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Introduction, Translation, and Commentary
Author:
In the treatise On the Change of Names (part of his magnum opus, the Allegorical Commentary), Philo of Alexandria brings his figurative exegesis of the Abraham cycle to its fruition. Taking a cue from Platonist interpreters of Homer’s Odyssey, Philo reads Moses’s story of Abraham as an account of the soul’s progress and perfection. Responding to contemporary critics, who mocked Genesis 17 as uninspired, Philo finds instead a hidden philosophical reflection on the ineffability of the transcendent God, the transformation of souls which recognize their mortal nothingness, the possibility of human faith enabled by peerless faithfulness of God, and the fruit of moral perfection: joy divine, prefigured in the birth of Isaac.
Introduction, Translation, and Commentary
Author:
In the treatise On the Change of Names (part of his magnum opus, the Allegorical Commentary), Philo of Alexandria brings his figurative exegesis of the Abraham cycle to its fruition. Taking a cue from Platonist interpreters of Homer’s Odyssey, Philo reads Moses’s story of Abraham as an account of the soul’s progress and perfection. Responding to contemporary critics, who mocked Genesis 17 as uninspired, Philo finds instead a hidden philosophical reflection on the ineffability of the transcendent God, the transformation of souls which recognize their mortal nothingness, the possibility of human faith enabled by peerless faithfulness of God, and the fruit of moral perfection: joy divine, prefigured in the birth of Isaac.
This book represents the first monograph (miscellany) entirely devoted to Crantor of Soli (app. 335–275 BCE), an outstanding figure of the Old Academy. He was in particular famous for his On Grief, an exemplary work of consolation literature, and for his being the first commentator of Plato’s Timaeus. Unlike his darling Arcesilaus of Pitane, who initiated the Sceptical turn, Crantor seems to have stuck firm to the Academic teachings of Polemon and Plato. The contributions collected in this book aim to convey a complete picture of Crantor by discussing various aspects of his philosophy and biography.
This book represents the first monograph (miscellany) entirely devoted to Crantor of Soli (app. 335–275 BCE), an outstanding figure of the Old Academy. He was in particular famous for his On Grief, an exemplary work of consolation literature, and for his being the first commentator of Plato’s Timaeus. Unlike his darling Arcesilaus of Pitane, who initiated the Sceptical turn, Crantor seems to have stuck firm to the Academic teachings of Polemon and Plato. The contributions collected in this book aim to convey a complete picture of Crantor by discussing various aspects of his philosophy and biography.
A wealth of political literature has survived from Greek antiquity, from political theory by Plato and Aristotle to the variety of prose and verse texts that more broadly demonstrate political thinking. However, despite the extent of this legacy, it can be surprisingly hard to say how ancient Greek political thought makes its influence felt, or whether this influence has been sustained across the centuries. This volume includes a range of disciplinary responses to issues surrounding the legacy of Greek political thought, exploring the ways in which political thinking has evolved from antiquity to the present day.
A wealth of political literature has survived from Greek antiquity, from political theory by Plato and Aristotle to the variety of prose and verse texts that more broadly demonstrate political thinking. However, despite the extent of this legacy, it can be surprisingly hard to say how ancient Greek political thought makes its influence felt, or whether this influence has been sustained across the centuries. This volume includes a range of disciplinary responses to issues surrounding the legacy of Greek political thought, exploring the ways in which political thinking has evolved from antiquity to the present day.
Volume Editor:
This volume of fourteen essays explores the biology of Aristotle and the Early Peripatos (Theophrastus and the Physical Problems) in its various dimensions—how the study of the soul contributes to the foundation of the science of perishable life, what is the program of this science and its main explanatory strategies, whether it be the explanation of natural generation or the relationship of the animal to its surroundings. But the authors also explore what might be, to Aristotle, the unity of life, not only that of animals and plants, but also that of celestial bodies and the Prime Mover.
Series:
Philosophia Antiqua, Volume: 171
Volume Editor:
This volume of fourteen essays explores the biology of Aristotle and the Early Peripatos (Theophrastus and the Physical Problems) in its various dimensions—how the study of the soul contributes to the foundation of the science of perishable life, what is the program of this science and its main explanatory strategies, whether it be the explanation of natural generation or the relationship of the animal to its surroundings. But the authors also explore what might be, to Aristotle, the unity of life, not only that of animals and plants, but also that of celestial bodies and the Prime Mover.
Author:
‘Let me give you a simple example of what I mean, and you will see the rest for yourself.’ This is how Plato usually introduces mathematical examples to illustrate important philosophical puzzles. The research presented in this book offers a systematic analysis of these examples and demonstrates their crucial psychagogical function. Providing a toolkit of paradoxical objects that challenge the soul and summon thought, mathematical examples do not convey demonstrative rigor or exact calculations, but instead induce psychic states of aporia and wonder. The gaze of Plato’s mathematicians is directed both downwards and upwards: precisely for this reason mathematics have the power to awaken the soul and to lead it towards the Forms.
