Steel, Carlos G. (Author)
In the Introduction of the Tetrabiblos (I.3) Ptolemy defends astrology against critics who claim that knowing the future is useless. Why should we want to know what will happen if we cannot change the outcome? Ptolemy first insists that most events predicted in astrology do not follow with absolute necessity from the celestial configurations, and, even if some happen with ineluctable fatality, it is not superfluous to know them in advance, as this knowledge prepares us to accept what happens with “peace of mind”. In this defence of the utility of astrology, Ptolemy seems to be influenced by the Stoic practise of the “premeditatio malorum”. In the second part I show how Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas use Ptolemy’s argument to reject all forms of astrological determinism. In the third part I turn to Albumasar who in his Introductorius I, ch. VI, offers a lengthy reply of people who reject astrology as a superfluous occupation. He is clearly inspired by Ptolemy’s arguments, yet adds at the end an argument destined to convince the “common crowd”: most people reject knowledge of the future because it might remove what makes our present life pleasurable (as the Epicureans argued). However, Albumasar shows that there are even hedonistic reasons to be interested in knowing the future events, even if they are not pleasurable.
...More
Chapter
Mainoldi, Ernesto Sergio;
(2008)
Metabolé e metánoia. Il ruolo dell'antropologia biblico-patristica nelle stazioni del pensiero teologico medievale a fronte al problema cosmologico
(/isis/citation/CBB001020555/)
Article
Dario Gurashi;
(2020)
The Stargazing Physician. How to read Agrippa’s Astrological Calendar
(/isis/citation/CBB861061153/)
Book
Fidora, Alexander;
Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias;
(2007)
Erfahrung und Beweis: die Wissenschaften von der Natur im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert
(/isis/citation/CBB001020200/)
Book
Di Martino, Carla;
(2008)
Ratio Particularis: Doctrines des sens internes d'Avicenne à Thomas d'Aquin
(/isis/citation/CBB000951059/)
Book
Longeway, John Lee;
(2007)
Demonstration and Scientific Knowledge in William of Ockham. A Translation of Summa Logicae III-II: De Syllogismo Demonstrativo, and Selections from the Prologue to the Ordinatio
(/isis/citation/CBB000850580/)
Chapter
Palazzo, Alessandro;
(2008)
The Scientific Significance of Fate and Celestial Influences in Some Mature Works by Albert the Great: De fato, De somno et vigilia, De intellectu et intelligibili, Mineralia
(/isis/citation/CBB001020429/)
Article
Bukowski, Thomas P.;
(2004)
Beyond Aristotle … and Beyond Newton: Thomas Aquinas on an Infinite Creation
(/isis/citation/CBB000640943/)
Thesis
Acar, Rahim;
(2002)
Creation: A Comparative Study between Avicenna's and Aquinas' Positions
(/isis/citation/CBB001562516/)
Book
Stuckrad, Kocku von;
(2010)
Locations of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Esoteric Discourse and Western Identities
(/isis/citation/CBB001201627/)
Article
Michele Rinaldi;
(2015)
Un inedito volgarizzamento quattrocentesco del "Centiloquio" pseudo-tolemaico
(/isis/citation/CBB405801024/)
Book
Casagrande, Carla;
Vecchio, Silvana;
(2009)
Piacere e dolore: Materiali per una storia delle passioni nel Medioevo
(/isis/citation/CBB001020522/)
Article
Hyun Sok Chung;
(2019)
Aristotle vs Galen: Medieval Reception of Ancient Embryology - Medieval Medicine and the 13th Century Controversy over Plurality/Unicity of Substantial Form
(/isis/citation/CBB215821475/)
Chapter
Janssens, Jules;
(2007)
The Reception of Avicenna's Physics in the Latin Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB000930934/)
Book
Hellmeier, Paul Dominikus;
(2011)
Anima et intellectus: Albertus Magnus und Thomas von Aquin über Seele und Intellekt des Menschen
(/isis/citation/CBB001200685/)
Article
Libera, Alain de;
(1990)
Albert le Grand et Thomas d'Aquin interprètes du Liber de causis
(/isis/citation/CBB000055385/)
Article
Carey, Hilary M.;
(2010)
Judicial Astrology in Theory and Practice in Later Medieval Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB000954335/)
Chapter
Allard, Guy-H.;
(1974)
Réactions de trois penseurs du XIIIe siècle vis-à-vis de l'alchimie
(/isis/citation/CBB000001241/)
Article
Antoine Calvet;
(2019)
Essai sur la constitution et la transmission de corpus alchimiques latins aux XIIIe-XVe siècles: Albert le Grand, Thomas d’Aquin, Roger Bacon
(/isis/citation/CBB802268753/)
Chapter
Hackett, Jeremiah;
(1995)
Necessity, fate and a science of experience in Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon
(/isis/citation/CBB000080898/)
Chapter
Zambelli, Paola;
(1991)
Le stelle “sorde e mute” ed i loro “motori” alle origini della scienza moderna? Un case-study storiografico
(/isis/citation/CBB000065124/)
Be the first to comment!