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E l i a s a n d D a v i d Introductions to Philosophy with Olympiodorus Introduction to Logic i Ancient Commentators on Aristotle GENERAL EDITORS : Richard Sorabji, Honorary Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and Emeritus Professor, King’s College London, UK ; and Michael Griffi n, Assistant Professor, Departments of Philosophy and Classics, University of British Columbia, Canada. Th is prestigious series translates the extant ancient Greek philosophical commentaries on Aristotle. Written mostly between 200 and 600 AD , the works represent the classroom teaching of the Aristotelian and Neoplatonic schools in a crucial period during which pagan and Christian thought were reacting to each other. Th e translation in each volume is accompanied by an introduction, comprehensive commentary notes, bibliography, glossary of translated terms and a subject index. Making these key philosophical works accessible to the modern scholar, this series fi lls an important gap in the history of European thought. A webpage for the Ancient Commentators Project is maintained at ancientcommentators.org.uk and readers are encouraged to consult the site for details about the series as well as for addenda and corrigenda to published volumes. ii Elias and David Introductions to Philosophy with Olympiodorus Introduction to Logic T r a n s l a t e d b y S e b a s t i a n G e r t z BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2018 Copyright © Sebastian Gertz, 2018 Sebastian Gertz has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Editor of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. vii constitute an extension of this copyright page. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: HB: 978-1-3500-5174-4 ePDF: 978-1-3500-5175-1 eBook: 978-1-3500-5176-8 Series: Ancient Commentators on Aristotle Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters iv C o n t e n t s Acknowledgements vii Conventions viii Introduction 1 1. Th ree introductions to philosophy from the school of Olympiodorus 1 a. Elias and David, Introduction to Philosophy 3 b. Olympiodorus, Introduction to Logic 8 2. Detailed outline of lectures 10 a. Elias, Introduction to Philosophy 10 b. David, Introduction to Philosophy 10 c. Olympiodorus, Introduction to Logic 12 Notes 12 Elias, Introduction to Philosophy 15 Textual Emendations 17 Translation 19 Notes 58 Appendix: Th e defi nitions of philosophy according to Elias, Prol . 8,20–7 67 English–Greek Glossary 69 Greek–English Index 73 David, Introduction to Philosophy 79 Textual Emendations 81 Translation 83 Notes 164 English–Greek Glossary 177 Greek–English Index 183 v vi Contents Olympiodorus, Introduction to Logic 191 Textual Emendations 193 Translation 195 Notes 224 English–Greek Glossary 231 Greek–English Index 237 Bibliography 243 Index of Passages 247 Index of Names 251 Subject Index 255 Acknowledgements Th e present translations have been made possible by generous and imaginative funding from the following sources: the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Research Programs, an independent federal agency of the USA ; the Leverhulme Trust; the British Academy; the Jowett Copyright Trustees; the Royal Society ( UK ); Centro Internazionale A. Beltrame di Storia dello Spazio e del Tempo (Padua); Mario Mignucci; Liverpool University; the Leventis Foundation; the Arts and Humanities Research Council; Gresham College; the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust; the Henry Brown Trust; Mr and Mrs N. Egon; the Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c Research ( NWO / GW ); Th e Ashdown Trust; the Lorne Th yssen Research Fund for Ancient World Topics at Wolfson College, Oxford; Dr Victoria Solomonides, the Cultural Attaché of the Greek Embassy in London; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Th e editors wish to thank Michael Atkinson, Jonathan Barnes, Cristina D’Ancona, Barrie Fleet, Mossman Rouché, and Robert Th omson for their comments; John Sellars for preparing the volume for press; and Alice Wright, Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury Academic, for her diligence in seeing each volume of the series to press. vii C o n v e n t i o n s [. .] Square brackets indicate additions to the translation for the sake of greater clarity. <. .> Angle brackets indicate additions to the Greek text. Notes to the translation provide further details on textual matters. {. .