«Prendi un piccolo esempio, e saprai tutto quello che voglio dire». Così Platone introduce esempi matematici volti a illustrare snodi filosofici particolarmente problematici. Questo studio fornisce un’analisi sistematica di tali esempi e ne mostra la cruciale funzione psicagogica. Come un toolkit di oggetti paradossali che confondono l’anima e mettono in moto il pensiero, le matematiche degli esempi non veicolano rigore dimostrativo e calcoli esatti, ma inducono stati psichici di aporia e meraviglia. Proprio in virtù del loro sguardo biforcuto, rivolto non solo verso l’alto ma anche verso il basso, le matematiche hanno il potere di risvegliare l’anima e di trainarla verso le Idee.
«Prendi un piccolo esempio, e saprai tutto quello che voglio dire». Così Platone introduce esempi matematici volti a illustrare snodi filosofici particolarmente problematici. Questo studio fornisce un’analisi sistematica di tali esempi e ne mostra la cruciale funzione psicagogica. Come un toolkit di oggetti paradossali che confondono l’anima e mettono in moto il pensiero, le matematiche degli esempi non veicolano rigore dimostrativo e calcoli esatti, ma inducono stati psichici di aporia e meraviglia. Proprio in virtù del loro sguardo biforcuto, rivolto non solo verso l’alto ma anche verso il basso, le matematiche hanno il potere di risvegliare l’anima e di trainarla verso le Idee.
Author:
‘Let me give you a simple example of what I mean, and you will see the rest for yourself.’ This is how Plato usually introduces mathematical examples to illustrate important philosophical puzzles. The research presented in this book offers a systematic analysis of these examples and demonstrates their crucial psychagogical function. Providing a toolkit of paradoxical objects that challenge the soul and summon thought, mathematical examples do not convey demonstrative rigor or exact calculations, but instead induce psychic states of aporia and wonder. The gaze of Plato’s mathematicians is directed both downwards and upwards: precisely for this reason mathematics have the power to awaken the soul and to lead it towards the Forms.
«Prendi un piccolo esempio, e saprai tutto quello che voglio dire». Così Platone introduce esempi matematici volti a illustrare snodi filosofici particolarmente problematici. Questo studio fornisce un’analisi sistematica di tali esempi e ne mostra la cruciale funzione psicagogica. Come un toolkit di oggetti paradossali che confondono l’anima e mettono in moto il pensiero, le matematiche degli esempi non veicolano rigore dimostrativo e calcoli esatti, ma inducono stati psichici di aporia e meraviglia. Proprio in virtù del loro sguardo biforcuto, rivolto non solo verso l’alto ma anche verso il basso, le matematiche hanno il potere di risvegliare l’anima e di trainarla verso le Idee.
«Prendi un piccolo esempio, e saprai tutto quello che voglio dire». Così Platone introduce esempi matematici volti a illustrare snodi filosofici particolarmente problematici. Questo studio fornisce un’analisi sistematica di tali esempi e ne mostra la cruciale funzione psicagogica. Come un toolkit di oggetti paradossali che confondono l’anima e mettono in moto il pensiero, le matematiche degli esempi non veicolano rigore dimostrativo e calcoli esatti, ma inducono stati psichici di aporia e meraviglia. Proprio in virtù del loro sguardo biforcuto, rivolto non solo verso l’alto ma anche verso il basso, le matematiche hanno il potere di risvegliare l’anima e di trainarla verso le Idee.
Volume XXXVIII (2023)
This volume, the 38th year of published proceedings, contains four papers and commentaries presented to the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy during 2023. Topics: Theophrastus’s interpretation of De Anima III 5 defended against the traditional readings; a new interpretation of Empedocles’ cosmology, aiming to deflect Aristotle’s criticism; analysis of the role of Adeimantus in Plato’s Republic, arguing that he is responsible for the turn to politics in the dialogue; explication of Metaphysics book Epsilon, in which Aristotle argues for the necessity of a first philosophy beyond physics. The commentators subject each paper to critical review, and they support, challenge, or reject what they find.
Volume XXXVIII (2023)
This volume, the 38th year of published proceedings, contains four papers and commentaries presented to the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy during 2023. Topics: Theophrastus’s interpretation of De Anima III 5 defended against the traditional readings; a new interpretation of Empedocles’ cosmology, aiming to deflect Aristotle’s criticism; analysis of the role of Adeimantus in Plato’s Republic, arguing that he is responsible for the turn to politics in the dialogue; explication of Metaphysics book Epsilon, in which Aristotle argues for the necessity of a first philosophy beyond physics. The commentators subject each paper to critical review, and they support, challenge, or reject what they find.
