Description: De mundo is a protreptic to philosophy in the form of a letter to Alexander the Great and is traditionally ascribed to Aristotle. It offers a unique view of the cosmos, God and their relationship, which was inspired by Aristotle but written by a later author. The author provides an outline of cosmology, geography and meteorology, only to argue that a full understanding of the cosmos cannot be achieved without a proper grasp of God as its ultimate cause. To ensure such a grasp, the author provides a series of twelve carefully chosen interlocking analogies, building a complex picture in the reader's mind. The work develops a distinctly Aristotelian picture of God and the cosmos while paying tribute to pre-Aristotelian philosophers and avoiding open criticism of rival schools of philosophy. De mundo exercised considerable influence in late antiquity and then in the Renaissance and Early Modern times.
Brief description: Pavel Gregoric is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Philosophy in Zagreb, working on ancient, Renaissance and early modern philosophy. He has published Aristotle on the Common Sense (2007), and is a co-editor of the volume Encounters with Aristotelian Philosophy of Mind (2020) and a contributor to Hackett's forthcoming new translation of Aristotle complete works.