The Platonic Heritage Further Studies in the History of Platonism and Early Christianity Variorum Collected Studies Series

This third collection of articles by John Dillon covers the period 1996-2006, the decade since the appearance of The Great Tradition. Once again, the subjects covered range from Plato himself and the Old Academy, through Philo and Middle Platonism, to the Neoplatonists and beyond. Particular concerns evidenced in the papers are the continuities in the Platonic tradition, and the setting of philosophers in their social and cultural contexts, while at the same time teasing out the philosophical implications of particular texts. Such topics are addressed as atomism in the Old Academy, Philo's concept of immateriality, Plutarch's and Julian's views on theology, and peculiar features of Iamblichus' exegeses of Plato and Aristotle, but also the broader questions of the social position of the philosopher in second century A.D. society, and the nature of ancient biography.

Contents: The riddle of the Timaeus: is Plato sowing clues?; Plotinus, Speusippus and the Platonic Parmenides; The Timaeus in the old Academy; Philip of Opus and the theology of Plato's Laws; Atomism in the old Academy; Theophrastus' critique of the old Academy in the Metaphysics; The pleasures and perils of soul-gardening; Asômatos: nuances of incorporeality in Philo; Thrasyllus and the Logos; Plutarch's debt to Xenocrates; Plutarch and the inseparable intellect; Plutarch and God: theodicy and cosmogony in the thought of Plutarch; Plutarch's use of unidentified quotations; The social role of the philosopher in Athens in the 2nd century CE: some remarks; Pedantry and pedestrianism? Some reflections on the middle Platonic commentary tradition; Monotheism in the Gnostic tradition; An unknown Platonist on God; Holy and not so holy: on the interpretation of late antique biography; Plotinus on whether the stars are causes; Iamblichus' Noera Theoria of Aristotle's Categories; Iamblichus' identifications of the subject-matters of the hypotheses; Iamblichus on the personal daemon; The theology of Julian's Hymn to King Helios; A case-study in commentary: the neoplatonic exegesis of the Prooimia od Plato's dialogues; Damascius on procession and return; 'The eye of the soul': the doctrine of the higher consciousness in the neoplatonic and sufic traditions; Indexes.

John Dillon is Emeritus Professor of Greek at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland