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Headword: *)aqa/natos
Adler number: alpha,705
Translated headword: immortal
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
Philosophers assign the [word] "immortal" to animate things, but the [word] "imperishable" to inanimate ones.[1]
"Plato, when maintaining that the soul is immortal,[2] assigns an equivocal term to immortal things. [This is] because what is strictly immortal is unchangeable, both according to substance and according to activity. However he knows that the soul is immortal according to substance but it is not also immortal according to activity. In this way you also might say that the heavenly bodies are homonymous with immortal things,[3] for they also change, even though [they do not change] according to substance but according to place."[4]
"Immortality is a property of life and a kind of accident; for this is proved on the ground of a certain hypothesis that the immortal comes to be from the mortal, but the mortal comes to be immortal not because of participation in another life."[5]
[This] was written in the letter Pi, on affection.[6]
"But he who defines immortality as 'privation of mortality' makes a mistake. For immortality is not privation of mortality, but [resides] in a [sc. positive] condition and disposition."[7]
Greek Original:
*)aqa/natos: to\ a)qa/natos e)pi\ e)myu/xwn, to\ de\ a)/fqitos e)pi\ a)yu/xwn filo/sofoi ta/ttousin. o(/ti o( *pla/twn a)qa/naton ei)=nai le/gwn th\n yuxh\n a)qana/tois o(mw/numon ei)=nai e)pife/rei. dio/ti to\ me\n kuri/ws a)qa/- naton kai\ kat' ou)si/an kai\ kat' e)ne/rgeia/n e)stin a)meta/blhton: th\n de\ yuxh\n kat' ou)si/an me\n oi)=den a)qa/naton, ou)ke/ti de\ kai\ kat' e)ne/rgeian. ou(/tws d' a)\n ei)/pois kai\ ta\ ou)ra/nia a)qana/tois o(mw/numa: metaba/llei ga\r kai\ au)ta\, ei) kai\ mh\ kat' ou)si/an a)lla\ kata\ to/pon. o(/ti de\ pa/qos th=s zwh=s h( a)qanasi/a kai\ su/mptwma/ ti: e)pi\ u(poqe/sei ga/r tini dei/knutai e)k qnhtou= a)qa/naton gi/gnesqai, ou) metalh/yei a)/llhs zwh=s to\ qnhto\n a)qa/naton gi/gnesqai. e)gra/fh e)n tw=| *pi= stoixei/w| peri\ pa/qous. o( de\ th\n a)qanasi/an o(rizo/menos ste/rhsin qana/tou a(marta/nei. ou) ga\r ste/rhsis qana/tou h( a)qanasi/a, a)ll' e)n e(/cei kai\ diaqe/sei.
Notes:
The philosophical material in this entry, after the Homeric opening, comes from ancient Aristotelian commentaries: on the De anima by John Philoponus (24.25-29), and on the Topica by Alexander of Aphrodisias (353.13-14, 472.9-10).
[1] From the scholia to Homer, Iliad 2.186, where the word "imperishable" occurs; repeated at alpha 4628.
[2] Plato, Phaedrus 245C.
[3] That is to say, "immortal" is an equivocal term. For the concept of "equivocity" (o(mw/numon; cf. omicron 299) see Aristotle, Categories 1a1 and Eth. Nic. 1096b27-29.
[4] This is Aristotelian doctrine: the heavenly bodies (stars, planets, and so forth) are eternal because they have not been generated and so will not die; the only kind of change they undergo is the change of place. See Aristotle, Metaphysics 1069a30ff.; Physics 260a26-261b26. For the different types of change or movement in Aristotle, cf. Categories 15a13-14. This part of the entry is adapted from John Philoponus, Commentary on Aristotle's de anima 24.25-29; cf. van der Eijk (40).
[5] From Alexander of Aphrodisias, Commentaries on Aristotle's Topica 353.13-14.
[6] See pi 27.
[7] From Alexander of Aphrodisias, Commentaries on Aristotle's Topica 472.9-10.
Reference:
P. van der Eijk, trans., Philoponus: On Aristotle's On the Soul 1.1-2, (Ithaca, NY 2005)
Keywords: definition; epic; philosophy
Translated by: Marcelo Boeri on 7 December 1999@16:24:28.
Vetted by:
Scott Carson on 2 January 2000@21:52:13.
Scott Carson on 11 February 2000@15:31:26.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords; cosmetics) on 14 May 2002@05:49:34.
David Whitehead (tweaks and cosmetics) on 17 January 2012@04:39:42.
David Whitehead (more of same) on 1 May 2015@08:11:39.
Catharine Roth (cross-reference) on 28 December 2015@23:03:53.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation) on 20 May 2021@00:20:15.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation at Ron Allen's instigation) on 17 September 2022@19:55:04.
Catharine Roth (tweaked note 3) on 19 September 2022@00:16:45.
Ronald Allen (tweaked translation in consultation with Managing Editor Catharine Roth) on 19 July 2023@09:38:59.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation again) on 19 July 2023@22:54:24.
Ronald Allen (inserted notes) on 20 July 2023@00:07:40.
Ronald Allen (added cross-reference n.3; added bibliography) on 22 July 2023@18:01:49.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation) on 7 December 2023@01:04:09.

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