Simplicius

In the three chapters of <i>On the Heavens </i>dealt with in this volume Aristotle argues that the universe is ungenerated and indestructible. In Simplicius' commentary translated here we see a battle royal between the Neoplatonist Simplicius and the Aristotelian Alexander whose lost commentary on Aristotle's<i> On the Heavens</i> Simplicius partly preserves. Simplicius' rival the Christian Philoponus had conducted a parallel battle in his <i>Against Proclus</i> but had taken the side of Alexander against Proclus and other Platonists arguing that Plato's <i>Timaeus </i>gives a beginning to the universe. Simplicius takes the Platonist side denying that Plato intended a beginning. The origin to which Plato refers is according to Simplicius not a temporal origin but the divine cause that produces the world without beginning.