Numenius' Fragment 13 (E
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The Nous: a Globe of Faces1
THE NOUS: A GLOBE OF FACES1 Theodore Sabo, North-West University, South Africa ([email protected]) Abstract: Plotinus inherited the concept of the Nous from the Middle Platonists and ultimately Plato. It was for him both the Demiurge and the abode of the Forms, and his attempts at describing it, often through the use of arresting metaphors, betray substantial eloquence. None of these metaphors is more unusual than that of the globe of faces which is evoked in the sixth Ennead and which is found to possess a notable corollary in the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the four living creatures. Plotinus’ metaphor reveals that, as in the case of Ezekiel, he was probably granted such a vision, and indeed his encounters with the Nous were not phenomena he considered lightly. Defining the Nous Plotinus’ Nous was a uniquely living entity of which there is a parallel in the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel. The concept of the Nous originated with Anaxagoras. 2 Although Empedocles’ Sphere was similarly a mind,3 Anaxagoras’ idea would win the day, and it would be lavished with much attention by the Middle and Neoplatonists. For Xenocrates the Nous was the supreme God, but for the Middle Platonists it was often the second hypostasis after the One.4 Plotinus, who likewise made the Nous his second hypostasis, equated it with the Demiurge of Plato’s Timaeus.5 He followed Antiochus of Ascalon rather than Plato in regarding it as not only the Demiurge but the Paradigm, the abode of the Forms.6 1 I would like to thank Mark Edwards, Eyjólfur Emilsson, and Svetla Slaveva-Griffin for their help with this article. -
Iamblichus and Julian''s ''Third Demiurge'': a Proposition
Iamblichus and Julian”s ”Third Demiurge”: A Proposition Adrien Lecerf To cite this version: Adrien Lecerf. Iamblichus and Julian”s ”Third Demiurge”: A Proposition . Eugene Afonasin; John M. Dillon; John F. Finamore. Iamblichus and the Foundations of Late Platonism, 13, BRILL, p. 177-201, 2012, Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Texts and Contexts. Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition, 10.1163/9789004230118_012. hal-02931399 HAL Id: hal-02931399 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02931399 Submitted on 6 Sep 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Iamblichus and Julian‟s “Third Demiurge”: A Proposition Adrien Lecerf Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France [email protected] ABSTRACT. In the Emperor Julian's Oration To the Mother of the Gods, a philosophical interpretation of the myth of Cybele and Attis, reference is made to an enigmatic "third Demiurge". Contrary to a common opinion identifying him to the visible Helios (the Sun), or to tempting identifications to Amelius' and Theodorus of Asine's three Demiurges, I suggest that a better idea would be to compare Julian's text to Proclus' system of Demiurges (as exposed and explained in a Jan Opsomer article, "La démiurgie des jeunes dieux selon Proclus", Les Etudes Classiques, 71, 2003, pp. -
The Cappadocian Milieu 14:00 - 16:00 Tuesday, 20Th August, 2019 East School Presentation Type Short Communications Ilaria
The Cappadocian Milieu 14:00 - 16:00 Tuesday, 20th August, 2019 East School Presentation type Short Communications Ilaria 518 Basil and Amelius Arnaud PERROT Ecole normale supérieure, Paris, France Abstract Basil’s Homily on the word: ‘In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1)’ alludes to the admiration of the pagans for the prologue of the Gospel of John and to how the pagans are supposed to have made use of this text in their own writings. Behind these words, one can easily recognize an allusion to the Neoplatonist Amelius, Plotinus’ senior disciple. Basil’s Neoplatonism has been the subject of much debate, especially as far as his direct knowledge of Plotinus is concerned. In this paper, I will show that Basil has certainly not read Amelius, but, exactly like the other Christian writers who referred to Amelius’ testimony, is dependent here on Eusebius’ Evangelical Preparation and the way the Palestinian bishop had more or less coined Amelius’ testimony on the value of John’s Prologue. 896 Sympatheia and the Body of Christ in Basil of Caesarea Thomas Tatterfield Boston College, Chestnut Hill, USA Abstract It is no secret that Basil of Caesarea utilizes the Stoic philosophical concept of sympatheia in his cosmology. This article's point of departure is an article on the subject by N. Joseph Torchia in which various Plotinian parallels are discussed. Once sympatheia is understood in its broader usage, Basil's unique treatment of it is revealed. This paper argues that Basil's use of sympatheia is integrated in to his treatment of the unity of the Church. -
Atlantis: Myths, Ancient and Modern Harold Tarrant Abstract in This Paper I Show That the Story of Atlantis, First Sketched in P
