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  1. Home
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  3. The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity
  • Cited by 1
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
May 2011
Print publication year:
2000
Online ISBN:
9781139095457
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521764407
Subjects:
History of Philosophy, Classical Studies, History of Ideas, History, Ancient Philosophy, Politics and International Relations
Collections:
Cambridge Histories - Ancient History & Classics, Cambridge Histories - Philosophy & Political Thought
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Contents

Page 2 of 2

Contents
  • 21 - Themistius
    pp 397-416
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Themistius' school most likely offered training in both philosophy and rhetoric. Five authentic Aristotelian paraphrases by Themistius have been preserved, three, On the Soul, Posterior Analytics and Physics, in the original Greek and two, On the Heavens and Metaphysics Lambda, in both Hebrew and Latin versions. Themistius revived and to a large extent reinvented the genre of Aristotelian paraphrase as an exegetical tool. Logic clearly occupies a central place both in the curriculum of Themistius' school and in his own interest in philosophy. Themistius' Physics paraphrase contains few original discussions, being designed as an advanced introductory text to the problems of Aristotle's Physics, but some of the occurring digressions shed additional light on Themistius' overall philosophical position. The paraphrase of De anima is by far the longest and philosophically the most interesting work by Themistius. The philosophical position found in Themistius' extant works could be described as an original synthesis within the broad tradition of concordance between Plato and Aristotle.
  • 22 - The Alexandrian school. Theon of Alexandria and Hypatia
    pp 417-436
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter focuses on Hypatia of Alexandria and the school of thought she represented in fourth-century CE Alexandria. It follows the inverse chronological order and characterizes in turn the works and thoughts of Hypatia, Theon and Pappus of Alexandria, before concluding with a short discussion of the fact that they do not seem to have cultivated the 'observational' and 'physical' sides of Ptolemy's doctrine. It is often taken for granted that Hypatia was a philosopher in the Platonic tradition on the basis of three main arguments. The first is Socrates Scholasticus' testimony, the only source asserting that she took the succession of the Platonic school 'from Plotinus'. The second is a generous inference from the contents of Synesius' philosophy to that of his teacher. The last is a kind of 'contamination' argument, according to which she must have been a Platonist because the major trend of philosophy in this period is Platonism and because this philosophy was compatible with Christianity.
  • 23 - Hierocles of Alexandria
    pp 437-456
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Hierocles himself, according to an anecdote told by Damascius, ran foul of the authorities on a trip to Byzantium and was flogged, but returned to Alexandria 'and continued to philosophize with his students as he was accustomed'. In spite of the Christian-versus-pagan theme Hierocles remained a stalwart pagan philosopher, making no concessions, in his writings at any rate, to Christianity, and he enjoyed a fruitful teaching career. Hierocles' Demiurge is 'the first cause' and 'the very first and best' of the superior beings, just as Porphyry calls the highest creative cause 'the one demiurge, the very first'. The procession from the Demiurge to the created order is the characteristic Platonic procession from the second hypostasis of Intellect to the third hypostasis of Soul. In the subsequent history of late Platonism Hierocles was largely overshadowed by the most famous pupil of both Plutarch of Athens and Syrianus, Proclus.
  • 24 - Basil of Caesarea
    pp 459-470
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Basil became Bishop of Caesarea in 370 on Eusebius' death. An extensive range of Basil's writings survive, including over 300 letters and around fifty homilies. His ascetic corpus is foundational within Byzantine monastic literature. Basil's main dogmatic works are his Against Eunomius and his On the Holy Spirit. Basil's homilies on the Hexameron present a perfect example of the difficulty of reading Basil's philosophy. Basil also participates directly in ancient philosophical debate. The epistemological tensions revealed are dealt with at much greater length in Basil's Trinitarian works where questions of what we know when we speak of God press strongly. A great deal of Basil's thinking on the Trinity was worked out in response to Eunomius, sometime bishop of Cyzicus and proponent of the view that the Only-begotten Son is unlike God in substance. Basil's notion of shared substance clearly contains elements inherited from non-Christian philosophy. Basil also uses language for substance that appears to be inspired by Stoicism.
  • 25 - Gregory of Nyssa
    pp 471-481
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Very different interpretations of the thought of Gregory of Nyssa and the extent to which his writing reveals the influence of Greek philosophy have appeared. They have varied from the celebrated judgement of Harold Cherniss that any apparent Christianity in Gregory is only a surface cover which imperfectly conceals a dominant Hellenism. The extent of Gregory's philosophical commitment has been addressed from another angle, that of the nature of his coherence. Gregory uses what suits him and can modify what he has used in ways perhaps unacceptable to the Platonic past he inherited. This moderate and moderating attitude is discernible, as has been noted, in both Gregory's On the Soul and Resurrection and his Catechetical Oration. In the former he uses Plato's Phaedo which he tries to wed to the ideas of resurrection of the body. In the latter he uses the idea of theoprepeia primarily in order to defend and expound the doctrine of the Incarnation.
  • 26 - Gregory of Nazianzus
    pp 482-497
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Of all the writers of the earlier period, Gregory of Nazianzus was the one the later Byzantines turned to with most respect for his combination of high style, theological acumen, and philosophical 'sobriety'. Gregory was, as priest and philosopher, concerned with a Christian account of the nature of the First Principle. Gregory is not only the supreme articulator of the hypostatic relations of the Father and Son, but he is one of the most influential theoreticians of the Trinity in all Greek patristic writing. In other words his vision of the Supreme Monad is complex and rich. He is seeking to address both common Christians, who embraced Trinitarian acclamations in their liturgical doxologies, as well as sophisticated religious philosophers of his day and this with a view to facilitating the attraction of the literate pagan upper classes into Christianity at the imperial capital, where a large body of thinkers still required convincing of the intellectual respectability of the new religion.
  • 27 - Calcidius
    pp 498-508
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Calcidius adheres to the doctrine of the eternity of the world, and posits matter as a co-principle with and independent from god. He does not Christianize the Timaeus but rather makes the case for Platonic doctrine as he understands it. It is also possible that he did not realize that the Platonist Origen and the Christian one could have been two different people. The very act of writing a commentary on a non-Christian text may set him apart from the Christian circles of his time. Thus this work forces us to rethink the boundaries between Christian and pagan affiliations in the fourth century CE. Calcidius himself provides us with the key to the structure of his exposition. He uses transitions in the Timaeus account together with a markedly sequential approach, moving from more basic to complex and advanced topics. Calcidius has included in his doxography, a position that is similar to one elsewhere attested for Porphyry.
  • 28 - Nemesius of Emesa
    pp 509-519
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Nemesius was a Christian bishop of Emesa, a major city of the Roman province of Phoenicia Libani, in the territory of Syria. Nemesius seems to have an excellent knowledge of medical science; in De natura hominis in particular one can trace the influence of treatises of Galen, of which he reveals a notable mastery. The De natura hominis is built upon a skilful reworking of pagan philosophical doctrines, many of which had already become part of the heritage of Christian thought. Nemesius brings to the forefront a complex question which had been introduced into philosophical debate by late Platonism and in particular by Porphyry. Far from being an unoriginal restatement of doctrines, the De natura hominis, develops a specific anthropological project, one that derives from the traditional mould of the Christian culture of the time but is capable of putting into question certain philosophical choices to which the Church had restricted itself.
  • 29 - Synesius of Cyrene
    pp 520-537
  • View abstract

