John Philoponus | The Mantiqi

Christian scholar of Alexandria and pupil of Ammonius, whose commentaries on Aristotle’s logical works were translated into Arabic, and whose arguments against the eternity of the world were taken up by al-Kindī and the theologians; the Arabs called him Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī.

Life

John Philoponus, also called ‘John the Grammarian’, lived at Alexandria from about 490 to about 570. He came from a Christian family. He studied with Ammonius son of Hermeias and wrote down his lectures, but never held the chair of philosophy and remained a grammatikos, a professor of philology.

His logical date from his earlier years: on the Categories and the Prior Analytics about 512–517, and on the Posterior Analytics about 515–520. Some of them say that they are based on Ammonius’ lectures. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, historians of credit him with the first satisfactory of the . Later he turned against central Aristotelian doctrines, arguing that the world had a beginning in works against Proclus and against Aristotle on the eternity of the world.

Arabic bio-bibliographical sources report that his on the Categories, On Interpretation, the Prior and Posterior Analytics, the Topics and Porphyry’s Isagoge were translated into Arabic. All of these translations are lost, and the translators are not named, so it is not known when they became available (D’Ancona). His commentary on the Physics was translated partly by Ibn Nāʿima al-Ḥimṣī and partly by Qusṭā b. Lūqā. Ibn Sīnā names Philoponus among the Greek authorities in his logical works. His arguments against eternity had a larger echo: al-Kindī is ‘heavily indebted’ to him (SEP), al-Ghazālī and other theologians of kalām drew on them, and Ibn Rushd answered them in Aristotelian terms (TDV).

Uncertain or disputed

Dates: the Stanford Encyclopedia gives approximately 490–570; the TDV gives a birth probably in the late fifth century and death in the second half of the sixth.
A commentary on the Isagoge is reported in Arabic sources (D’Ancona, SEP, note 89), but neither the Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Philoponus nor the TDV lists one among his surviving works.
The library-burning story is told about him by the Arabic biographers but is rejected by modern scholarship (TDV).

Works

Commentary on the Categories — on AristotleAbout 512–517; with an introduction for students of philosophy (TDV).commentary
Commentary on the Prior Analytics — on AristotleAbout 512–517.commentary
Commentary on the Posterior Analytics — on AristotleAbout 515–520.commentary

Reception

Arabic authors call him Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī or Yaḥyā al-ʿAsqalānī (SEP; TDV).

Ibn al-Nadīm and Ibn al-Qifṭī tell that Yaḥyā asked ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ for the books of the library of Alexandria and that, on ʿUmar’s order, they were burnt instead. The TDV rejects the story: he lived about a century before the conquest of Egypt, and ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī is the first to mention the burning.

Ibn al-Ḥammār found convincing his that a finite three-dimensional body implies a finite cosmos (TDV).

Sources (5)