Atlantis: Myths, Ancient and Modern Harold Tarrant Abstract In this paper I show that the story of Atlantis, first sketched in Plato's Timaeus and Critias, has been artificially shrouded in mystery since antiquity. While it has been thought from Proclus to the close of the twentieth century that Plato's immediate followers were divided on the issue of whether the story was meant to be historically true, this results from a simple misunderstanding of what historia had meant when the early Academic Crantor was first being cited as an exponent of a literal rather than an allegorical interpretation. The term was then applied to straightforward stories that were told as if they were true. Iamblichus argued for a deeper meaning that did not exclude the truth, and Proclus' belief in an inspired Plato leads him to assume that a Platonic historia must be true. Hence he misreads Crantor as having been committed to historical truth and opposes him to allegorical interpreters. Scholars have continued to see Crantor as a proponent of the historical Atlantis without adequate examination of the evidence, an indication of our own need to preserve the tantalizing uncertainties of such powerful stories. I. Introduction Human beings, it seems, have a natural need for myth, a need that has not passed with the advent of the written word, but rather mutated. The advent of modern science, offering strikingly new ways of explaining the workings of our world, has not overridden the need to hear a plausible account of how this world began, as if we still need a narrative of its birth in order to understand how it is. -
Being the Treatises of the First Ennead With
Tufts College Library FROM THE INCOME OF THE SHIPMAN MEMORIAL FUND Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/ethicaltreatises01plot I f ; « li s’ I I V Oo dum 5l<5ipe 0(^ i on6fu\ tiA h-6ipe^nn, 1 nDoriin^id-Dpoc t)jiile-^i!;4-CU-iC tioni, Sciopin tTiAC-ennii. TIo'dUaij 1916. LOTINUS: THE ETHICAL TREATISES BEING THE TREATISES OF THE FIRST ENNEAD WITH PORPHYRY’S LIFE OF PLOTINUS, AND THE PRELLER-RITTER EXTRACTS FORMING A CONSPECTUS OF THE PLOTINIAN SYSTEM, TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY STEPHEN MACKENNA CHARLES T. BRANFORD COMPANY BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS /1>.L % k95 ,E5 ,M-b v.l CONTENTS I'AQP. Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus ....... i THE BOOKS OF THE FIRST ENNEAD I. The Animate and the Man . .29 . II. On Virtue . • 41 III. Dialectic (or The Upward Way) . -.50 IV. On Happiness (or The Authentic Good of Life) . V. On Happiness and Extension of Time . -72 VI. On Beauty . *77 VII. On the Primal Good and its Secondary Forms . .89 VIII. On Evil, Its Nature and Source . .92 IX. On “The Reasoned Dismissal” ...... 108 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND EXPLANATORY MATTER Text, Previous Tr.\nslations . -113 Method of this Translation . .114 Commentaries ......... 116 Terminology ......... 117 The Divine Names ........ 118 The One .......... n8 The Intellectual-Principle ....... 119 The All-Soul ......... 120 The Divine-Triad as a Unity ....... 120 The Gods and Daimones ....... 121 • Man ; His Nature, Powers and Destiny ..... 121 Evil and Matter ........ 123 Morality ......... 123 The Term and the Way ....... 124 Minor Points of Terminology ....... 124 THE PRELLER-RITTER CONSPECTUS OF THE PLOTINIAN SYSTEM I. -
Pagan and Christian Demonology of the Ante-Nicene Period
o ujHOUSTON. r" > &O • vjyTEXAS / j v * RICE UNIVERSITY Pagan and Christian Demonology of the Ante-Nicene Period ty' Diana Lynn Walzel A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OP THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OP Master of Arts Thesis Director*s signature: Houston, Texas May, 1972 Abstract Pagan and Christian Demonology of the Ante-Nicene Period ty Diana Lynn Walzel' The idea of progress has become one of the central concepts of western civilization; but in the ante-Nicene period, this idea, with its inherent optimism, was little known. The universe was controlled by supernatural forces which were often working against man. Fate and the stars controlled the lives of men, but controlling the stars were demons. These pages review pagan and Christian demonology from Plato to Xamblichus, During these centuries, there were variations among the pagans in the concept of the function and nature of demons*, but the answers to the three main philosophic questions implicit ;.in demonology — the problem of evil, the problem of unity and diversity, and the relationship of the soul to a higher sphere - remained remarkably the same, Christianity, because of a different view of the universe, answered these questions in a different way. The early Christians, from Paul to Lactantlus, proclaimed victory over the demonic forces which held the pagan world in fear. By the cross of Jesus Christ, the power of the demonic forces which had enslaved men was broken. The major battle against the forces of evil had been won-, and the cross was a positive token that ultimately a kingdom would be established in which demons had no power. -
Numenius and the Hellenistic Sources of the Central Christian Doctrine
