The Text Tradition of the Commentary On the Soul attributed to Simplicius, 2024
By: Steel, Carlos, Christian Brockmann (Ed.), Daniel Deckers (Ed.), Stefano Valente (Ed.)
Title The Text Tradition of the Commentary On the Soul attributed to Simplicius
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2024
Published in Aristoteles-Kommentare und ihre Überlieferung. Wichtige Etappen von der Antike bis in die frühe Neuzeit
Pages 225-268
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Christian Brockmann , Daniel Deckers , Stefano Valente
Translator(s)
About fifty years ago I published together with Fernand Bossier an article todemonstrate that theCommentary On the Soultraditionally attributed toSimplicius was not his work, but most probably that of a fellow member ofthe Athenian Academy, Priscian of Lydia.1An examination of the text tradi-tion of the commentary did not yield any indications to question the tradi-tional attribution. Nevertheless, arguments based on style, content, self-refer-ences are so convincing that it is now commonly accepted that the author ofthe commentary is not Simplicius.2The Hamburg colloquium offered me theincentive for a new and comprehensive study of the complicated text tradi-tion of this commentary, which enjoyed an extraordinary fortune in the re-ception of Aristotle’s treatiseOn the Soulamong Byzantine and Renaissancescholars.3For practical reasons, I keep using in this contribution the author’sname ‘Simplicius’ as it is known in the tradition but put it between singlequotations marks to distinguish him from the real Simplicius. [author's abstract]

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Nevertheless, arguments based on style, content, self-refer-ences are so convincing that it is now commonly accepted that the author ofthe commentary is not Simplicius.2The Hamburg colloquium offered me theincentive for a new and comprehensive study of the complicated text tradi-tion of this commentary, which enjoyed an extraordinary fortune in the re-ception of Aristotle\u2019s treatiseOn the Soulamong Byzantine and Renaissancescholars.3For practical reasons, I keep using in this contribution the author\u2019sname \u2018Simplicius\u2019 as it is known in the tradition but put it between singlequotations marks to distinguish him from the real Simplicius. [author's abstract]","btype":2,"date":"2024","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/j1NGkXq4FVGx9hw","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":245,"pubplace":"","publisher":"","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":{"id":245,"section_of":1573,"pages":"225-268","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":1573,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":"bibliography","type":4,"language":"no language selected","title":"Aristoteles-Kommentare und ihre \u00dcberlieferung. Wichtige Etappen von der Antike bis in die fr\u00fche Neuzeit","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"Brockmann\/Deckers\/Valente2024","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2024","edition_no":null,"free_date":null,"abstract":"Von der Antike und der Sp\u00e4tantike bis ins Mittelalter und in die Neuzeit stellt die Kommentierung der aristotelischen Schriften eine der fundamentalen Formen philosophischer T\u00e4tigkeit dar. In diesem Sammelband werden wesentliche Etappen der griechischen Kommentartradition zu den Schriften des Aristoteles sowie ihre philosophische und kulturgeschichtliche Bedeutung an ausgew\u00e4hlten Beispielen analysiert und interpretiert. Die Autorinnen und Autoren setzen sich dabei sowohl mit den Manuskripten und der \u00dcberlieferung einzelner Schriften als auch mit der Rezeption und Weiterentwicklung der Aristotelischen Philosophie auseinander.\r\n\r\nDer Kernbestand der hier versammelten Beitr\u00e4ge geht auf die dreit\u00e4gige internationale Konferenz \u201eAristoteles-Kommentare und ihre \u00dcberlieferung in Sp\u00e4tantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance\" (26.\u201328.10.2017) zur\u00fcck, die dank der F\u00f6rderung der Karl und Gertrud Abel-Stiftung an der Universit\u00e4t Hamburg am Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures stattgefunden hat. [publisher's abstract]","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/ABLmF9W1WrH4QDt","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":1573,"pubplace":"Berlin\/Boston","publisher":"De Gruyter","series":"Philosophie der Antike","volume":"44","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":{"id":245,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"unpublished","volume":"","issue":"","pages":""}},"sort":[2024]}

The Text Tradition of the 'Commentary On the Soul' Attributed to Simplicius, 2024
By: Steel, Carlos, Deckers, Daniel (Ed.), Brockmann, Christian (Ed.), Valente, Stefano (Ed.)
