Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy

Ricardo Salles is a researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His recent books include: Los Filósofos Estoicos. Ontología, Lógica, Física y Ética (with Marcelo Boeri, 2014) and Alejandro de Afrodisias. De la Mixtura y el Crecimiento (with José Molina, 2020). He is the editor of Metaphysics, Soul and Ethics. Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji (2005) and of God and Cosmos in Stoicism (2009).

Introduction. The intersection of biology and cosmology in ancient philosophy Ricardo Salles; 1. Souls and cosmos before Plato: five short doxographical studies André Laks; 2. The ensouled cosmos in Plato's Timaeus: biological science as a guide to cosmology? Barbara Sattler; 3. Platonic 'desmology' and the body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c-34a) Dimitri el Murr; 4. The world-soul takes command. The doctrine of the world-soul in the Epinomis of Philip of Opus and in the Academy of Polemon John Dillon; 5. Begotten and made: creation as cosmogony in Middle Platonism George Boys-Stones; 6. The De Motu Animalium on the movement of the heavens John M. Cooper; 7. Biology and cosmology in Aristotle James G. Lennox; 8. Recapitulation theory and transcendental morphology in antiquity James Wilberding; 9. The Stoics' empiricist model of divine thought George Boys-Stones; 10. Why is the cosmos intelligent? Stoic cosmology and Plato, Timaeus 30a2-c1 Ricardo Salles; 11. Cardiology and cosmology in post-Chrysippean Stoicism Emmanuele Vimercati; 12. The agency of the world Katja Maria Vogt; 13. God and the material world: biology and cosmology in Galen's physiology R. J. Hankinson; 14. At the intersection of cosmology and biology: Plotinus on nature Lloyd P. Gerson; 15. Is the heaven an animal? Avicenna's celestial psychology between cosmology and biology Tomasso Alpina.