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Concerning embryos, Porphyry takes an original view on issues that had been left undecided by his teacher Plotinus and earlier by the doctor Galen. What role is played in the development of the embryo by the souls or the natures of the father, of the mother, of the embryo, or of the whole world?

This volume completes the translation in this series of Quaestiones attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias, the leading ancient commentator on Aristotle. The Quaestiones are concerned with physics and metaphysics, psychology and divine providence. They exemplify the process whereby Aristotle''s thought came to be organised into ''Aristotelianism'' and show how interpretations were influenced by doctrines of Hellenistic philosophy. Some, translated into Arabic and thence into Latin, played a part in the transmission of ancient Greek philosophy to the medieval world. Those interested in Aristotle''s psychological views will find this half of Quaestiones particularly valuable. Ten of the problems discussed explicitly involve issues raised in On the Soul, including the unity of apperception and the transition from first to second actuality in the act of contemplation. A further dozen concern problems in physical theory, including infinity, necessity and potentiality. Quaestio 2.21 concerns divine providence and helps supplement our knowledge of Alexander''s position based on surviving Arabic fragments of his On Providence.

This is the first translation into English of the commentary of the sixth-century philosopher Philoponus on Aristotle's Physics Book 4, chapters 6-9. In this section of his commentary, Philoponus attacks Aristotle's views on void (or vacuum) and motion.

Alexander of Aphrodisias was the greatest exponent of Aristotelianism after Aristotle, and his commentary on Metaphysics 1-5 is the most substantial commentary on the Metaphysics to have survived from antiquity.

Philoponus' treatise Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World, an attack on Aristotle's astronomy and theology is concerned mainly with the eternity and divinity of the fifth element, or 'quintessence', of which Aristotle took the stars to be composed.

This is the first translation into English of the commentary of the sixth-century philosopher Simplicius on Aristotle's Physics book eight, chapters one to five, which discuss Alexander's analysis of the transition between levels of potential and actual motion, and the treatment of animal motion.

This translation in the commentary series on Aristotle On the Soul discusses the objects of the intellect, practical reasoning and the interaction between desire and cognition.

In Metaphysics 4 Aristotle discusses the nature of metaphysics, the basic laws of logic, the falsity of subjectivism and the different types of ambiguity. The full, clear commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias on this important book is here translated into English by Arthur Madigan. Alexander goes through Aristotle''s text practically line by line, attending to the logical sequence of the arguments, noting places where Aristotle''s words will bear more than one interpretation and marking variant readings. He repeatedly cross-refers to the De Interpretatione, Analytics, Physics and other works of Aristotle, thus placing Metaphysics 4 in the content of Aristotle''s philosophy as a whole.

This text contains translations of three commentaries on Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics". Of the three, that by the second-century AD Aspasius is the earliest extant commentary on Aristotle; the second is by Michael of Ephesus in the twelfth century; the third is of unknown date and author.

In "Categories" chapters 7 and 8 Aristotle considers his third and fourth categories - those of Relative and Quality. This text provides a translation of Simplicius' commentary on "Categories".

Simplicius produced detailed commentaries on several of the works of Aristotle. This is Urmson's translation of Simplicius' commentary on "Physics 5" in which Aristotle lays down some of the principles of his dynamics and theory of change.

Paul Lettinck has restored a lost text of Philoponus by translating it for the first time from Arabic (only limited fragments have survived in the original Greek). The text, recovered from annotations in an Arabic translation of Aristotle, is an abridging paraphrase of Philoponus'' commentary on Physics Books 5-7, with two final comments on Book 8. The Simplicius text, which consists of his comments on Aristotle''s treatment of the void in chapters 6-9 of Book 4 of the Physics, comes from Simplicius'' huge commentary on Book 4. Simplicius'' comments on Aristotle''s treatment of place and time have been translated by J. O. Urmson in two earlier volumes of this series.

Ammonius, who taught most of the leading sixth-century Neoplatonists, introduced the methods of his own teacher, Proclus, from Athens to Alexandria. These are exemplified in his commentaries: for instance, in the set of ten introductory questions prefixed to this commentary, which became standard. The commentary is interesting for the light it sheds on the religious situation in Alexandria. It used to be said that the Alexandrian Neoplatonist school was allowed to remain open after the Athenian school closed because Ammonius has agreed with the Christian authorities to keep quiet about his religious views. On the contrary, as this commentary shows he freely declared his belief in the Neoplatonist deities. The philosophical problems considered by Ammonius offer a unique insight into Aristotle's Categories. They exercise the mind and deepen understanding of the subject matter. Modern readers would do well to put the same questions to themselves.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics has been a central text in moral philosophy since the fourth century BC. The Ethical Problems attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias - the leading ancient commentator on Aristotle - not only shows us how Aristotle's work was discussed in Alexander's own day (c. 200 AD) but offers interpretations and insights that are valuable in their own right. Topics discussed include pleasure and distress, moral virtue, the criteria for judging actions voluntary, the development of moral understanding, and the place in ethics of utility, political community and a sense of shame.

Philoponus is engaged in an exegesis of Plato's Timaeus which aims to settle familiar interpretive problems, notably how we should understand the pre-cosmic state of disorderly motion, and the statement that the visible cosmos is an image of the paradigm. His exegetical concerns culminate with a discussion of Plato's attitude to poetry and myth.

This series translates the 15,000 pages of philosophical writings by the ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle, written mainly between 200 and 600 AD. Now translated into English, these works include introductions, notes and comprehensive indexes, filling a gap in the history of European thought.

In Posterior Analytics Aristotle elaborates his assessment of how universal truths of science can be scientifically explained as inevitable in demonstrative proofs. In this commentary Philoponus takes these issues further.

A volume in the prestigious series, The Ancient Commentators on Aristotle, which translates the works of the ancient commentators into English for the first time.

Until the launch of this series nearly twenty years ago, the 15,000 volumes of the ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle constituted the largest corpus of extant Greek philosophical writings not translated into English or other European languages. Over 60 volumes have now appeared in the series, which is planned in some 80 volumes altogether.

In this, the first half of Philoponus' analysis of book one of "Aristotle's Physics", the principal themes are metaphysical. Philoponus explains the apparent conflict between the 'didactic method' and the strict demonstrative method described in the "Analytics".