Dissertations

  • Philoponus' scholia in Aristotle's Physics IV, 1-5

    The topic of this dissertation was Ioannes Philoponus’ accounts of place, void and motion presented in his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics, IV, 1–9 in three rather controversial parts of the commentary, namely the digressions on place and void (Philop., in Phys., 557.8- 585.4, 675.12- 695.8, CAG XVII) and the corollary on the motion of projectiles, in which Philoponus articulates the impetus theory (Philop., in Phys., 639.3- 642.26).

  • The Priority of Locomotion in Aristotle's 'Physics'

    This project investigated the priority of local motion in Aristotle.

Research Projects

  • Place, Space and Motion in Aristotle

    This project approached the research questions through close reading of relevant texts, reconsideration of
    their philological basis in the manuscript tradition (when called for), systematic reconstruction and assessment of the arguments guided always by senstivity to their place in the ancient history of science.

  • Place, Space and Motion in Later Platonism

    How did later Platonists understand the competing theories of ‘space’ and ‘place’ developed by Plato and Aristotle, and how were these theories challenged and transformed in late Antiquity?

  • Place, Space and Motion in Plato and Middle Platonism

    How does Plato use spatial concepts in his natural philosophy (to the extent that he has one)? How did Middle Platonist thinkers, especially Plutarch and the author of the Didaskalikos (= Alcinous?), take up and revise Plato’s views? To what extent were they also influenced by other thinkers, e.g. Aristotle?