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Article Dans Une Revue Mnemosyne Année : 2019

Damascius and al-Naẓẓām on the Atomic Leap

Michael Chase

Résumé

Abstract Like Damascius’ ἅλµατα or leaps, al-Naẓẓām’s (died ca. 849 CE ) doctrine of the leap (Arabic ṭafra ) seems to be an attempt to respond to Zeno’s paradoxes of motion. After a survey of these paradoxes and Aristotle’s responses to them, I discuss some points of resemblance between the physical doctrines of Damascius and al-Naẓẓām. To explain them, I adopt Richard Sorabji’s suggestion of an historical influence by Damascius on al-Naẓẓām. After surveying objections to Sorabji’s thesis, I make use of new paleographical discoveries to suggest that after Justinian’s closure of the Platonic School of Athens, the last Neoplatonic philosophers may have taken the library of the School of Athens—including the ancestors of the core manuscripts of the Collection Philosophique —to the court of Ḫosrow I Anūšīrwān at Ctesiphon ca. 531 CE , where some texts that were the models of this Collection —which includes works by Damascius—may have been translated into Persian. This provides a new possible avenue by which al-Naẓẓām and other early Islamic theologians may have had access to some elements of late Greek philosophy even before the beginnings of the great translation movement sponsored by al-Maʿmūn (r. 813-833 CE ).
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hal-04008962 , version 1 (28-02-2023)

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Michael Chase. Damascius and al-Naẓẓām on the Atomic Leap. Mnemosyne, 2019, 72 (4), pp.585-620. ⟨10.1163/1568525X-12342530⟩. ⟨hal-04008962⟩
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