the two source manuscripts from the edited text.
Описание: On Our Allotted Guardian Spirit is a lively and at times perplexing text combining general reflections on the nature of the soul with a discussion of the phenomenon of a personal guardian spirit. Plotinus wants to interpret Plato, and aims to integrate Plato's various statements about daimones into one comprehensive theory. This leads to some views that are, if not exotic, then at least strange on first encounter. However, a closer reading reveals that Plotinus is not interested in demonology per se. Instead, the central concern of the treatise are ideas about the soul, the self, and self-consciousness. Plotinus' explorations produce a theory of the mind as the agent and activity responsible for a person's ethical choices and conduct of life. The demon emerges as a philosophical tool passed down from Plato, but adapted and rationalized to try to explain motivation to action, the impulse toward the ethical life, and even the various differences in human ethical and psychological constitution. This innovative theory is a response to a strong and ongoing current of thought in the philosophical tradition. The introduction offers an overview of ancient demonologies, starting with Homer and the Presocratics, and is followed by an in-depth examination of Plato, the Stoics, Plotinus, and later Neoplatonic developments. As such the book presents Plotinus' specific rationalizing response to the idea of a guardian spirit in the context of ancient philosophical demonologies.
ООО "Логосфера " Тел:+7(495) 980-12-10 www.logobook.ru
