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John Philoponus

John Philoponus was a Christian philosopher of Alexandria, trained in the Neoplatonist school of Ammonius, who wrote commentaries on Aristotle and then turned against…

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On the Coordinates: 1.2.1 Origins and First Cause

Ἰωάννης ὁ Φιλόπονος

Also known as John the Grammarian, Ioannes Grammaticus, Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī

c. 490 – 570 · Alexandria

Traditions: Greek & Roman

John Philoponus was a Christian philosopher of Alexandria, trained in the Neoplatonist school of Ammonius, who wrote commentaries on Aristotle and then turned against central Aristotelian doctrines. In works against Proclus and Aristotle he argued that the world cannot be eternal, because an actually infinite past would be impossible. His arguments reached the Arabic tradition, where al-Kindi drew on them, and stand behind the later kalām argument for a beginning of the universe. He also criticised Aristotle's dynamics.

Key ideas

  • An actual infinity cannot exist or be traversed, so the past cannot be infinite and the world must have had a beginning.
  • Against Proclus and Aristotle, the cosmos is created, not eternal.
  • A thrown body keeps moving because of a force impressed on it, not because of the surrounding air.
  • The heavens are not made of a special fifth element but of the same kinds of matter as the earthly realm.

Major works

  • De aeternitate mundi contra Proclum (Against Proclus on the Eternity of the World, 529)
  • Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World (survives in fragments)
  • Commentary on Aristotle's Physics

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In the Coordinates

The questions of philosophy where John Philoponus takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.