List price
EUR €119.00USD $143.00
In
Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen’s Anatomical Experiments, Luis Alejandro Salas offers a new account of Galen’s medical experiments in the context of the high intellectual culture of second century Rome. The book explores how Galen’s written experiments operate alongside their live counterparts. It argues that Galen’s experimental writing reperforms the licensing functions of his live demonstrations, acting as a surrogate for their performance and in some cases an improvement upon it. Cutting Words focuses on the philosophical targets and theoretical stakes of four case studies: Galen’s experiments on voice production, the bladder, the heart, and the femoral artery. Over a millennium later, Vesalius adapted Galen’s writing to frame his anatomical studies as a new Galen, securing Galen's legacy of writing.
In
Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen’s Anatomical Experiments, Luis Alejandro Salas offers a new account of Galen’s medical experiments in the context of the high intellectual culture of second century Rome. The book explores how Galen’s written experiments operate alongside their live counterparts. It argues that Galen’s experimental writing reperforms the licensing functions of his live demonstrations, acting as a surrogate for their performance and in some cases an improvement upon it. Cutting Words focuses on the philosophical targets and theoretical stakes of four case studies: Galen’s experiments on voice production, the bladder, the heart, and the femoral artery. Over a millennium later, Vesalius adapted Galen’s writing to frame his anatomical studies as a new Galen, securing Galen's legacy of writing.
In
The Platonizing Sethian Background of Plotinus’s Mysticism, Zeke Mazur offers a radical reconceptualization of Plotinus with reference to Gnostic thought and praxis.
A crucial element in the thought of the third-century CE philosopher Plotinus—his conception of mystical union with the One—cannot be understood solely within the conventional history of philosophy, or as the product of a unique, sui generis psychological propensity. This monograph demonstrates that Plotinus tacitly patterned his mystical ascent to the One on a type of visionary ascent ritual that is first attested in Gnostic sources. These sources include the Platonizing Sethian tractates Zostrianos (NHC VIII,1) and Allogenes (NHC XI,3) of which we have Coptic translations from Nag Hammadi and whose Greek Vorlagen were known to have been read in Plotinus’s school.
A crucial element in the thought of the third-century CE philosopher Plotinus—his conception of mystical union with the One—cannot be understood solely within the conventional history of philosophy, or as the product of a unique, sui generis psychological propensity. This monograph demonstrates that Plotinus tacitly patterned his mystical ascent to the One on a type of visionary ascent ritual that is first attested in Gnostic sources. These sources include the Platonizing Sethian tractates Zostrianos (NHC VIII,1) and Allogenes (NHC XI,3) of which we have Coptic translations from Nag Hammadi and whose Greek Vorlagen were known to have been read in Plotinus’s school.
In
The Platonizing Sethian Background of Plotinus’s Mysticism, Zeke Mazur offers a radical reconceptualization of Plotinus with reference to Gnostic thought and praxis.
A crucial element in the thought of the third-century CE philosopher Plotinus—his conception of mystical union with the One—cannot be understood solely within the conventional history of philosophy, or as the product of a unique, sui generis psychological propensity. This monograph demonstrates that Plotinus tacitly patterned his mystical ascent to the One on a type of visionary ascent ritual that is first attested in Gnostic sources. These sources include the Platonizing Sethian tractates Zostrianos (NHC VIII,1) and Allogenes (NHC XI,3) of which we have Coptic translations from Nag Hammadi and whose Greek Vorlagen were known to have been read in Plotinus’s school.
A crucial element in the thought of the third-century CE philosopher Plotinus—his conception of mystical union with the One—cannot be understood solely within the conventional history of philosophy, or as the product of a unique, sui generis psychological propensity. This monograph demonstrates that Plotinus tacitly patterned his mystical ascent to the One on a type of visionary ascent ritual that is first attested in Gnostic sources. These sources include the Platonizing Sethian tractates Zostrianos (NHC VIII,1) and Allogenes (NHC XI,3) of which we have Coptic translations from Nag Hammadi and whose Greek Vorlagen were known to have been read in Plotinus’s school.
Volume XXXV (2019)
This volume, the thirty-fifth year of published proceedings, contains five papers and commentaries presented to the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy during the academic year 2018-19. Paper topics include: evidence for Simplicius as author of the Commentary on the
De Anima; Aristotle and Humean theory of motivation, ‘besires’ and desires; moderation in NE 3,10-12 as novel in Aristotle, differing greatly from his contemporaries, especially Plato’s
Charmides; Platonic memory and oblivion, mythic sources and cultural influence; Aristotle’s final causality in recovering nature from inanimate mechanism. The commentators take up the themes of these papers, in some instances developing and building on the main argument, while in others offering direct challenges to the principal author’s thesis.
