Philo of Alexandria and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy Studies in Philo of Alexandria
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Philo of Alexandria and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy Studies in Philo of Alexandria Edited by Francesca Calabi and Robert Berchman Editorial Board Kevin Corrigan (Emory University) Louis H. Feldman (Yeshiva University, New York) Mireille Hadas-Lebel (La Sorbonne, Paris) Carlos Lévy (La Sorbonne, Paris) Maren Niehoff (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Tessa Rajak (University of Reading) Roberto Radice (Università Cattolica, Milano) Esther Starobinski-Safran (Université de Genève) Lucio Troiani (Università di Pavia) VOLUME 5 Philo of Alexandria and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy Edited by Francesca Alesse LEIDEN • BOSTON 2008 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Philo of Alexandria and post-Aristotelian philosophy / edited by Francesca Alesse. p. cm. -- (Studies in philo of Alexandria ; 5) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-16748-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Philo, of Alexandria. I. Alesse, Francesca. II. Title. III. Series. B689.Z7P45 2008 181’.06–dc22 2008014096 ISSN 1543-995x ISBN 978 90 04 16748 3 Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Acknowledgments ..................................................... vii Introduction............................................................ 1 Francesca Alesse Philo and Hellenistic Doxography .................................... 13 David T. Runia Philo and post-Aristotelian Peripatetics............................... 55 Robert W. S harples Moses Against the Egyptian: the anti-Epicurean Polemic in Philo.. 75 Graziano Ranocchia La conversion du scepticisme chez Philon d’Alexandrie............. 103 Carlos Lévy PhiloonStoicPhysics ................................................. 121 Anthony A. Long Philo and Stoic Ethics. Reflections on the Idea of Freedom ......... 141 Roberto Radice Philo of Alexandria on Stoic and Platonist Psycho-Physiology: TheSocraticHigherGround ...................................... 169 Gretchen Reydams-Schils Philo of Alexandria and the Origins of the Stoic ΠΡΠΑΘΕΙΑΙ ... 197 Margaret Graver PhiloandHellenisticPlatonism....................................... 223 John Dillon Towards Transcendence: Philo and the Renewal of Platonism in the Early Imperial Age ............................................. 233 Mauro Bonazzi Bibliography ........................................................... 253 IndexLocorum ........................................................ 265 IndexofAncientNames .............................................. 287 IndexofModern Names.............................................. 289 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The publication of this volume has benefited from a contribution from the Goren-Goldstein Foundation, Switzerland, and the University of Milan. For this I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Enrico I. Rambaldi Feldman. My thanks also go to Prof. Ronald Polansky, Editor of Ancient Phi- losophy, who authorised the reprint of the article by Prof. Gretchen Reydams-Schils; to Prof. Verity Harte, Editor of Phronesis, who autho- rised the reprint of the article by Prof. Margaret Graver. My heart-felt gratitude goes naturally to all those who have sup- ported and encouraged this project with their advice and suggestions, such as Prof. Francesca Calabi, Prof. Michael Erler, Prof. Tullio Gre- gory, Prof. Carlos Lévy. Finally, I am grateful to the friends and colleagues at the “Isti- tuto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo”, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, for their help in preparing this volume, and for the spirit of collaboration which they have all demonstrated: Michele Alessandrelli, M. Cristina Dalfino, Delfina Giovannozzi, Annarita Liburdi, Diana Quarantotto, Luca Simeoni. INTRODUCTION Francesca Alesse Preliminary remarks This volume is the result of a project concerning the place held by the philosophy of the Hellenistic age, or post-Aristotelian philosophy— from Theophrastus to Eudorus of Alexandria—in Philo’s philosophi- cal and exegetical works. This appears as part of a much broader and extremely complex issue, that of the relationship between Philo’s cor- pus and Greek philosophical traditions. It inevitably touches another important area of Philonic studies, that of the role played by this out- standing representative of the Jewish intellectual community in Alexan- dria