Gical, and Ethical Doctrines Given in Chapters Two, T

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Gical, and Ethical Doctrines Given in Chapters Two, T CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION Even the bare outlines of Speusippus' metaphysical, epistemolo­ gical, and ethical doctrines given in chapters two, three, and four of this work show that he was a philosopher of considerable original­ ity.473 In view of this and of the likelihood that Plato himself chose him to be his successor as head of the Academy,474 it is surely unwarranted and arbitrary to contend, as some scholars do, 476 that he was a poor philosopher. It is clear that Plato was the main influence upon Speusippus' thought. For his most important metaphysical and epistemological doctrines show not only that he adopted some of the basic tenets of Platonism but also that these doctrines are answers to the same problems Plato tried to solve. Thus, take for example Speusippus' doctrine that numbers and magnitudes are separate, eternal, and immutable objects of knowledge; that mathematical numbers are directly apprehended by the mind; that the propositions of mathematics cannot be true of the sensibles; that by the direct knowledge of number together with the data provided by an infallible faculty of perception which participates in reason the mind is able to derive all other knowledge; and that there is a relation of non-symmetrical similarity between the several kinds of substances which ultimately depends upon the separately existing numbers. All these interrelated doctrines are not only similar to some of Plato's own but are really answers to the same kinds of problems which Plato's philosophy tries to solve. For Plato's own main doctrines-the theory of ideas, the conception of the soul as a perpetual entity to which the apprehen­ sion of the ideas is so to say "innate," knowledge as recollection, etc.-were meant as an answer to the question whether there is such a thing as knowledge which is fundamentally different from perception and correct opinion. If there is, as Plato thought there is, then for him there must be a soul with the power to apprehend 478 For Speusippus' main doctrines and for his relation to Plato's the reader is referred to Chs. II-IV supra. 474 Cf. pp. 8-u supra. 476 Cf. note 32 supra. CONCLUSION rog the objects of knowledge, these objects must themselves be eternal and immutable entities outside of time and space, and phenomenal existence must imitate, or participate in, the eternal entities called ideas.476 Speusippus' main doctrines, then, are not only similar to Plato's but are also a different answer to the same problems which presuppose some of Plato's own central beliefs: that the mind apprehends eternal and unchangeable entities which exist apart from the sensibles, that the human soul is endowed with a faculty (mind) capable of such apprehension, and that there must be some kind of direct knowledge. And even Speusippus' bond of similarity among his several kinds of substances is but a modifica­ tion of Plato's fundamental assumption that phenomena imitate, or participate in, the eternally existing objects of knowledge. The reconstruction of the reasons why Speusippus modified Plato's theory is discussed in chapters two and three, and so we need not pursue this topic here. There is some evidence that Speusippus pointed out the similarity of his doctrine to certain Pythagorean tenets. 477 It is intelligible why he did so, for he probably saw in the early Pythagorean notion that everything is but number an antecedent of his own belief that numbers are the first entities. Our evidence indicates that he used some early Pythagorean tenets in order to put forward his own doctrines. But, even in this last case, what is significant is that he uses the Pythagorean doctrines in question for his own purposes, not simply to report them; and his own doctrines are essentially at variance and often incompatible with those of the early Pythagoreans. Nor is there any reason to think that Speusip­ pus invariably referred to the Pythagoreans as his predecessors. The widespread notion that he did so is unwarranted; and that his philosophy is indebted to them in essentials is contradicted by all the pertinent information we have, including the testimony of Aristotle.478 The extant evidence points to an unmistakable fact: that Speus­ ippus' thought exercised a considerable influence upon Aristotle 478 Cf. esp. pp. 13 and 70-71 supra and Cherniss, "The Philosophical Economy of the Theory of Ideas," AJP 57 (1936), pp. 445-456 = Selected Papers, pp. 121-132. 477 On Speusippus and the Pythagoreans cf. note 415 supra. 478 On this last point cf. esp. p. 71 supra and comm. on F 33, F 38, line 1, F 50-52, F 62 with note 202. .
