This book explores how introductory methods shaped intellectual activity in various fields of thought of the post-Hellenistic Age and Late Antiquity by framing them in a wider interdisciplinary ...framework.
Cet article se propose d'analyser les références aux exégèses médioplatoniciennes sur la cosmogonie du Timée que l'on trouve dans le deuxième livre du Commentaire au Timée de Proclus. Les textes que ...Proclus mentionne (et que l'on considère généralement en tant que fragments, c'est-à-dire en dehors du cadre proclien) seront systématiquement examinés en considérant leur contexte et la manière dont Proclus les introduit. On pourra ainsi mettre en évidence que le témoignage de Proclus ne permet pas de soutenir que les commentaires médioplatoniciens étaient continus : la source la plus importante pour les exégèses médio-platoniciennes du Timée conduit à adopter une attitude sceptique sur cette question. On aura aussi l'occasion de remarquer d'autres aspects, concernant aussi bien l'approche exégétique médio-platonicienne que la façon dont Proclus utilisait ses sources (directes ou indirectes). The aim of this research is to analyse references to Middle Platonic exegeses on Plato's cosmogony in the second book of Proclus' Commentary on the Timaeus. Passages (which are generally dealt with only as fragments) will be systematically observed by considering their context and the way Proclus presents them : one will finally be able to emphasise that Proclus' witness does not sustain the idea that Middle Platonic commentaries were continuous. Then, the major source for Middle Platonic exegeses on the Timaeus strongly suggests us to adopt a sceptical attitude with respect to this problem. In addition, some further aspects will emerge, for what concerns both Middle Platonic exegetical approach and Proclus' method of using his (either direct or indirect) sources.
Burnet's text at Pl. Ti. 55c7–d6 is at least questionable, and opting for a different reading at 55d5 (θεός instead of θεόν) would shed light on an intriguing argumentative aspect of Plato's ...cosmological account: God confirms the metaphysical reasons why there is just one perfect world.
Scholars remain far from reaching agreement about the structure of Middle Platonist commentaries on Plato's dialogues: some take them to have been running line-by-line commentaries, while others ...believe that Middle Platonist commentaries were mainly specialist works. In this paper I propose a fresh and comprehensive analysis of extant sources in order to show that both views, while shedding light on important features of this literary genre in Middle Platonism, should be supplemented in order to draw a more complex picture. Extant sources suggest that the Middle Platonist commentaries were characterized by a set of features which shaped a specific conception of the literary genre: they were lemmatic and followed the development of a dialogue in its progression, yet at the same time they applied a thematic focus and hence admitted a substantial degree of selectivity.
The Menexenus is usually described as a ‘riddle’ or ‘puzzle’. The difficulties it poses have given rise to a multitude of exegeses, revolving around two antithetical readings. On the one hand, some ...scholars tend to consider the dialogue an ironic critique of Athenian democracy and/or of democratic rhetoric. According to this perspective, Plato expressed this criticism through a paradoxical and somehow feverish epitaphios (the ironic reading). On the other hand, some scholars consider the funeral oration to be quite serious. According to this perspective, Plato aimed at reforming the genre and at introducing his theory of the ideal state or his theory of virtue (the strict reading). In this paper I will be moving beyond these standard readings in an attempt to supplement them by identifying the real moral issue behind the Menexenus.
Contemporary debate on Plato's cosmogony often assumes that the 'literal' reading of the Timaeus yields an account of creation, while the view that the cosmos always existed is non-literal. In ...antiquity, Taurus has been seen as a forerunner of the 'non-literal' interpretation. This paper shows, on the contrary, that Taurus' argument for the sempiternity of the cosmos is a literalist one, relying on a strict linguistic analysis of Timaeus 28b6-8.
The aim of this paper is to deeply rethink the traditional notion of "ideological emendation". By taking Taurus T27 as a test-case, I shall emphasise that Taurus' intervention on Timaeus 27c5 is the ...result of a conjecture, and that such an emendation meets the requirements for a philological conjecture on Plato's text. Indeed, Taurus' fragment, which is usually taken as a typical example of "ideological emendation", only reflects an effort to recover what Plato actually wrote, and is nothing but a textual emendation. Accordingly, the ideological core of such an emendation is what must lie at the basis of any conjecture, that is an attempt to re-establish (what is assumed to be) Plato's text in accordance with his consistent doctrine.
This paper discusses Mauro Bonazzi's excellent book on Middle Platonism, its relationship with Hellenistic philosophy and Plotinus. The overall evaluation is extremely positive: the book detects ...fundamental aspects of Middle Platonism by focusing on its (often disregarded) epistemology and carefully analysing puzzling-and telling-stages of its philosophical development.
Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride has been studied from several points of view. In this paper I set out to demonstrate first of all that the core of the work fully rests on Plato's philosophy, since ...according to Plutarch's methodological assumptions Plato had grasped the truth hidden behind the Isis myth. Then I shall focus on the argumentative structure of the work, highlighting its twofold nature. The De Iside is entirely structured as a philosophical zetema, whose apex rests on Plato's doctrine. Finally, I will argue that the 'Platonic section' (45-64) is framed in a different way, its aim being to progressively deepen Plutarch's underlying assumption: the notion of the dualistic nature of being.
PDF