! Numenius and the Hellenistic Sources ! of the Central Christian Doctrine Marian Hillar Center for Philosophy and Socinian Studies Houston, TX 77004 Paper published in A Journal from the Radical Reformation. A testimony to Biblical Unitarianism. Vol. 14, No.! 1, Spring 2007, pp. 3-31. Quis obsecro, nisi penitus amens logomachias has sine risu toleraret? Nec in Thalmud, nec in Alchoran, sunt tam horrendae blasfemiae. Haec nos hactenus audire ita sumus alsuefacti, ut nihil miremur. Futurae vero generationes stupenda haec iudicabunt. Stupenda sunt vere, plusquam ea daemonum inventa, quae Valentinianis tribuit Irenaeus. I implore you, who in his sane mind could tolerate such logomachias without bursting into laughter? Not in the Talmud, nor in the Qu’ran can one find such horrendous blasphemies. But we are accustomed to hear them to the point that nothing astonishes us. Future generations will judge them obscure. Indeed, they are obscure, much more than the diabolic inventions which Irenaeus attributed to the Valentinians. ! Michael Servetus Christianismi Restitutio, De Trinitate, lib. I. p. 46. Si locum mihi aliquem ostendas, quo verbum illud filius olim vocetur, fatebor me victum. Christianismi Restitutio, If you show me a single passage in which the Son was called the Word, I will give up. Michael Servetus, Christianismi Restitutio, De Trinitate, lib. III p. 108. ! Abstract This paper attempts to explain the sources of the central Christian doctrine about the nature of deity. We can trace a continuous line of thought from the Greek philosophy to the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. The first Christian doctrine was developed by Justin Martyr (114-165 C.E.). -
L-G-0011625627-0031276373.Pdf
SERAPHIM Studies in Education and Religion in Ancient and Pre-Modern History in the Mediterranean and Its Environs Editors Peter Gemeinhardt · Sebastian Günther Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler · Florian Wilk Editorial Board Wolfram Drews · Alfons Fürst · Therese Fuhrer Susanne Gödde · Marietta Horster · Angelika Neuwirth Karl Pinggéra · Claudia Rapp · Günter Stemberger George Van Kooten · Markus Witte 3 Teachers in Late Antique Christianity Edited by Peter Gemeinhardt, Olga Lorgeoux, and Maria Munkholt Christensen Mohr Siebeck Peter Gemeinhardt, born 1970; studied Protestant Theology at the Universities of Marburg and Göttingen; 2001 Dr. theol., University of Marburg; 2003 Ordination; 2006 Habilitation, University of Jena; 2007 Professor of Church History at the University of Göttingen; since 2015 Director of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre “Education and Religion”. Olga Lorgeoux, born 1988; studied Protestant Theology, Spanish and Pedagogy at the Uni- versity of Göttingen; 2013 Master of Education; since 2014 research assistant at the Chair of Church History at the Faculty of Theology in Göttingen and since 2015 associate researcher in the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre “Education and Religion”. Maria Munkholt Christensen, born 1986; studied Protestant Theology at Aarhus Uni- versity, Denmark; 2015 PhD from Aarhus University; since 2015 postdoc in the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre “Education and Religion”. ISBN 978-3-16-155857-3 / eISBN 978-3-16-155915-0 DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-155915-0 ISSN 2568-9584 / eISSN 2568-9606 (SERAPHIM) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2018 Mohr Siebeck Tübingen. www.mohrsiebeck.com This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. -
The Ideas As Thoughts of God
Études platoniciennes 8 | 2011 Les Formes platoniciennes dans l'Antiquité tardive The Ideas as thoughts of God John Dillon Publisher Société d’Études Platoniciennes Electronic version Printed version URL: http:// Date of publication: 1 November 2011 etudesplatoniciennes.revues.org/448 Number of pages: 31-42 DOI: 10.4000/etudesplatoniciennes.448 ISSN: 2275-1785 Brought to you by Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme Electronic reference John Dillon, « The Ideas as thoughts of God », Études platoniciennes [Online], 8 | 2011, Online since 16 December 2014, connection on 24 May 2017. URL : http://etudesplatoniciennes.revues.org/448 ; DOI : 10.4000/etudesplatoniciennes.448 © Société d’Études platoniciennes The Ideas as Thoughts of God John Dillon Xenocrates’ Nous-Monad The precise origin of the concept of the Platonic Forms, or Ideas, as thoughts of God is a long-standing puzzle in the history of Platonism, which I am on record as dismissing somewhat brusquely in various works.1 I am glad to have an opportunity to return to it now, in this distinguished company.2 I propose to begin my consideration of it on this occasion by returning to the seminal article of Audrey Rich, published in Mnemosyne back in 1954.3 As you may recall, Rich’s thesis in that article was that the concept arose, whenever it arose – sometime in the early Hellenistic age, was her guess – as a reaction to Aristotle’s concept of the Unmoved Mover of Met. Lambda as an intellect thinking itself, and “a desire to reconcile the Theory of Ideas with the Aristotelian doctrine of immanent form” (p. -
May Plato's Academy Be Considered As the First Academic Institution?