Title The Text Tradition of the 'Commentary On the Soul' Attributed to Simplicius
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2024
Published in Aristoteles-Kommentare und ihre Überlieferung. Wichtige Etappen von der Antike bis in die frühe Neuzeit
Pages 225-268
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Deckers, Daniel , Brockmann, Christian , Valente, Stefano
Translator(s)

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The Soul never thinks withous a Phantasm: How platonic commentators interpret a controversal aristotelian Thesis, 2018
By: Steel, C., Strobel, Benedikt (Ed.)
Title The Soul never thinks withous a Phantasm: How platonic commentators interpret a controversal aristotelian Thesis
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2018
Published in Die Kunst der philosophischen Exegese bei den spätanitken Platon- und Aristoteles Kommentatoren. Akten der 15. Tagung der Karl und Gertrud Abel-Stiftung vom 4. bis 6. Oktober 2012 in Trier
Pages 185-223
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, C.
Editor(s) Strobel, Benedikt
Translator(s)
Even Platonists, it seems, have to accept that the intellective soul, when connected to this earthy body, can never be entirely without imagination, not only in (1) practical thought or in (2) understanding sensible objects or in (3) mathematics, but even in its most excellent thought, (4) the contemplation of the intelligible forms. The role of imagination is, however, different in the four cases, as we have seen. Therefore, a good philosophical teacher will not only warn his students of the danger of imaginations, which may distort their thoughts, but also helps them to train and discipline their imagination so that it may be an obedient servant of the intellect. For that reason, he will use images and fantastic stories besides rational arguments. As Proclus explains in his introduction to his commentary of the myth of Er: The souls, which are by essence intellectual and full of incorporeal and intellectual reasons, have put on (ἐνδυσαμέναις) the imaginative intellect and cannot live without it in this place of generation [...] – for these souls, which have become impassible passible and without figures figurative (γενομέναις ἀπαθέσι παθητικαῖς, ἀμορφώτοις μορφωτικαῖς) this teaching through myths [as here in the myth of Er] is appropriate. Myths are particularly needed for those who only live according to imagination and only have practised the passive intellect, as is the case with the vulgar masses, who are incapable of following a purely rational argument. By contrast, some exceptional souls, which have set their mind on pure intellections, will be content with the intellectual light of the truth without needing the imaginary mise-en-scène of myths. But for us, Proclus says, who are ‘both together and have a twofold intellect’, the one which we really are and the one we have put on and projected outwards (i.e. the passive intellect linked to imagination), we find pleasures both in the fictive clothing of the story and in its deeper truth. Whereas the imaginative intellect ‘is stricken by the external and becomes thus ready for the path towards science,’ our true intellect ‘is nourished by what is inside the stories and becomes the contemplator of truth.’ [conclusion p. 211-212]

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The role of imagination is, however, different in the four cases, as we have seen. Therefore, a good philosophical teacher will not only warn his students of the danger of imaginations, which may distort their thoughts, but also helps them to train and discipline their imagination so that it may be an obedient servant of the intellect. For that reason, he will use images and fantastic stories besides rational arguments. As Proclus explains in his introduction to his commentary of the myth of Er:\r\n\r\nThe souls, which are by essence intellectual and full of incorporeal and intellectual reasons, have put on (\u1f10\u03bd\u03b4\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2) the imaginative intellect and cannot live without it in this place of generation [...] \u2013 for these souls, which have become impassible passible and without figures figurative (\u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03b7\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2, \u1f00\u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u03ce\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u03c9\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2) this teaching through myths [as here in the myth of Er] is appropriate.