Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T11:11:23.232Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Philosophical Commentaries on Mathematical Texts

The Case of Proclus’ Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements

from Commentators at Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

Karine Chemla
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Glenn W. Most
Affiliation:
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
Get access

Summary

Greek philosophical commentaries in general and Proclus’ commentary on the first book of Euclid’s Elements in particular raise the question how these exegetical and pedagogical works can serve also as a means for developing philosophical ideas. In this chapter I address this question, arguing that the assumption that commenting on texts and developing philosophical views are mutually exclusive activities does not hold for Greek philosophical commentaries because their pedagogical aims are not distinct from their philosophical aims, and because their authors did not regard the canonical texts on which they commented as being necessarily authoritative. In view of these observations, I examine Proclus’ commentary on Euclid’s Elements, showing that it does not differ from other philosophical commentaries in its pedagogical approach and treatment of its base text. Specifically, I show that this commentary’s didactic aim is to teach the demonstrative method and that this is not distinct from its philosophical aim, which is to secure Aristotelian explanatory demonstrations in geometry. This examination highlights Proclus’ complex engagement with Euclid’s Elements. On the one hand, he used this work as a model for teaching rigorous reasoning and adapted the philosophical views of his predecessors, most notably Aristotle’s account of scientific method, to the mode of reasoning found therein. On the other hand, he used it as a basis for further philosophical inquiry into the question of mathematical explanation. This complex engagement makes Proclus’ commentary on the Elements both a secondary text and a philosophical work in its own right.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mathematical Commentaries in the Ancient World
A Global Perspective
, pp. 53 - 95
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Fleming, R. (2001) ‘Commentary’, in The Cambridge Companion to Galen, ed. Hankinson, R. J.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 323354.Google Scholar
Hadot, I. (1978) Le problème du néoplatonisme alexandrin: Hiéroclès et Simplicius. Paris: Études Augustiniennes.Google Scholar
Hadot, I. (1991) ‘The role of the commentaries on Aristotle in the teaching of philosophy according to the prefaces of the Neoplatonic commentaries on the Categories’, in Aristotle and the Later Tradition, eds. H. Blumenthal and H. Robinson. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Suppl. 2: 175189.Google Scholar
Hadot, I. (2015) Athenian and Alexandrian Neoplatonism and the Harmonization of Aristotle and Plato, trans. M. Chase. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Hadot, I., Hoffmann, Ph, Hadot, P., and Mahé, J.-P. (1990) Simplicius. Commentaire sur les ‘Catégories’: traduction sous la direction de I. Hadot. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Harari, O. (2006) ‘Methexis and geometrical reasoning in Proclus’ commentary on Euclid’s Elements’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 30: 361389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harari, O. (2008) ‘Proclus’ account of explanatory demonstrations in mathematics and its context’, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 90: 137164.Google Scholar
Harari, O. (2009) ‘Simplicius on the reality of relations and relational change’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 37: 245274.Google Scholar
Harari, O. (2012) ‘John Philoponus and the conformity of mathematical proofs to Aristotelian demonstrations’, in The History of Mathematical Proof in Ancient Traditions, ed. Chemla, K.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 206227.Google Scholar
Helbing, M. O. (2000) ‘La fortune des commentaires de Proclus sur le premier livre des Éléments d’Euclide à l’époque de Galilée’, in La philosophie des mathématiques de l’Antiquité tardive, eds. Bechtle, G. and O’Meara, D. J.. Fribourg: Editions Universitaires: 173193.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Ph. (2006) ‘What was commentary in late antiquity? The example of the Neoplatonic commentators’, in A Companion to Ancient Philosophy, eds. Gill, M. L. and Pellegrin, P.. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing: 597622.Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. (1994) Prolegomena: Questions to Be Settled before the Study of an Author, or a Text. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansfeld, J. (1998) Prolegomena Mathematica: From Apollonius of Perga to Late Neoplatonism with an Appendix on Pappus and the History of Platonism. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow, G. R. (trans.) (1970) Proclus, a Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements: Translation with Introduction and Notes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mueller, I. (1990) ‘Aristotle’s doctrine of abstraction in the commentators’, in Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence, ed. Sorabji, R. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 463480.Google Scholar
Nünlist, R. (2009) The Ancient Critic at Work: Terms and Concepts of Literary Criticism in Greek Scholia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O’Meara, D. J. (1989) Pythagoras Revived: Mathematics and Philosophy in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Richard, M. (1950) Ἀπὸ φωνῆς, Byzantion 20: 191222.Google Scholar
Riedlberger, P. (ed., trans., and comm.) (2013) Domninus of Larissa, Encheiridion and Spurious Works. Pisa: Fabrizio Serra.Google Scholar
Snyder, H. G. (2000) Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews and Christians. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sorabji, R. (ed.) (1990) Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sorabji, R. (2004) The Philosophy of the Commentators, 200–600 AD, vols. 13. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sorabji, R. (ed.) (2016) Aristotle Re-interpreted: New Findings on Seven Hundred Years of the Ancient Commentators. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
von Staden, H. (2002) ‘A woman does not become ambidextrous: Galen and the culture of scientific commentary’, in The Classical Commentary: Histories, Practices, Theories, eds. Gibson, R. K. and Shuttleworth Kraus, C.. Leiden: Brill: 109139.Google Scholar
Vallance, J. T. (1999) ‘Galen, Proclus and the non-submissive commentary’, in Commentaries – Kommentare, ed. Most, G. W.. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: 223244.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×