Center for Open Access in Science ▪ https://www.centerprode.com/ojsh.html Open Journal for Studies in History, 2019, 2(2), 35-42. ISSN (Online) 2620-066X ▪ https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsh.0202.02035s _________________________________________________________________________ May Plato’s Academy be Considered as the First Academic Institution? Zhulduz Amangelidyevna Seitkasimova M. Auezov South Kazakhstan State University, KAZAKHSTAN Faculty of Pedagogy and Culture, Shymkent Received 8 November 2019 ▪ Revised 17 December 2019 ▪ Accepted 23 December 2019 Abstract Plato’s Academy is undoubtedly the first higher education institution in history, and in ancient Athens itself represents the most important educational institution. It constituted in the context of the universal development that took place in ancient Athens, in the 5th and 4th century BC, and it continued to work until the Byzantine Emperor Justinian forbade the work of all schools of philosophy (529 AD). This development, which is part of the so-called Golden Age of ancient Athens, represents the period of Greek history in which the foundations of Western civilization originated, as we know it today. Plato appears as one of the greatest philosophers of ancient Greece, along with Socrates and Aristotle, to the first of whom appears as a student and to the second as a teacher. Philosophy in the true sense of the word was created in Plato’s era in ancient Athens (Russell, 1975), and Plato’s Academy, in which he, along with his students, talked about various philosophical topics through the Garden of Akademos, was the impetus for this development. There are also opinions that the development of philosophy after Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle is only of reproductive character when it comes to the basics of philosophy. -
Literary Quarrels
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics (1) The Cicala's Song: Plato in the Aetia Benjamin Acosta-Hughes University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Version 1.2 © Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, [email protected] (2) Literary Quarrels Susan Stephens Stanford University Version 1.0 © Susan Stephens Abstract: Scholars have long noted Platonic elements or allusions in Callimachus' poems, particularly in the Aetia prologue and the 13th Iambus that center on poetic composition. Following up on their work, Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Susan Stephens, in a recent panel at the APA, and in papers that are about to appear in Callimachea II. Atti della seconda giornata di studi su Callimaco (Rome: Herder), have argued not for occasional allusions, but for a much more extensive influence from the Phaedo and Phaedrus in the Aetia prologue (Acosta-Hughes) and the Protagoras, Ion, and Phaedrus in the Iambi (Stephens). These papers are part of a preliminary study to reformulate Callimachus' aesthetic theory. 1 The Cicala's Song: Plato in the Aetia* This paper prefigures a larger study of Callimachus and Plato, a study on which my Stanford colleague Susan Stephens and I have now embarked in our co-authored volume on Callimachus.1 Awareness of Platonic allusion in Callimachus is not new, although its significance has not really been appreciateda close reading of the two authors remains a real desideratum, and it is indeed this need that we hope our work will one day fulfill. The main focal points of the present paper are two passages of Callimachus, and two passages of Plato, that, read together, configure a remarkable intertextual dialogue on poetry, reading, and the inspired voice. -
Alcinous' Reception of Plato
chapter 10 Alcinous’ Reception of Plato Carl S. O’Brien* I Introduction It is clear now that the author of the Didaskalikos was indeed Alcinous, and the attribution to Albinus should be regarded as an error, resulting from a mis- guided conjecture by Freudenthal.1 Alcinous’ use of Plato can be characterized in terms of three central features. Firstly, his work is a handbook or instruction manual, although the level of instruction at certain points can seem relatively advanced. This suggests that it is not a handbook intended for beginners, but rather those who have already received some instruction in Platonism (pos- sibly as a refresher manual for teachers of Platonism).2 Secondly, Alcinous composed the Didaskalikos during the phase of Platonism identified as Mid- dle Platonic and, as is typical of the period, Aristotelian and Stoic strands and terminology are combined with his Platonic heritage (although one must also note that many of the Aristotelian and Stoic elements which find their way into Middle Platonism often had a Platonic inspiration to begin with). In light of the lack of a distinctive “orthodox” Platonism, a range of opinions was toler- ated and regarded as philosophically acceptable. This is undertaken from the dual perspective of modernizing or updating Plato, as well as claiming sub- sequent Aristotelian and Stoic advances for Plato himself; a good example is logic at Did. 5, which can be claimed to owe its origin to Platonic dialectic, although Plato himself never identified logic as a subdivision of philosophy. Thirdly, Plato is reduced by Alcinous to a series of dogmata or doctrines; he is stripped of his literary character and, although it is clear that Plato’s philoso- phy permeates the Didaskalikos, we do not get the sense of Alcinous drawing upon any dialogue in its entirety.