Book contents
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction The Intersection of Biology and Cosmology in Ancient Philosophy
- Chapter 1 Souls and Cosmos before Plato
- Chapter 2 The Ensouled Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus
- Chapter 3 Platonic ‘Desmology’ and the Body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c–34a)
- Chapter 4 The World Soul Takes Command
- Chapter 5 Begotten and Made
- Chapter 6 The De Motu Animalium on the Movement of the Heavens
- Chapter 7 Biology and Cosmology in Aristotle
- Chapter 8 Recapitulation Theory and Transcendental Morphology in Antiquity
- Chapter 9 The Stoics’ Empiricist Model of Divine Thought
- Chapter 10 Why Is the Cosmos Intelligent?
- Chapter 11 Cardiology and Cosmology in Post-Chrysippean Stoicism
- Chapter 12 The Agency of the World
- Chapter 13 God and the Material World
- Chapter 14 At the Intersection of Cosmology and Biology
- Chapter 15 Is the Heaven an Animal?
- References
- Index
- Index Locorum
Chapter 13 - God and the Material World
Biology and Cosmology in Galen’s Physiology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2021
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction The Intersection of Biology and Cosmology in Ancient Philosophy
- Chapter 1 Souls and Cosmos before Plato
- Chapter 2 The Ensouled Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus
- Chapter 3 Platonic ‘Desmology’ and the Body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c–34a)
- Chapter 4 The World Soul Takes Command
- Chapter 5 Begotten and Made
- Chapter 6 The De Motu Animalium on the Movement of the Heavens
- Chapter 7 Biology and Cosmology in Aristotle
- Chapter 8 Recapitulation Theory and Transcendental Morphology in Antiquity
- Chapter 9 The Stoics’ Empiricist Model of Divine Thought
- Chapter 10 Why Is the Cosmos Intelligent?
- Chapter 11 Cardiology and Cosmology in Post-Chrysippean Stoicism
- Chapter 12 The Agency of the World
- Chapter 13 God and the Material World
- Chapter 14 At the Intersection of Cosmology and Biology
- Chapter 15 Is the Heaven an Animal?
- References
- Index
- Index Locorum
Summary
This chapter does not directly address the issue of the relations between biology and cosmology as such, although it refers in passing to Galen’s deployment of the microcosm/macroscosm model for the understanding of the nature of the human form and its relation to, indeed its mirroring of, the overall structure of the universe. But it does deal with how and why Galen thought that a proper understanding of the enormous complexity, goal-directedness, economy of animal and pre-eminently human structures demands explanation in terms of a providential, artistic and indeed aesthetically motived designer-god. That is, a proper understanding of the biosphere, and in particular of human physiology, demands a commitment to, and an understanding of, what Galen takes to be a fundamental cosmological fact, namely that the universe is indeed providentially ordered. The bulk of this chapter is devoted to teasing out in detail the nature and working-out of these fundamental commitments.
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- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient PhilosophyFrom Thales to Avicenna, pp. 224 - 244Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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