3 - 4 pm (CET)

THIS CHRONOI TALK WILL BE HELD ON A WEDNESDAY

Venue:

Einstein Center Chronoi

Otto-von-Simson-Straße 7, 14195 Berlin

In the 4th cent. AD an intriguing cosmological view emerges with Porphyry and later on with Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa, according to which God has brought the world about all at once (ἀθρόως, ἐν κεφαλαίῳ, ὁμοῦ τὰ πάντα; cf. Gregory, In Hexaemeron 17.10-12). The first person, as far I can see, who speaks that language and takes that view is Porphyry, who argues that the mind of the divine creator (of the Timaeus) contains the elements (logoi) of the coming into being of everything and these elements become materialized all at once (ἀθρόως, in Proclus, In Tim. I.395.21). Porphyry explains himself arguing that matter and its order come into being simultaneously (ὁμοῦ τῇ τάξει συνυφεστός, in Proclus,In Tim. I.395.9-10; cf. I.396.21-26), so apparently he wants to rule out the pre-existence of matter. Basil also argues that creation took place outside time all at once (ἀχρόνως, ἀθρόως, Hom. in Hexaemeron 1.6, 12.1-3), and Gregory elaborates further speaking of the creative power of God through which all beings instantly have come about (τὸ ἀθρόον τῆς τῶνὄντων συστάσεως, In Hexaemeron 26.18-27.1, 28.5).

The talk aims to make sense of this view, a kind of big-bang cosmological view, and understand its philosophical motivations. Apparently, the partisans of such a view want to rule out creation as a process involving time, implying instead a causal relation between God and the world outside of time. But a number of questions arise, such as a) whether such a view implies the co-eternity of cause and effect; b) if this is the case, whether there can be an efficient cause co-eternal with its effect; and, c) in what sense one can possibly speak of timeless simultaneity with respect to the physical world.