Authority and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition
Authority and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition

Author: Michael Erler

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-03-04

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1108922457

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All disciplines can count on a noble founder, and the representation of this founder as an authority is key in order to construe a discipline's identity. This book sheds light on how Plato and other authorities were represented in one of the most long-lasting traditions of all time. It leads the reader through exegesis and polemics, recovery of the past and construction of a philosophical identity. From Xenocrates to Proclus, from the sceptical shift to the re-establishment of dogmatism, from the Mosaic of the Philosophers to the Neoplatonist Commentaries, the construction of authority emerges as a way of access to the core of the Platonist tradition.

Traditional and Cosmic Gods in Later Plato and the Early Academy
Traditional and Cosmic Gods in Later Plato and the Early Academy

Author: Vilius Bartninkas

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-04-13

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1009322621

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This book sheds new light on Plato's cosmology in relation to Greek religion by examining the contested distinction between the traditional and cosmic gods. A close reading of the later dialogues shows that the two families of gods are routinely deployed to organise and structure Plato's accounts of the origins of the universe and of humanity and its social institutions, and to illuminate the moral and political ideals of philosophical utopias. Vilius Bartninkas argues that the presence of the two kinds of gods creates a dynamic, yet productive, tension in Plato's thinking which is unmistakable and which is not resolved until the works of his students. Thus the book closes by exploring how the cosmological and religious ideas of Plato's later dialogues resurfaced in the Early Academy and how the debates initiated there ultimately led to the collapse of this theological distinction.

The Realm of Mimesis in Plato
The Realm of Mimesis in Plato

Author: Mariangela Esposito

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2022-12-12

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 9004534547

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Orality versus writing is a vexed issue in Plato, but is it necessarily an opposition? This book places Plato’s work in the realm of mimesis and argues that we do not necessarily have to see this issue as demonstrating a straightforward opposition.

Neoplatonic Pedagogy and the Alcibiades I
Neoplatonic Pedagogy and the Alcibiades I

Author: James M. Ambury

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2024-05-31

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1009100211

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The first book-length study exclusively devoted to the commentaries of Proclus and Olympiodorus on the Platonic Alcibiades I.

Porphyry in Syriac
Porphyry in Syriac

Author: Yury Arzhanov

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-07-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 3111388166

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In 2021, a previously unknown treatise by Porphyry of Tyre, which has been preserved in a Syriac translation, was made available to historians of philosophy: Porphyry, On Principles and Matter (De Gruyter, 2021). This text not only enlarges our knowledge of the legacy of the most prominent disciple of Plotinus but also serves as an important witness to Platonist discussions of first principles and of Plato’s concept of prime matter in the Timaeus. The aim of the present volume of collected studies is two-fold. On the one hand, it brings up an update to the state of the art of our knowledge of Porphyry’s philosophy and of his role in the transmission of the earlier philosophical materials, especially those of the Middle Platonic works. On the other hand, it focuses on the questions of the reception of Porphyry’s legacy, both by Greek and Latin Platonists (with special interest in Calcidius) and by Christian Oriental authors (with particular focus on the Syriac tradition). The primary audience of the book will be scholars and graduate students in ancient and late ancient Greek philosophy, Orientalists and scholars interested in the Christian reception of Greek philosophy, in the studies of the Christian Orient, as well as in Greek, Latin, and Syriac philology.

The Entangled Enoch: 2 Enoch and the Cultures of Late Antiquity
The Entangled Enoch: 2 Enoch and the Cultures of Late Antiquity

Author: Grant Macaskill

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-05-30

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 9004695095

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This study reframes and reorients the study of 2 Enoch, moving beyond debates about Christian or Jewish authorship and considering the work in the context of eclectic and erudite cultures in late antiquity, particularly Syria. The study compares the work with the Parables of Enoch and then with a variety of writings associated with late antique Syrian theology, demonstrating the distinctively eclectic character of 2 Enoch. It offers new paradigms for research into the pseudepigrapha.

Divination and Revelation in Later Antiquity
Divination and Revelation in Later Antiquity

Author: Elsa Giovanna Simonetti

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-10-31

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1009328786

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"Explores divination in antiquity from a range of perspectives, looking both at practices and theories and how and why these changed over time. Important for students and academics working in classics, history of philosophy, and history of religion"--

The Oxford Handbook of Galen
The Oxford Handbook of Galen

Author: Peter N. Singer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 0190913681

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The Oxford Handbook of Galen provides a comprehensive overview of the life, work, and legacy of Galen (129--c. 216 CE), arguably the most important medical figure of the Graeco-Roman world. It contains essays by thirty leading experts on Galen's life and background, his medical theories, his therapeutic and clinical practices, and his philosophical contributions in the areas of logic, epistemology, causation, scientific method, and ethics. The authors also discuss the most important pathways of the transmission of his texts and his intellectual legacy, from late antiquity to early modern times and from western Europe to Tibet and China.

Transformation and the History of Philosophy
Transformation and the History of Philosophy

Author: G. Anthony Bruno

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-22

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 100381249X

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From ancient conceptions of becoming a philosopher to modern discussions of psychedelic drugs, the concept of transformation plays a fascinating part in the history of philosophy. However, until now there has been no sustained exploration of the full extent of its role. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is an outstanding survey of the history, nature, and development of the idea of transformation, from the ancient period to the twentieth century. Comprising twenty-two specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors, the volume is divided into four clear parts: Philosophy as Transformative: Ancient China, Greece, India, and Rome Transformation Between the Human and the Divine: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy Transformation After the Copernican Revolution: Post-Kantian Philosophy Treatises, Pregnancies, Psychedelics, and Epiphanies: Twentieth-Century Philosophy Each of these sections begins with an introduction by the editors. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is essential reading for students and researchers in the history of western and non-western philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, and aesthetics. It will also be extremely useful for those in related disciplines such as religion, sociology, and the history of ideas.