Theophrastus on the first principles

Cicero ( De natura deorum 1.13.35), Clement of Alexandria ( Protrepticus 5.58) as well as Proclus ( In Timaeus 35А) inform us that Theophrastus [372-287 BCE] inclined to identify the god and the sky (the stars are animated therefore divine). In the paper we will see that, indeed, the student of Aristotle frequently professes ideas that would surprise the philosopher of Stagira. For instance, he frequently insists that the kosmos is a living and ordered universe (the whole), and its innate movement is something which cannot be explained with the help of hand-made teleological constructions, such as the first mover. The analysis of the Metaphysics is supplemented in the paper by observations based on Theophrastus' (Syriac) Meteorology and a selection of the fragments of his lost scientific works. The Metaphysics is translated into Russian for the first time.