\r\n\r\nMyths are particularly needed for those who only live according to imagination and only have practised the passive intellect, as is the case with the vulgar masses, who are incapable of following a purely rational argument. By contrast, some exceptional souls, which have set their mind on pure intellections, will be content with the intellectual light of the truth without needing the imaginary mise-en-sc\u00e8ne of myths. But for us, Proclus says, who are \u2018both together and have a twofold intellect\u2019, the one which we really are and the one we have put on and projected outwards (i.e. the passive intellect linked to imagination), we find pleasures both in the fictive clothing of the story and in its deeper truth. Whereas the imaginative intellect \u2018is stricken by the external and becomes thus ready for the path towards science,\u2019 our true intellect \u2018is nourished by what is inside the stories and becomes the contemplator of truth.\u2019 [conclusion p. 211-212]","btype":2,"date":"2018","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/iQkklQKce7ANXjV","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":326,"full_name":"Strobel, Benedikt","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":1170,"section_of":289,"pages":"185-223","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":289,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"de","title":"Die Kunst der philosophischen Exegese bei den sp\u00e4tanitken Platon- und Aristoteles Kommentatoren. Akten der 15. Tagung der Karl und Gertrud Abel-Stiftung vom 4. bis 6. 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Surface Reading and Deeper Meaning. On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle, 2013
By: Steel, Carlos, Erler, Michael (Ed.), Heßler, Jan Erik (Ed.), Blumenfelder, Benedikt (Collaborator) (Ed.)
Title Surface Reading and Deeper Meaning. On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2013
Published in Argument und literarische Form in antiker Philosophie. Akten des 3. Kongresses der Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie 2010
Pages 469-494
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Erler, Michael , Heßler, Jan Erik , Blumenfelder, Benedikt (Collaborator)
Translator(s)
We are here together to discuss various forms of philosophy in antiquity. There is a surprising variety of literary genres of philosophy so different from the narrow academic format of proceedings, handbooks, and referred journal articles. Already among the works of Aristotle, as the commentators noticed, there is a great variety, and Aristotle always adapted his style to the genre: dialogues, letters, protreptics, documentation works, research discussions, treatises on ethics and politics aiming at a broader public. And if we take the whole literary production of ancient philosophy, the variety is even more impressive. Besides the treatises and commentaries, the summaries and paraphrases, refutations and replies, the handbooks, manuals, and doxographies, there are dialogues and diatribes and orations, letters and catechisms with sentences to be set in practice, epigraphical posters in public city galleries, philosophical poems and political pamphlets, revelations of Hermes Trismegistos, Chaldean oracles, and we must include the manifold Jewish and Christian interpretations of biblical texts, sermons, and theological polemics. They all require other ways of reading and interpreting. The title of this introductory lecture does not mean that I would recommend us to seek for deeper meaning hidden under the many literary forms. It was undoubtedly a very influential hermeneutical model, in particular when combined with the esoteric/exoteric distinction. But in my view, it remains primarily a model for interpreting mythical and sacred texts and, since the secularization of sacred hermeneutics, for reading “challenging literary texts.” It is not a method for the interpretation of philosophical texts, where analysis, insight into the structure of arguments, questioning, and criticism are required. To play with a well-known quote from Thoreau: “In this part of the world (i.e., in philosophy), it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation.” This refusal of a search for deeper meaning in philosophy, however, does not mean that we should remain just superficial readers, surfing on the text. Let us use all the possibilities we have, including attention to the literary context, to better understand the argument of the author. To avoid the impression that I am finally agreeing with Aristotle against Plato, let me conclude with a remarkable statement of Plato in the Phaedo. It comes from the crucial section of the debate where Socrates starts his critique of Simmias’ argument that the soul is the harmony of the body and will disappear once the substrate is destroyed. All participants are deeply impressed by the harmony argument, and there is an uneasy silence, as they thought it was a fatal blow to Socrates’ belief in immortality, but Socrates is not impressed. He confronts Simmias with a difficult choice: If you stick to the harmony doctrine, you will