Volume XXXV (2019)
This volume, the thirty-fifth year of published proceedings, contains five papers and commentaries presented to the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy during the academic year 2018-19. Paper topics include: evidence for Simplicius as author of the Commentary on the
De Anima; Aristotle and Humean theory of motivation, ‘besires’ and desires; moderation in NE 3,10-12 as novel in Aristotle, differing greatly from his contemporaries, especially Plato’s
Charmides; Platonic memory and oblivion, mythic sources and cultural influence; Aristotle’s final causality in recovering nature from inanimate mechanism. The commentators take up the themes of these papers, in some instances developing and building on the main argument, while in others offering direct challenges to the principal author’s thesis.
Translations and Acculturations
Editor:
Dragos Calma
Reading Proclus and the Book of Causes, published in three volumes, is a fresh, comprehensive understanding of the history of Neoplatonism from the 9th to the 16th century. The impact of the
Elements of Theology and the
Book of Causes is reconsidered on the basis of newly discovered manuscripts and evidences. This second volume revises widely accepted hypotheses about the reception of the Proclus’ text in Byzantium and the Caucasus, and about the context that made possible the composition of the
Book of Causes and its translations into Latin and Hebrew. The contributions offer a unique, comparative perspective on the various ways a pagan author was acculturated to the Abrahamic traditions.
Translations and Acculturations
Editor:
Dragos Calma
Reading Proclus and the Book of Causes, published in three volumes, is a fresh, comprehensive understanding of the history of Neoplatonism from the 9th to the 16th century. The impact of the
Elements of Theology and the
Book of Causes is reconsidered on the basis of newly discovered manuscripts and evidences. This second volume revises widely accepted hypotheses about the reception of the Proclus’ text in Byzantium and the Caucasus, and about the context that made possible the composition of the
Book of Causes and its translations into Latin and Hebrew. The contributions offer a unique, comparative perspective on the various ways a pagan author was acculturated to the Abrahamic traditions.
Framing the Dialogues: How to Read Openings and Closures in Plato is a collection of 14 chapters with an Introduction, that focuses on the intricate and multifarious ways in which Plato frames his dialogues. Its main aim is to explore both the association between inner and outer framework and how this relationship contributes to, and sheds light upon, the framed dialogues and their philosophical content. All contributors to the volume advocate the significance of closures and especially openings in Plato, arguing that platonic frames should not be treated merely as ‘trimmings’ or decorative literary devices but as an integral part of the central philosophical discourse. The volume will prove to be an invaluable companion to all those interested in Plato as well as in classical literature in general.
Framing the Dialogues: How to Read Openings and Closures in Plato is a collection of 14 chapters with an Introduction, that focuses on the intricate and multifarious ways in which Plato frames his dialogues. Its main aim is to explore both the association between inner and outer framework and how this relationship contributes to, and sheds light upon, the framed dialogues and their philosophical content. All contributors to the volume advocate the significance of closures and especially openings in Plato, arguing that platonic frames should not be treated merely as ‘trimmings’ or decorative literary devices but as an integral part of the central philosophical discourse. The volume will prove to be an invaluable companion to all those interested in Plato as well as in classical literature in general.
Series:
Philosophia Antiqua, Volume: 155
Plotinus' metaphysics is often portrayed as comprising two movements: the derivation of all reality from a single source, the One, and the return of the individual soul to it. Alberto Bertozzi argues that love is the origin, culmination, and regulative force of this double movement. The One is both the self-loving source of the derivation and articulation of all reality in levels of unity and love and the ultimate goal of the longing of the soul, whose return to its source is a gradual transformation of the love it originally received from the One. Touching on virtually all major concepts of Plotinus' philosophy,
Plotinus on Love is at once an investigation of a lesser-studied Plotinian theme and an introduction to his metaphysics.
Series:
Philosophia Antiqua, Volume: 155
Plotinus' metaphysics is often portrayed as comprising two movements: the derivation of all reality from a single source, the One, and the return of the individual soul to it. Alberto Bertozzi argues that love is the origin, culmination, and regulative force of this double movement. The One is both the self-loving source of the derivation and articulation of all reality in levels of unity and love and the ultimate goal of the longing of the soul, whose return to its source is a gradual transformation of the love it originally received from the One. Touching on virtually all major concepts of Plotinus' philosophy,
Plotinus on Love is at once an investigation of a lesser-studied Plotinian theme and an introduction to his metaphysics.