Recommended publications
  • Plato's Parmenides and Its Heritage. Volume 1
    PLATO’S PARMENIDES AND ITS HERITAGE VOLUME 1 PLATO’S PARMENIDES AND its heritage VOLUME 1: History and Interpretation from the Old Academy to Later Platonism and Gnosticism Writings from the Greco-Roman World Supplement Series Edited by John T. Fitzgerald Series Editor John D. Turner and Kevin Corrigan Number 2 Society of Biblical Literature PLATO’S PARMENIDES AND ITS HERITAGE, VOLUME 1 Atlanta PLATO’S PARMENIDES AND its heritage VOLUME 1: History and Interpretation from the Old Academy to Later Platonism and Gnosticism Edited by John D. Turner and Kevin Corrigan Society of Biblical Literature Atlanta Contents Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Section 1: Plato, from the Old Academy to Middle Platonism 1. The Place of the Parmenides in Plato’s Thought and in the Subsequent Tradition 23 Kevin Corrigan 2. Speusippus’s Neutral Conception of the One and Plato’s Parmenides 37 Gerald Bechtle 3. The Fragment of Speusippus in Column I of the Anonymous Commentary on the Parmenides 59 Luc Brisson 4. Speusippus and the Ontological Interpretation of the Parmenides 67 John Dillon 5. The Indefinite Dyad in Sextus Empiricus’s Report (Adversus Mathathematicos 10.248–283) and Plato’s Parmenides 79 Thomas Szlezák 6. Plato and Parmenides in Agreement: Ammonius’s Praise of God as One-Being in Plutarch’s The E At Delphi 93 Zlatko Pleše 7. Moderatus, E. R. Dodds, and the Development of Neoplatonist Emanation 115 J. Noel Hubler Section 2: Middle Platonic and Gnostic Texts 8. The Platonizing Sethian Treatises, Marius Victorinus’s Philosophical Sources, and Pre-Plotinian Parmenides Commentaries 131 John D.
    [Show full text]
  • MINEOLA BIBLE INSTITUTE and SEMINARY Philosophy II Radically
    MINEOLA BIBLE INSTITUTE AND SEMINARY Page | 1 Philosophy II Radically, Biblical, Apostolic, Christianity Bishop D.R. Vestal, PhD Larry L Yates, ThD, DMin “Excellence in Apostolic Education since 1991” 1 Copyright © 2019 Mineola Bible Institute Page | 2 All Rights Reserved This lesson material may not be used in any manner for reproduction in any language or use without the written permission of Mineola Bible Institute. 2 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 7 Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) ........................................................................................... 8 Philip II of Macedonia (382-336 B.C.) ....................................................................................... 12 Page | 3 “Olympias the mother of Alexander was an evil woman. .......................................... 13 Philip II (of Macedonia) (382-336 BC) .............................................................................. 13 Aristotle (384-322 BC) ............................................................................................................... 15 Works .................................................................................................................................... 16 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 17 Doctrines ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • DOCUMENTING MIRACLES in the AGE of BEDE by THOMAS EDWARD ROCHESTER
    SANCTITY AND AUTHORITY: DOCUMENTING MIRACLES IN THE AGE OF BEDE by THOMAS EDWARD ROCHESTER A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham July 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This doctoral dissertation investigates the writings of the Venerable Bede (673-735) in the context of miracles and the miraculous. It begins by exploring the patristic tradition through which he developed his own historical and hagiographical work, particularly the thought of Gregory the Great in the context of doubt and Augustine of Hippo regarding history and truth. It then suggests that Bede had a particular affinity for the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as models for the writing of specifically ecclesiastical history. The use of sources to attest miracle narratives in six hagiographies known to Bede from Late Antiquity are explored before applying this knowledge to Bede and five of his early Insular contemporaries. The research is rounded off by a discussion of Bede’s use of miracles in the context of reform, particularly his desire to provide adequate pastoral care through his understanding of the ideal bishop best exemplified by Cuthbert and John of Beverley.
    [Show full text]
  • Conditions for Proclus's Allegorical Reading of Plato's Parmenides
    "Ciarifications" of Obscurity: Conditions for Proclus's Allegorical Reading of Plato's Parmenides Florin George Cäl ian Exegetical work on philosophical systems requires not only that one give an account of the structure of a system's assumptions and arguments, but also of its forms, such as the form of expression (or genre: dialogue, poem, aphorisms, and so on), or its form of argumentation (clear cut dis­ cursive exposition, logical forma lization, metaphorical, allegorical dis­ course, and so forth). These formal considerations may seem to be sec­ ondary, merely ornamental issues, but they can raise unexpected ques­ tions. The literal reading of a text has its counter-part in allegorical interpretation. This way of reading, which must have Started with the first readers of Homer and found a fertile ground in Philo's allegorical commentaries on the Bible, was amazingly natural for Proclus (c. 411- 485), whose writings and commentaries represent the last phases of late antique philosophy, and particularly of the relation between philosophy and rhetoric. Proclus was a major systemic philosopher of late Neoplatonism. Be­ side his fame as one of the last notable heads of the Platonic Academy, he was also known in his youth as a rhetorician with a profound curiosity about divination and theurgy. He was a practitioner of magic and it is said that he knew how to bring rain and that, through a particular rite, he saved Attica from a dreadful drought.1 Proclus was devoted to the Greek gods, especially Athena, whom he invokes at the beginning of his com­ mentary on the Parmenides: I pray to all the gods and goddesses to guide my mind ...to kindie in me a shining light of truth ..