    Summary

    After his schooling, Synesius returned to Cyrene, where he established his reputation as a leading member of the local council. The works of Synesius include the Hymns, metaphysical poems written in the style of Greek lyric. They syncretistically include Hellenic and Christian ideas. The background and context of the Hymns is difficult to reconstruct. Their syncretistic Christian elements must be juxtaposed with the apparently pure religious Hellenism of his contemporaneous prose works; given this, there remains a certain ambiguity of religious outlook. Nevertheless, it is possible to delineate his essential position, which was based on a philosophical understanding of religion. The Hymns of Synesius are later Platonic metaphysical poems. Hymn 1, a paean to the intelligible world in which he expresses modes of thought and experience characteristic of Hellenic later Platonism, depends on imagery from the Chaldaean Oracles. In later hymns, Synesius harmonizes Hellenic religious thought and imagery with Christian doctrines such as the Trinity.
  • 30 - Marius Victorinus
    pp 538-551
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Marius Victorinus' surviving Christian writings consist of three hymns and nine treatises on the Trinity aswell as commentaries on Pauline epistles, the first in Latin. With the tools of grammar and rhetoric, Victorinus expounds the context of each epistle, clarifying the apostle's theoretical and practical precepts. Victorinus' philosophical learning came to fruition in his Trinitarian works, rich soil for Quellenforschungen. Victorinus' chief contribution is his philosophical conception of God, aptly dubbed 'the first metaphysical theory of a self-reflexive Absolute in the context of Latin theology'. Despite being a marginal character in the history of theology and a minor luminary in the history of philosophy, Marius Victorinus is an exemplar of the pervasive confluence of Greek philosophy and Christianity in late antiquity. He has rightly been recognized as the origin of a remarkable synthesis of Christianity and Platonism in the Latin world; and in this regard Victorinus was a forerunner of the medieval philosophical systems of the Christian West.
  • 31 - Augustine
    pp 552-581
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Up until 411, Augustine was involved in the controversy with the Donatists. Immediately after his conversion, Augustine believed that there were only two philosophical questions, one concerning the soul and the other concerning God. The first problem regarding the soul Augustine faced after his conversion was that of immortality. In De libero arbitrio, Augustine admits four hypotheses regarding the souls of the descendants: they derive from Adam's soul; they are created in time for every single man who is born; they pre-exist in God, who sends them to vivify the bodies of individuals; and they pre-exist 'somewhere else' and come into bodies spontaneously. Augustine's philosophia rationalis begins with a refutation of Academic Scepticism. The starting point of Augustine's ethics is an axiom taken from Cicero's Hortensius. Augustine carried out the task assigned to 'true philosophy' at Cassiciacum systematically in De Trinitate many years later. Augustine devoted three of the four books De doctrina christiana expressly to biblical hermeneutics.

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