A mortal animal, an immortal man. The teaching of John Philoponus on the animal soul in the 5th and 6th books of the treatise «De opificio mundi»

Annotation

This article is devoted to the teachings of the neoplatonic philosopher and theologian of the 6th century. John Philoponus on the mortality of the animal soul in his late exegetical treatise «On the Creation of the World». Several passages from the Fifth and sixth books of the treatise are analyzed in comparison with the earlier commentary by John Philopon on Aristotle’s treatise «De opificio mundi». It is shown that the concept of «homonymy by action» plays a key role in the doctrine of the soul of the Alexandrian thinker, the consistent disclosure of which allows John Philoponus to describe various levels of the noncorporeal — the Holy Spirit, the rational soul, the animal soul — as realities having completely different principles of existence. That is why the immortality of the rational soul in the mode of being autonomous from the body and the mortality of the animal soul are an expression of the ontological gap between these types of soul in the anthropology of John Philoponus.

Keywords

John Philoponus, anthropology, animals, immortality of the soul, rational soul, mind, animal soul, Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias.

Literature

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The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in the framework of the scientific
Project No. 20-011-41004 "John Philoponus' Treatise on the Creation of the World" in the context of
Middle Eastern Syro-Palestinian and Byzantine Theological (Christological,
anthropological, cosmological) traditions"