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings Ofthe Danish Institute at Athens IV
    Proceedings ofthe Danish Institute at Athens IV Edited by Jonas Eiring and Jorgen Mejer © Copyright The Danish Institute at Athens, Athens 2004 The publication was sponsored by: The Danish Research Council for the Humanities Generalkonsul Gosta Enboms Fond. Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens General Editors: Jonas Eiring and Jorgen Mejer. Graphic design and production: George Geroulias, Press Line. Printed in Greece on permanent paper. ISBN: 87 7288 724 9 Distributed by: AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS Langelandsgade 177 DK-8200 Arhus N Fax (+45) 8942 5380 73 Lime Walk Headington, Oxford 0X3 7AD Fax (+44) 865 750 079 Box 511 Oakvill, Conn. 06779 Fax (+1)203 945 94 9468 Cover illustration: Finds from the Hellenistic grave at Chalkis, Aetolia. Photograph by Henrik Frost. The Platonic Corpus in Antiquity Jorgen Mejer Plato is the one and only philosopher particular edition which has determined from Antiquity whose writings have not only the Medieval tradition but also been preserved in their entirety. And our modern knowledge of Platonic dia not only have they been preserved, they logues, goes back to the Roman have been transmitted as a single col Emperor Tiberius' court-astrologer, lection of texts. Our Medieval manu Thrasyllus.2 Tarrant demonstrates rather scripts seem to go back to one particu convincingly that there is little basis for lar edition, an archetypus in two vol assuming that the tetralogical arrange umes, as appears from the subscript to ment existed before Thrasyllus, that it is the dialogue Menexenus, which is the possible to identify a philosophical posi last dialogue in the seventh tetralogy: tion which explains the tetralogies, that T8>iog toD JtQcbxou 6i6)dou.
    [Show full text]
  • Plotinus and the Platonic Metaphysical Hierarchy
    PLOTINUS AND THE PLATONIC METAPHYSICAL HIERARCHY G.S. BOWE Global Scholarly Publications New York, New York 2003 Published by Global Scholarly Publications Copyright © 2004 by G5. Bowe All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be dupli­ cated in any way without the expressed written consent of the publisher, except in the form of brief excerpts or quotations for review purposes. Typeface: Garamond. Greek Typeface: Athenian Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data G.S. Bowe, 1969- Plotinus and the Platonic Metaphysical Hierarchy / G.S. Bowe. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-9724918-4-8 1. Plotinus - Metaphysics. 2. Aristotle -- Metaphysics. 3. Plato - Metaphysics. 4. Greek Philosophy. I. Title Distributed by Global Scholarly Publications 220 Madison Avenue, Suite llG New York, New York 10016 www.gsp-online.org [email protected] Phone: (212) 679-6410 Fax: (212) 679-6424 For my buddy jlknur CONTENTS ACKl'lOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION iii CHAPTER I - THE PLATONIC METAPHYSICAL HIERARCHY CHAPTER II - iVIElliEXlS !li'lD THE PRINCIPLES OF EMj\NATION 33 t Positive Production 37 2. Non Convertibility 44 3. Indexed Unity 47 4. The Priority of the Simple 49 CHAPTER HI - PLOTINUS' RESPONSE TO ARISTOTLE'S UNMOVED MOVER 57 1. The Unmoved Mover as Substance 58 2. The Unmoved Mover as NolIS 69 CHAPTER IV - THE DIDASKAlJKOS AND NUMENIUS 87 1. The Didaskalikos 88 2. Numenius of Apamea 96 CHAPTER V - THE ONE OF PLOTINUS 105 CHAPTER VI - ErvlANATION AND THE SOUL 131 BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 INDEX 163 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should thank a number of people who helped me do this.