in favouring the encounter between Greek philosophy and Scrip- ture and exploiting the Greek philosophical traditions as instruments of Biblical interpretation.1 Interest in the relation of Philo to Hellenistic or post-Aristotelian philosophical schools and traditions is by no means recent, as is demon- strated by the seminal works of, for instance, Hans von Arnim, Paul Wendland, Emile Bréhier and Max Pohlenz;2 indeed, the presence of 1 Just to mention the most recent and comprehensive studies on Philo’s acquain- tance with Greek cultural and philosophical traditions and his use of them as exegetical instruments: V. Nikiprowetzky, Le Commentaire de l’Écriture chez Philon d’Alexandrie: son car- actère et sa portée. Observations philologiques (Leiden 1977); R. Goulet, La philosophie de Moïse: essai de reconstruction d’un commentaire philosophique préphilonien du Pentateuque (Paris 1987); R. Radice, Platonismo e creazionismo in Filone di Alessandria (Milan 1989); D.T. Runia, Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato (Leiden 1986); C. Lévy (ed.), Philon d’Alexandrie et le langage de la philosophie. Actes du colloque international organisé par le Centre d’études sur la philosophie hellénistique et romaine de l’Université de Paris XII–Val de Marne (Créteil, Fontenay, Paris 26–28 octobre 1995), (Turnhout 1998). See also The Ancestral Philosophy. Hellenistic Philosophy in the Second Temple Judaism, essays of David Winston, ed. by G.E. Sterling (Providence 2001), chapter 4, and G.E. Sterling, “The Jewish Philos- ophy: the Presence of Hellenistic Philosophy in Jewish Exegesis in the Second Temple Period”, in C. Backos (ed.), Ancient Judaism in its Hellenistic Context (Leiden–Boston 2005), 131–153. 2 H. von Arnim, Quellenstudien zu Philo von Alexandreia, II: Philo und Aenesidem, Berlin 1888; P. Wendland, Philos Schrift über die Vorsehung (Berlin 1892); Philo und die kynisch- 2 francesca alesse topics and technical terms from the Sceptical tradition as well as the numerous, apparently certain traces of Stoic philosophy, have been objects of research and debate for a long time. One of the main critical problems has been the identification of Philo’s sources, direct or indi- rect. The well-known thesis advanced by Hans von Arnim that Philo’s list of Sceptical tropes, in De ebrietate, depends more or less directly on Aenesidemus, to whom should also be ascribed the ‘Heraclitism’ characterizing Philo’s exposition of the tropes, was questioned and rejected by J.-P. Dumont3 and U. Burkhard;4 a Stoic and particularly Posidonian background has often been supposed, given the numerous hints of Stoic metaphysics, psychology and ethics that can be found in Philo’s exegetical treatises, and considering the great number of Philonic extracts in von Arnim’s collection Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta.5 On the other hand, much interest has been raised by the position taken by the Academy of late Hellenism and one of its most impor- tant representatives, Antiochus of Ascalon: Willy Theiler6 sustained, as a general approach to the problem of Philo’s sources, that much of stoische Diatribe (Berlin 1895); “Eine doxographische Quelle Philos”, Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (1897), 1074–1079; E. Bréhier, Les idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon d’Alexandrie (Paris 1908, 19252, 19503); P. Barth–A. Goe- deckemeyer, Die Stoa (Stuttgart 19415); M. Pohlenz, “Philo von Alexandreia”, Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen 5 (1942), 409–487, repr. in Kleine Schriften, ed. by H. Dörrie (Hildesheim 1966), vol. 1, 306–383; P. Boyancé, “Études philoniennes”, Revue des Etudes Grecques 76 (1963), 64–110; see also W. Theiler, “Philon von Alexandria und der Beginn des kaiserzeitlichen Platonismus”, in K. Flasch (ed.), Parousia. Studien zur Philosophie Platons und zur Problemgeschichte des Platonismus. Festgabe für J. Hirschberger (Frankfurt 1965), 199–218. More recent surveys in A. Terian, “A Critical Introduction to Philo’s Dialogues”, in ANRW II 21.1 (Berlin–New York 1984), 272–294, and D. Winston, “Philo’s Ethical Theory”, ibidem, 372–416. 3 J.-P. Dumont, Le Scepticisme et le phénomène. Essai sur la signification et les origines du Pyrrhonisme (Paris 1972). 4 U. Burkhard, Die angebliche Heraklit-Nachfolge des Skeptikers Aenesidem (Bonn 1973). 5 See E. Zeller, Die Philosophie der Griechen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung (Leipzig 19235), vol. 3.2, 385ff.; H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Leipzig 1905), vol. 1, XIX; A. Schmekel, Forschungen zur