Texts and Studies
Philosophy as a Way of Life (PWL) is both a meta-philosophy and a methodological approach to the study of philosophy, inspired by the work of the French scholar Pierre Hadot (1922-2010). As a methodology, PWL emphasizes that all ancient philosophical works reflect pedagogical and psychagogic concerns, and argues that these features should continue to be taken into account in contemporary philosophy. It is based largely on the practice of “spiritual exercises”, intended to transform the practitioner’s way of perceiving the world, and hence her mode of being, in order to enable her to lead a freer, more happy existence. Thus, PWL views philosophy in its fullest sense as profoundly transformational.
Philosophy as a Way of Life: Texts and Studies will make available English translations of key studies on PWL and publish scholarly monographs and edited collections that consider its different aspects and implications.
Books in this series will explore PWL in antiquity, the renaissance, the early modern period, and up to the present, PWL as a methodological approach to the history of philosophy, the implications of PWL for understanding education and its history, the cross-cultural possibilities it opens up, the relationships between PWL, virtue ethics and philosophy of culture, and the different literary genres of PWL, including the way these genres impact the style and content of ancient, medieval and early modern philosophical works.
Philosophy as a Way of Life: Texts and Studies will make available English translations of key studies on PWL and publish scholarly monographs and edited collections that consider its different aspects and implications.
Books in this series will explore PWL in antiquity, the renaissance, the early modern period, and up to the present, PWL as a methodological approach to the history of philosophy, the implications of PWL for understanding education and its history, the cross-cultural possibilities it opens up, the relationships between PWL, virtue ethics and philosophy of culture, and the different literary genres of PWL, including the way these genres impact the style and content of ancient, medieval and early modern philosophical works.
Author:
This book represents the first ever systematic philosophical study of Marsilio Ficino’s Commentary on Plotinus’ ‘Enneads’ (first published in Florence, 1492), this work of Ficino being arguably as definitive for the Florentine thinker’s later work as the Platonic Theology was for his earlier. Publication of the present study uniquely illuminates the extent to which Plotinus had always been the crucial influence over Ficino’s revolutionary projects of introducing Platonic thought based on original Greek sources to western Europe, correcting certain features of late medieval and Renaissance Aristotelianism, and laying the foundations of a new Christian Platonism. The study can be read both as an independent introduction to Ficino’s later philosophy and as the complement to the first modern edition and translation of the Commentary on the 'Enneads' itself also by Stephen Gersh (I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2017-).
Author:
This book represents the first ever systematic philosophical study of Marsilio Ficino’s Commentary on Plotinus’ ‘Enneads’ (first published in Florence, 1492), this work of Ficino being arguably as definitive for the Florentine thinker’s later work as the Platonic Theology was for his earlier. Publication of the present study uniquely illuminates the extent to which Plotinus had always been the crucial influence over Ficino’s revolutionary projects of introducing Platonic thought based on original Greek sources to western Europe, correcting certain features of late medieval and Renaissance Aristotelianism, and laying the foundations of a new Christian Platonism. The study can be read both as an independent introduction to Ficino’s later philosophy and as the complement to the first modern edition and translation of the Commentary on the 'Enneads' itself also by Stephen Gersh (I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2017-).
The contributors to the volume explore the relationship of the virtues to Richard Hooker's ontology, to questions of justification by faith, how righteousness is appropriated by the Christian, how the virtues relate to his polemical context, what he takes from both Scripture and his theological forbearers, and how he demonstrates the virtues in his own literary persona.
Contributors include: Benjamin Crosby, Paul Dominiak, Daniel Eppley, André A. Gazal, Daniel F. Graves, Dan Kemp, Scott N. Kindred-Barnes, W.J. Torrance Kirby, W. Bradford Littlejohn, Arthur Stephen McGrade, W. David Neelands, and John K. Stafford.
Contributors include: Benjamin Crosby, Paul Dominiak, Daniel Eppley, André A. Gazal, Daniel F. Graves, Dan Kemp, Scott N. Kindred-Barnes, W.J. Torrance Kirby, W. Bradford Littlejohn, Arthur Stephen McGrade, W. David Neelands, and John K. Stafford.
The contributors to the volume explore the relationship of the virtues to Richard Hooker's ontology, to questions of justification by faith, how righteousness is appropriated by the Christian, how the virtues relate to his polemical context, what he takes from both Scripture and his theological forbearers, and how he demonstrates the virtues in his own literary persona.
Contributors include: Benjamin Crosby, Paul Dominiak, Daniel Eppley, André A. Gazal, Daniel F. Graves, Dan Kemp, Scott N. Kindred-Barnes, W.J. Torrance Kirby, W. Bradford Littlejohn, Arthur Stephen McGrade, W. David Neelands, and John K. Stafford.
Contributors include: Benjamin Crosby, Paul Dominiak, Daniel Eppley, André A. Gazal, Daniel F. Graves, Dan Kemp, Scott N. Kindred-Barnes, W.J. Torrance Kirby, W. Bradford Littlejohn, Arthur Stephen McGrade, W. David Neelands, and John K. Stafford.