Eternity : a history

353 Pages·2016·2.533 MB·English

by  Melamed, Yitzhak Y

Eternity
oxford philosophical concepts
OXFORD PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS
Christia Mercer, Columbia University
Series Editor
Published
Efficient Causation Memory
Edited by Tad Schmaltz Edited by Dmitri Nikulin
Sympathy Eternity
Edited by Eric Schliesser Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed
The Faculties
Edited by Dominik Perler
Forthcoming
Health Self-K nowledge
Edited by Peter Adamson Edited by Ursula Renz
Evil Pleasure
Edited by Andrew Chignell Edited by Lisa Shapiro
Dignity Consciousness
Edited by Remy Debes Edited by Alison Simmons
Animals Moral Motivation
Edited by G. Fay Edwards Edited by Iakovos Vasiliou
and Peter Adamson
Space
Edited by Andrew Janiak
oxford philosophical concepts
Eternity
A History
j
Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed
1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Names: Melamed, Yitzhak Y., 1968– editor.
Title: Eternity: a history / edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed.
Description: New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016. |
Series: Oxford philosophical concepts series |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037326 | ISBN 978–0–19–978186–7 (pbk.: alk. paper) |
ISBN 978–0–19–978187–4 (hardcover: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Infinite. | Eternity.
Classification: LCC BD411.E84 2016 |
DDC 115—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037326
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
“The idea of eternity being the greatest, the most terrible and most frightening
of all those that astonish the mind and strike the imagination, it is necessarily
accompanied by a large following of ancillary ideas, which all have a considerable
effect upon the mind because of their relation to this great and terrible idea
of eternity.”
—N icolas Malebranche, Search after Truth 327 (translated by Thomas
M. Lennon and Paul J. Olscamp)
“When the mid- point of eternity comes, it can be said of God that half
of his life passed.”
—G . W. Leibniz, De Summa Rerum 9 (translated by G.H.R. Parkinson )
ארבנ ריצי לכ םרטב ךלמ רשא םלוע ןודא”
ארקנ ומש ךלמ יזא לכ וצפחב השענ תעל
“ארונ ךולמי ודבל לכה תולככ ירחאו
—A medieval liturgical poem, commonly attributed to Salomon Ibn-Gabirol
For Alfa in eternal love
Contents
acknowledgments x
CONTRIBUTORS xi
SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWoRD xv
Introduction 1
YITZHAK Y. MELAMED
1 Eternity in Ancient Philosophy 14
JAMES G. WILBERDING
Reflection: Eternity and Astrology in the Work of Vettius Valens 56
DORIAN GIESELER GREENBAUM
Reflection: Eternity and World- Cycles 64
GODEFROID DE CALLATAŸ
Reflection: The Eternality of Language in India 70
ANDREW OLLETT
2 Eternity in Medieval Philosophy 75
PETER ADAMSON
Reflection: “Eternalists” and “Materialists” in Islam: A Note on the
Dahriyya 117
HINRICH BIESTERFELDT
viii Contents
Reflection: Eternity and the Trinity 124
CHRISTOPHE ERISMANN
3 Eternity in Early Modern Philosophy 129
YITZHAK Y. MELAMED
Reflection: Out of Time: Dante and Eternity 168
AKASH KUMAR
Reflection: Perpetuum Mobiles and Eternity 173
MARIUS STAN
4 Eternity in Kant and Post- Kantian European Thought 179
ALISTAIR WELCHMAN
Reflection: Eternity in Early German Romanticism 226
JUDITH NORMAN
Reflection: Eternity in Hasidism: Time and Presence 231
ARIEL EVAN MAYSE
Reflection: On White Eternity in the Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish 239
ABED AZZAM
5 Eternity in Twentieth- Century Analytic Philosophy 245
KRIS MCDANIEL
Reflection: Borges on Eternity 277
WILLIAM EGGINTON
Reflection: Music and Eternity 283
WALTER FRISCH
Reflection: The Kaddish 290
ABRAHAM P. SOCHER
Contents ix
GLOSSARY 297
BIBLIOGRAPHY 301
INDEX 323