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This collection of essays surveys a wide range of methods of
Platonic interpretation, ranging from the dialogues themselves, to
Middle and Neoplatonic interpretations of Plato’s writings, to
modern uses of Platonism. As a philosophical movement, Platonism is
broadly conceived, covering schools and philosophers beginning with
Plato and his immediate followers and extending through
contemporary philosophers. The history of Platonism begins, of
course, with Plato himself. But his adoption of the dialogue style
and his active engagement with students in his Academy, where he
certainly used dialectic techniques, led almost immediately to
questioning what Plato’s doctrines actually were. His student
Aristotle raised questions of interpretations and invoked esoteric
teachings not present in the written works. The earliest heads of
the Academy struggled with Plato’s texts as well, creating rival
interpretations. These early discussions gave rise to later ones,
and Platonism became simultaneously a dogmatic philosophy and a
source of sometimes-heated debate of what the master intended. From
its inception, Platonism was a dynamic philosophy, open to varied
interpretations on different fronts while also maintaining a common
core of beliefs. Platonism gave rise to methods of interpretation
that centered on historical, ethical, political, or metaphysical
questions engendered by Plato’s writings. The ancient
commentators reflected the teachings of their predecessors, and
with only a few schools in the Greco-Roman world, many of their
students studying under the same teachers, meant a heightened
continuity in the tradition of interpretation. This volume honors
the seventy-fifth birthday of John Dillon, the great scholar of
Platonism whose scholarship had a pivotal role in defining
Platonism as a philosophical movement in contemporary academia.
This edition of the fragments of Iamblichus' major work on the
soul, "De Anima," is accompanied by the first English translation
of the work and a commentary which explains the philosophical
background and Iamblichus' doctrine of the soul. Included too are
excerpts from the Pseudo-Simplicius and Priscianus (also translated
with commentary) that shed further light on Iamblichus' treatise.
The ancient philosophy, in its original Orphico-Pythagorean and
Platonic form, is not simply a way of life in accordance with the
divine or human intellect (nous), but also the way of alchemical
transformation and mystical illumination achieved through initiatic
'death' and subsequent restoration at the level of divine light. To
use another mythical image, philosophy restores the soul's wings
and leads the purified lover of wisdom to Heaven. As a means of
spiritual reintegration and unification, ancient philosophy is
inseparable from the hieratic rites. Therefore those scholars who
themselves follow the anagogic path of Platonic tradition are more
or less firmly convinced that their philosophy ultimately derives
from the Egyptian and Mesopotamian temple liturgies and rituals,
reinterpreted and revived by the Neoplatonists under the name of
'theurgy' in late antiquity. The theurgic 'animation' of statues
appears to be among the main keys for understanding how various
royal and priestly practices, related to the daily ritual service
and encounter with the divine presence in the temples, developed
into the Neoplatonic mysticism of late antiquity. The traditional
theory of symbolism still stands on the Neoplatonic foundation
established by Iamblichus, Proclus, and Damascius. "This book
clearly establishes three things: that traditional myth (as the
Neoplatonists maintained) is the symbolic expression of
metaphysics, as metaphysics is the exegesis of myth; that Greek
philosophy was not an isolated 'miracle' but a reinterpretation of
perennial themes common to the ancient Near Eastern, Mesopotamian,
Indian, and especially Egyptian religions; and that Platonic
philosophical discourse was but one-half of a whole which included
an invocatory/contemplative practice known as 'theurgy'. It was not
merely the ancestor of western speculative philosophy, but an
askesis, a yoga-a way of realization (though no longer a living
tradition) worthy to be included among the great spiritual methods
of all places and times." Charles Uupton, author of Knowings "In
this most stimulating and wide-ranging work, Algis Uzdavinys,
drawing on the resources of his enormous learning, leads
Neoplatonic theurgy back to its roots in Ancient Egypt, thereby
setting Platonic philosophy in a new and wider context. Students of
Neoplatonism will find themselves much indebted to him for this,
and all readers will find their outlook on life significantly
changed.- Prof. John M. Dillon, Trinity College, Dublin, author of
Middle Platonists
The commentary on Plato's Republic by Proclus (d. 485 CE), which
takes the form of a series of essays, is the only sustained
treatment of the dialogue to survive from antiquity. This
three-volume edition presents the first complete English
translation of Proclus' text, together with a general introduction
that argues for the unity of Proclus' Commentary and orients the
reader to the use that the Neoplatonists made of Plato's Republic
in their educational program. Each volume is completed by a Greek
word index and an English-Greek glossary that will help
non-specialists to track the occurrence of key terms throughout the
translated text. The first volume of the edition presents Proclus'
essays on the point and purpose of Plato's dialogue, the arguments
against Thrasymachus in Book I, the rules for correct poetic
depictions of the divine, a series of problems about the status of
poetry across all Plato's works, and finally an essay arguing for
the fundamental agreement of Plato's philosophy with the divine
wisdom of Homer which is, in Proclus' view, allegorically
communicated through his poems.
The commentary on Plato's Republic by Proclus (d. 485 CE), which
takes the form of a series of essays, is the only sustained
treatment of the dialogue to survive from antiquity. This
three-volume edition presents the first complete English
translation of Proclus' text, together with a general introduction
that argues for the unity of Proclus' Commentary and orients the
reader to the use that the Neoplatonists made of Plato's Republic
in their educational program. Each volume is completed by a Greek
word index and an English-Greek glossary that will help
non-specialists to track the occurrence of key terms throughout the
translated text. The first volume of the edition presents Proclus'
essays on the point and purpose of Plato's dialogue, the arguments
against Thrasymachus in Book I, the rules for correct poetic
depictions of the divine, a series of problems about the status of
poetry across all Plato's works, and finally an essay arguing for
the fundamental agreement of Plato's philosophy with the divine
wisdom of Homer which is, in Proclus' view, allegorically
communicated through his poems.
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