Philosopher Calcidius

Background

Calcidius was born in the fourth or fifth century A.D. Very little is known of him.

Career

Nothing is known of Calcidius’ life. Hosius, or Osius, the close friend to whom he dedicated his work, has generally been identified with the bishop of Cordoba who was prominent at the First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). Waszink, the latest editor of Calcidius, prefers to identify Osius with a Milanese patrician and official at the end of the fourth century. Waszink also regards Calcidius as certainly Christian.

Calcidius’ commentary is eclectic in character. It is six times as long as his translation of the Timaeus and deals almost exclusively with passages in the middle third of Plato’s treatise. The opening chapters are devoted to explicating enigmatic passages about the creation of the universe and the origin and constitution of the World Soul. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the numerical ratios of the harmonic intervals in the musical scale used in the fabrication of the World Soul. Chapter 5, ostensibly commenting upon two passages in the Timaeus about intelligibles and sensibles, turns out to be a conventional handbook treatment of astronomy. The highlight of Calcidius’ discussion comes in the following chapter, when he explains the epicyclic motions of Venus (presumably of Mercury too) and attributes the system to Heraclides Ponticus.

Although mistaken in assuming that Heraclides was using a geometrical demonstration instead of hypothesizing actual orbits of those planets about the sun, Calcidius was the most influential authority in keeping alive geoheliocentric views in the Middle Ages and thus laying the foundations for Copernicanism. His Latin version of Plato’s account of Atlantis was also vital in preserving that myth of a lost continent. Calcidius’ theory of matter is a conflation of Platonic and Aristotelian concepts. Retaining at times the Platonic in qua, Calcidius also struggles to avoid the Aristotelian “merely possible” concept of matter. Manuscripts of Calcidius are abundant. Few were the medieval libraries of any standing that did not have a copy of his work. His part in transmitting classical cosmology to the Latin West culminated with the Scholastics of Chartres in the twelfth century.

Achievements

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  Calcidius’ Latin translation of the first two-thirds of Plato’s Timaeus was the only extensive text of Plato known to western Europe for 800 years. Latin cosmology, throughout the early Middle Ages, was based upon the Timaeus; and Calcidius’ version, together with his commentary upon it, provided scholars with their best contact with the master.

Works

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  • Calcidius on Demons: Commentarius
  • Calcidius on matter: his doctrine and sources
  • On Plato's Timaeus

References

• Science and Religion, 400 B.C. to A.D. 1550: From Aristotle to Copernicus Historian Edward Grant illuminates how today's scientific culture originated with the religious thinkers of the Middle Ages. In the early centuries of Christianity, Christians studied science and natural philosophy only to the extent that these subjects proved useful for a better understanding of the Christian faith, not to acquire knowledge for its own sake. However, with the influx of Greco-Arabic science and natural philosophy into Western Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Christian attitude toward science changed dramatically. Despite some tensions in the thirteenth century, the Church and its theologians became favorably disposed toward science and natural philosophy and used them extensively in their theological deliberations.
  2004
• The Intellectual Revolution in Twelfth Century Europe
  1985
• Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism: The Latin Tradition
  1986