    [Show full text]
  • Speusippus and Xenocrates on the Pursuit and Ends of Philosophy
    chapter 1 Speusippus and Xenocrates on the Pursuit and Ends of Philosophy Phillip Sidney Horky I Introduction The educational and institutional structure of the Academy after Plato’s death is one of the great unknowns in the history of ancient philosophy.1 Harold Cherniss, who thought the answer might lie in the educational curriculum out- lined in Republic VII, dubbed it the great “riddle of the early Academy”;2 con- trariwise, in considering the external evidence provided by Plato’s students and contemporaries, John Dillon speaks of a “fairly distinctive, though still quite open-ended, intellectual tradition.”3 One would think, especially given the extent of Plato’s discussion of the problem of educational and institution- al structures (not to mention the pedagogic journey of the individual teacher and student) that those figures who took over supervision of the Academy after Plato’s death – notably his polymath nephew Speusippus of Athens and his pop- ular and brilliant student Xenocrates of Chalcedon4 – would have devoted some attention to this issue of educational theory and practice in their writings. Af- ter all, several pseudepigraphical texts that are usually considered to have been written in the Academy and were ascribed to Plato – Theages, Alcibiades I (if inau- thentic), Alcibiades II, Epinomis, Rival Lovers, On Virtue, the Seventh Letter – do, indeed, devote significant space to elaborating pedagogical methods, practices, 1 Special thanks are owed to Mauro Bonazzi, Giulia De Cesaris, and David Sedley, each of whom read this piece with care and attention. I cannot promise to have responded suffi- ciently to their challenges in all circumstances, but I can say with confidence that this paper is much improved owing to their critical acumen.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessing Porphyry's Reaction to Plotinus's Doctrine of The
    HeyJ LII (2011), pp. 1–10 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2265.2011.00686.x PORPHYRY THE APOSTATE: ASSESSING PORPHYRY’S REACTION TO PLOTINUS’S DOCTRINE OF THE ONE SEAMUS O’NEILL Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John’s, Canada In an article in the first volume of Harris’s Studies in Neoplatonism, Patrick Atherton described what he saw as a radical difference between the trinitarian and Neoplatonic first principles. The distinction he draws is seminal: because the first principle, or , produces all things, all that follows from it is determined by its nature. Whereas the unity of what Atherton describes as the ‘Neoplatonic One’ transcends all relation and difference, The trinitarian , by contrast, appears as an attempt to reconcile the requirement of unity with that of difference within the principle itself: is now recognised as a moment within the unity, as belonging to the principle as unity. Such a position requires a very different interpretation of the relation between the principle and its derivatives than that found in Neoplatonism.1 Recent scholarship on Porphyry, however, suggests that the important distinction Atherton adverts to is not resolvable into distinctly Neoplatonic and trinitarian camps. What Atherton describes as ‘Neoplatonism’ is more diverse, as scholars debate the subtle differences between the doctrines of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Augustine, and Proclus, among others. For example, John Dillon and Steven Strange have recently argued that Porphyry’s doctrine of the first principle is in fact – as Atherton describes the two positions – ‘trinitarian’ rather than ‘Neoplatonic’. Atherton’s characterization of the Neoplatonic describes more narrowly the Plotinian One, for Plotinus is the only Neoplatonist who maintains the absolute transcendence of the first principle beyond all relation and difference.
    [Show full text]
  • JPT 6.2 235-240 Stock.Indd
    Book Reviews / The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 6 (2012) 219-249 235 Plato’s Parmenides and Its Heritage. Volume 1. History and Interpretation from the Old Academy to Later Platonism and Gnosticism. Volume 2. Its Reception in Neopla- tonic, Jewish and Christian Texts/Reception in Patristic, Gnostic, and Christian Neo- platonic Texts. Edited by John D. Turner and Kevin Corrigan, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature 2010. The two volumes “Plato’s Parmenides and Its Heritage” collect the work of twenty- two scholars presented during the six meetings of the seminar ‘Rethinking Plato’s Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic and Patristic Reception’ of the Society of Biblical Literature (2001-2006). As the title indicates, the topic of these two volumes is Plato’s Parmenides and its reception and interpretation up through late Antiquity, from the Old Academy until Dionysius the Areopagite. The topic is interesting, beyond doubt. How to understand and to interpret Plato’s Parmenides has always been a hotly disputed topic. While some readers considered it to be a logical exercise others defended the idea that it presents a metaphysical or theological doctrine (cf. the fijirst article by K. Corrigan which presents the wide range of interpretations). As it is impossible to summarise all the articles in detail in this review, I would like to refer to the table of contents (see below) and to the introduction by J. D. Turner and K. Corrigan which presents the topic of the volumes and of all the contributions in a detailed way. In the following I would like to give an overview of and to draw attention to some of the main topics in these two volumes.
