Über die Ewigkeit der Welt

The question of whether the world had a temporal beginning or whether the present has an infinite past is one of the particularly constant questions in the philosophy of nature from antiquity to Kant. In contemporary cosmology, it has become relevant again. In the Middle Ages, this question is posed from the perspective of the belief that the world is God's creation. The relevant texts on this problem demonstrate the argumentative level and conceptual strength of medieval thought. For the first time, the methodological question is connected to this substantive issue: whether it is possible to know that the world has a beginning in the form of scientific insight. Additionally, the concepts of time, infinity, and continuum are newly developed. From the great variety of contributions, three classical positions are selected and made accessible for the first time in German translation. The introduction highlights the uniqueness of the medieval debate and explains the positions of Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, and Boethius of Dacia. The volume contains the following texts in German translation: Bonaventure: Utrum mundus productus sit ab aeterno, an ex tempore. Is the world produced in time, or from eternity? - Thomas Aquinas: Utrum mundus sit aeternus. Is the world eternal? - Thomas Aquinas: De aeternitate mundi. The eternity of the world - Boethius of Dacia: De aeternitate mundi. The eternity of the world.