On the Eternity of the World against Proclus
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A Christian Aristotelian attacks the pagan doctrine of an eternal world on Aristotle's own terms, and in doing so denies that heavier bodies fall faster in proportion to their weight.
- an actual infinity of past events held to be impossible
- impressed force in place of air as the mover of projectiles
- fall times reported from observation against the received proportion
- commentary used as a vehicle for disagreement
Philoponus argued against Proclus that an eternal world is incoherent, since it would require an actually infinite number of past events. The same willingness to press Aristotle produced his physical criticisms: he denied that speed of fall is proportional to weight and reported that two unequal weights dropped together arrive almost at the same time, and he replaced the theory that air propels a projectile with an impressed force imparted at launch. These arguments were transmitted through Arabic and resurfaced in Latin discussions of impetus centuries later.
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