On 1 February 2023, Prof. Christophe Erismann from the University of Vienna will explore the Problem of the Eternity of the World in Byzantium.
The Byzantine tradition was the only medieval tradition in which an alternative cosmological model to Ptolemy's spherical system was defended over several centuries by various authors in parallel to the scientific model. At various stages of Byzantine thought, arguments were produced against the Aristotelian thesis of the eternity of the world, including by John Philoponus, whose arguments were often reused by later Byzantine thinkers. Prof. Erismann will examine the traces of an argumentative strategy different from that developed by Philoponus and to propose a reconstruction of it.
The lecture is hybrid, held in person in CEU's Vienna campus and online on zoom. For in person attendance, please email medstud@ceu.edu. The zoom link is: bit.ly/3VEzNrQ