} Curly brackets indicate suggested deletions of text. Notes to the translation provide further details on textual matters. (. .) Round brackets function as ordinary English parentheses and may enclose transliterated Greek words or phrases. viii I n t r o d u c t i o n 1 . Th ree introductions to philosophy from the school of Olympiodorus Few subjects in the history of thought have attracted as much attention from philosophers as the nature and purpose of philosophy itself. Th e three texts brought together in this volume present a vision of philosophy as it would have been taught and studied in the sixth century CE , in the intellectual centre of the Eastern Mediterranean, Alexandria. All three authors presented here (Olympiodorus, Elias, and David) belong to a school of philosophy that is now known to scholars as Neoplatonism; all three stand in the shadow of one particular Neoplatonist teacher, Ammonius of Alexandria, who was active in the late fi ft h and early sixth century CE . 1 Neoplatonism is perhaps most recognizable for its focus on bold metaphysical speculations and its attempt to turn the works of Plato into a coherent system of thought with its own canon of sacred texts, but the teaching duties of professors like Ammonius were oft en taken up with more introductory matters, particularly the study of Aristotle’s logical works, which were seen as a vital foundation for any further advances into philosophy.2 Aristotle’s Categories provided the starting point for the ancient study of logic, although students at Alexandria would fi rst approach the text through a series of introductory works.3 Th ey would have had at their disposal Ammonius’ own commentary on the Categories , whose preliminary section discusses the study of logic, the Categories , and Aristotle’s philosophy in general. By the time of Olympiodorus, who studied under Ammonius, this section of the commentary had become signifi cantly expanded, to twenty- fi ve pages of Greek from Ammonius’ mere fi ft een. Olympiodorus is also the author of a work that would have preceded his Introduction to Logic but is now lost to us, namely a commentary on Porphyry’s Isagôgê (itself an introduction to key concepts in Aristotle’s Categories ). Olympiodorus’ commentary on Porphyry’s 1 2 Introduction Isagôgê is likely to have included an introduction to philosophy in general; 4 t h e main outline of topics can be reconstructed from the two works of his students Elias and David, whose own Introductions to Philosophy are translated in this volume alongside Olympiodorus’ Introduction to Logic . Together, the three texts present a lively picture of what it might have been like to sit in a fi rst year philosophy course in ancient Alexandria, and how ancient thinkers understood their own discipline of philosophy. Despite, or perhaps rather because of, their elementary nature, introductions to philosophy in the style of Ammonius, Olympiodorus, and his followers proved to be a popular cultural export, infl uencing Syriac, Persian, Arabic, and Armenian texts throughout the centuries.5 While we are able to reconstruct the life and activity of Olympiodorus on the basis of a few solid facts, the most important of which are that he was a professor of philosophy in Alexandria who lived roughly between 500–570 CE , reliable biographical details about his students David and Elias are scarce indeed. Elias is the author of a commentary on Porphyry’s Isagôgê (the fi rst part of which contains the Introduction to Philosophy translated here), a commentary on Aristotle’s Categories , and a commentary on Aristotle’s Prior Analytics (of which only a small portion survives).6 One manuscript (Paris. suppl. gr. 678) numbers Elias ‘among prefects’ ( apo eparkhôn ), but it is uncertain whether the title ‘prefect’ is honorifi c or whether it implies some offi cial responsibilities in the Emperor Justinian’s administration.7 David, on the other hand, wrote a commentary on Porphyry’s Isagôgê , in addition to his Introduction to Philosophy translated here. Four works survive in Armenian that bear a close similarity to the two Greek works inscribed with the name ‘David’, namely an Introduction to Philosophy , and commentaries on Porphyry’s Isagôgê , Aristotle’s Categories , and Aristotle’s Prior Analytics ; all four works are attributed to David the Invincible ( Anhağt’ ). 8 We know almost nothing about the Greek David, and are told a lot more about the Armenian David (some of it quite fantastical), who is credited with translating Greek works into Armenian and composing pious literature such as the Panegyric of the Cross .
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