AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

A particular moment/topic of the history of western ancient philosophy and science will be explored, reading and commenting the original sources. Texts will be discussed in their historical context, in order to acquire a scientific method of analysis, through the use of "lexica" and biblographical data base. Students are expected to reach a solid and non-conventional knowledge of the history of ancient thought, with special regard to the relationship between philosophy and matemathics.   

PREREQUISITES

Basic knowledge of Greek, Latin and history of ancient philosophy.

TEACHING METHODS

Lessons will be held in presence. Attendance, although not compulsory, is recommended. Only those who attend lessons in presence will be deemed attending students. 

The teacher, upon specific request by single students, could allow them to attend lessons remotely via "Teams".

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The riddle of the continuum. The pseudo-aristotelean work "De lineis insecabilibus" and the VI. Book of Aristotle's "Physics"

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) Primary Literature

Ps. Aristotele, De lineis insecabilibus, Introduzione, traduzione e commento a cura di M. Timpanaro Cardini, Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino, Milano-Varese 1970 (pdf on MS "Teams")

Aristotele, Fisica, a cura di R. Radice, Bompiani, Milano 2011 (book VI)

2) Secondary Literature 

E. Cattanei, Il destino monastico e diastico del punto euclideo. Un dibattito millenario, che sorge fra Patone e Aristotele, in: M. Migliori (a cura di), Gigantomachia. Convergenze e divergenze fra Platone e Aristotele, Morcelliana, Brescia 2002, pp. 379-463, §§ 2, 4, 5 (pdf on MS "Teams")

Ead., Apologie des défenseurs des lignes insécables, «Cahiers du Centre d’Études sur la Pensée antique “Kairos kai Logos”», 79 (2006), pp. 1-30 (pdf on MS "Teams")

EAD., «Il moto della mente non si attua nel continuo della materia». Il ruolo del pensiero in un dibattito antico su continuità e discontinuità, in: R.L. Cardullo-G.R. Giardina (a cura di), Percepire, Apprendere, Agire. La riflessione filosofica antica sul rapporto tra mente e corpo, Academia Verlag, Sankt-Augustin 2016, pp. 41-56 («Symbolon», 43)

R. Sorabji, Time, Creation and the Continuum, Duckworth, London 1983, cap. V

3) Letture consigliate

Aristotle’s Physics, A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary by W.D. Ross, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1936; 1998, Book VI (Z); pp. 402-419 (Commentary to Book VI)

D.J. Furley, Two Studies in the Greek Atomists, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1967, I: Indivisible Magnitudes, pp. 44-158

D. Harlfinger, Die Textgeschichte der Pseudo-aristotelischen Schrift PERI ATMON GRAMMON, Hakkert, Amsterdam 1971 

N. Kretzmann (ed.), Infinity and Continuity in Ancient and Medieval Thought, Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca-London, 1982

W. Wieland, La fisica di Aristotele, Il Mulino, Bologna 1993 (spec. III)