Plato's Doctrine Respecting the Rotation of the Earth and Aristotle's Comment Upon That Doctrine

The obscurity of this passage is amply attested by the numerous differences of opinion to which it has given rise, both in ancient and in modern times. Various contemporaries of Plato (ἔνιοι — Aristot. De Coelo, II. 13, p. 293 b. 30) understood it as asserting or implying the rotatory movement of the earth in the centre of the Kosmos, and adhered to this doctrine as their own. Aristotle himself alludes to these contemporaries without naming them, and adopts their interpretation of the passage; but dissents from the doctrine, and proceeds to impugn it by arguments. Cicero mentions (Academic II. 39) that there were persons who believed Plato to have indicated the same doctrine obscurely, in his Timaeus: this passage must undoubtedly be meant. Plutarch devotes a critical chapter to the enquiry, what was Plato’s real doctrine as to the cosmical function of the earth — its movement or rest (Quaestion. Platonic. VII. 3, p. 1006.)

• АвторДжордж Ґроте
• ВидавництвоProject Gutenberg
• Рік видання2012 р.
• Оригінальна назваPlato's Doctrine Respecting the Rotation of the Earth and Aristotle's Comment Upon That Doctrine
• Тип книгиЕлектронна книга