[MaFLa] Invitation: Orna Harari (Tel Aviv University), Thursday 20 February, 17:30 (fwd)

[Istvan Bodnar]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Subject: Invitation: Orna Harari (Tel Aviv University), Thursday 20 February,
     17:30


The Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies

cordially invites you

to the next Lecture

of its 9th Colloquia Series  

 

by

 

Orna Harari (Tel Aviv University)

 

on

 


                 Alexander of Aphrodisias on Elemental Motion



 

Time: 20 February, 17:30

Place: CEU, Room 001, Nádor 13, Budapest

 

 

Abstract

 

Alexander of Aphrodisias is seen as the originator of the view that the
primary efficient cause of the four elements? natural motion is their inner
inclination or substantial form. This talk proposes a refinement of this
interpretation, by attempting to reconcile Alexander?s claim that the elements
are moved by their forms with evidence that indicates that he identified
their mover with an external cause, i.e. their generator. Through an
analysis of Alexander?s controversy with Galen and his explanation of
compulsory motion, I show that his account of elemental motion is not based
on Aristotle?s general model of causality but on a model, by which the
external efficient cause transmits its efficacious power to its effects,
thereby making them self-movers in a certain sense. According to this model,
the inner inclination is an efficient cause of elemental motion but not the
primary efficient cause. This role belongs to the generator that endows the
elements with the capacity of moving themselves.

 

Orna Harari is a senior lecturer in the Department of Classics and the
Department of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Her interests lie in the
history of mathematics, Aristotle?s theory of proof, and the reception of the
Posterior Analytics in late antiquity. She is the author of Knowledge and
Demonstration: Aristotle?s Posterior Analytics (Boston 2004) and of a number
of articles that deal with logical, mathematical, and epistemological issues
in Aristotle, Proclus, and other late-antique philosophers. Her lecture of
Alexander?s account of elemental motion is a part of her study of explanation
and causality in the Aristotelian tradition.  

 

https://cems.ceu.hu/events/2014-02-20/alexander-of-aphrodisias-on-elemental
-motion