    [Show full text]
  • Aristotle's Journey to Europe: a Synthetic History of the Role Played
    Aristotle’s Journey to Europe: A Synthetic History of the Role Played by the Islamic Empire in the Transmission of Western Educational Philosophy Sources from the Fall of Rome through the Medieval Period By Randall R. Cloud B.A., Point Loma Nazarene University, 1977 M.A., Point Loma University, 1979 M. Div., Nazarene Theological Seminary, 1982 Submitted to the: School of Education Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Program: Educational Policy and Leadership Concentration: Foundations of Education and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Committee: _______________________________________ Suzanne Rice, Chairperson _______________________________________ Ray Hiner _______________________________________ Jim Hillesheim _______________________________________ Marc Mahlios _______________________________________ Sally Roberts Dissertation Defended: November 6, 2007 The Dissertation Committee for Randall R. Cloud certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Aristotle’s Journey to Europe: A Synthetic History of the Role Played by the Islamic Empire in the Transmission of Western Educational Philosophy Sources from the Fall of Rome through the Medieval Period Dissertation Committee: _______________________________________ Suzanne Rice, Chairperson _______________________________________ Ray Hiner _______________________________________ Jim Hillesheim _______________________________________
    [Show full text]
  • St. Augustine As a Historian of Philosophy
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1934 St. Augustine as a Historian of Philosophy James Patrick Brogan Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Brogan, James Patrick, "St. Augustine as a Historian of Philosophy" (1934). Master's Theses. 73. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/73 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1934 James Patrick Brogan 37 A. M. D. G. ST. AUGUSTINE AS A HISTORIAN OF EHILOSO?HY. A Thesis submitted to the Graduate .l!'aculty of ~oyola University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of AI"ts, Loyola University Chicago, Ill. 1934. JAMES ?ATRIC£ BROGAN. Vita. I was born July 2, 1911, in' the CLty of Toledo, Ohio. I attended the Immacul~te Conception grammox school. Upon completion of the eig'ht year course I enrolled at St. John's High School, from which I w~s gr~duated in 1~29. I Received the degree of Bachelor of Arts fro~n St. John's Uni­ versity in June, 1933. TaB1E OF CONTENTS. ?age. Vita. Introduction 1. Thales 7. Anwcimunder 8 A.naximenes 9 Pythagoras 11 Heraclitus 12 AO.axagorus 1;, Archelaus 15 Diogenes 16 Democritus 16 Sophists 19 Socrb.tes 20 A.ntisthenes 22 A.ristippus 23 Plato 24 Successors of Elatp 34 Aristotle 35 Stoics 37 Epicureans 42 Plotiuus 45 Porp.b.ry 47 Conclusion 50.
    [Show full text]
  • In His from Platonism to Neoplatonism, First Published in 1954
    CHAPTER FIVE SPEUSIPPUS, ARISTOTLE, AND IAMBLICHUS In his From Platonism to Neoplatonism, first published in 1954, Merlan singled out a passage of Iamblichus' De Communi Mathe­ matica Scientia as a fragment of Speusippus, and in the second edition of this work he defended his interpretation against the objections raised by some scholars.407 He argues that within chapter IV of Iamblichus' work the section dealing with the prin­ ciples of mathematical numbers and magnitudes (De Communi Mathematica Scientia IV, pp. 15, 6-18, 12; hereafter= DCMS IV) is so essentially at variance with Iamblichus' doctrine and style that it cannot be his work at all. Merlan believes that only the introduction to the passage in question (i.e. pp. 14, 18-15, 5) and what he considers to be its concluding summary (p. 18, 13-23) are by Iamblichus, that the rest of chapter IV comes directly or indirectly from Speusippus, and that, even if the latter is the case, there is no essential misrepresentation of Speusippus' thought. 408 The reasons for the ascription to Speusippus are two: (a) DCMS IV is so similar to what Aristotle describes as typical of Speusippus that the passage must refer to the latter's doctrine; (b) DCMS IV is sufficiently different from Aristotle's testimony to justify the inference that it does not come from him. Merlan's theory about the ultimately Speusippean origin of DCMS IV has been accepted by many critics who, like him, make use of this text in their reconstructions of Speusippus' doctrine. 409 To be sure, they 407 My references to Merlan are always to From Platonism•.
    [Show full text]