Investigator: Mgr. Matyáš Havrda, Ph.D., DSc.

Provider: Czech Science Foundation

Programme: Standard

Duration: 2026-2028

The project will explore various types of emergentist theories in antiquity, with a particular focus on the Peripatetic tradition and Galen. It will do so in view of three questions: (1) What is the connection between emergence and the final cause? (2) Is downward causative power (such as the power to form bodies or move voluntarily) an intrinsic feature of emergent properties or does it access them from the “outside”? And if it is an intrinsic feature, does it belong to all emergent properties or only to some, and how so? (3) Do “scientific” and “philosophical” interpretations of the relationship between bodily states and psychic and natural powers in antiquity represent different forms of the same causal model, or alternative models, perhaps even mutually incompatible?
The results will include annotated translations and/or exegetical and interpretive studies of Galen's pharmacological, embryological, and psychological treatises, Alexander of Aphrodisias' works on the soul, and Theophrastus' writings on plants.