have to give up the other doctrine you just accepted, because it is incompatible with the harmony thesis, namely that all knowledge is recollection. What will you keep then, Simmias, this new theory or the former you already accepted? Simmias answers without hesitation that he would stand by the anamnesis doctrine. For this other (sc. the doctrine that the soul is like a harmony) came to me without demonstration; it merely seemed probable and attractive, which is the reason why many people hold it. I am conscious that arguments which base their demonstrations on mere probability are deceptive, and if we are not on our guard against them, they deceive us greatly, in geometry and in all other things. When commenting on this passage, Damascius, the last head of the Platonic Academy in Athens, distinguishes between what he calls superficial (ἐπιπόλαιοι) and profound (βαθύτεροι) thinkers, but not in any esoteric sense. Superficial thinkers, he says, “find pleasure in plausible arguments,” based on analogies and comparisons, metaphors. That is why the analogy of the soul with the harmony of the lyre is so attractive. “The more profound thinkers, who scorn the world of senses and its ready-at-hand (πρόχειρον) beliefs, rise above plausibilities and love arguments that are connected by necessity.” In this sense, I would also like to be a ‘profound’ reader ... alas, there arises again a problem. The doctrine that, according to Socrates, is supposedly demonstrated by sound, almost geometrical arguments, and not by analogy, as the rejected harmony thesis, is itself based on analogy and metaphor. For, Aristotle, sitting in this hall, would stand up and say: “What do you mean, Socrates, by that anamnesis? Is it not a metaphor and poetical phrase?” [conclusion p. 490-492]

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On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle","main_title":{"title":"Surface Reading and Deeper Meaning. On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle"},"abstract":"We are here together to discuss various forms of philosophy in antiquity. There is a surprising variety of literary genres of philosophy so different from the narrow academic format of proceedings, handbooks, and referred journal articles. Already among the works of Aristotle, as the commentators noticed, there is a great variety, and Aristotle always adapted his style to the genre: dialogues, letters, protreptics, documentation works, research discussions, treatises on ethics and politics aiming at a broader public.\r\n\r\nAnd if we take the whole literary production of ancient philosophy, the variety is even more impressive. Besides the treatises and commentaries, the summaries and paraphrases, refutations and replies, the handbooks, manuals, and doxographies, there are dialogues and diatribes and orations, letters and catechisms with sentences to be set in practice, epigraphical posters in public city galleries, philosophical poems and political pamphlets, revelations of Hermes Trismegistos, Chaldean oracles, and we must include the manifold Jewish and Christian interpretations of biblical texts, sermons, and theological polemics. They all require other ways of reading and interpreting.\r\n\r\nThe title of this introductory lecture does not mean that I would recommend us to seek for deeper meaning hidden under the many literary forms. It was undoubtedly a very influential hermeneutical model, in particular when combined with the esoteric\/exoteric distinction. But in my view, it remains primarily a model for interpreting mythical and sacred texts and, since the secularization of sacred hermeneutics, for reading \u201cchallenging literary texts.\u201d It is not a method for the interpretation of philosophical texts, where analysis, insight into the structure of arguments, questioning, and criticism are required.\r\n\r\nTo play with a well-known quote from Thoreau: \u201cIn this part of the world (i.e., in philosophy), it is considered a ground for complaint if a man\u2019s writings admit of more than one interpretation.\u201d This refusal of a search for deeper meaning in philosophy, however, does not mean that we should remain just superficial readers, surfing on the text. Let us use all the possibilities we have, including attention to the literary context, to better understand the argument of the author.\r\n\r\nTo avoid the impression that I am finally agreeing with Aristotle against Plato, let me conclude with a remarkable statement of Plato in the Phaedo. It comes from the crucial section of the debate where Socrates starts his critique of Simmias\u2019 argument that the soul is the harmony of the body and will disappear once the substrate is destroyed.\r\n\r\nAll participants are deeply impressed by the harmony argument, and there is an uneasy silence, as they thought it was a fatal blow to Socrates\u2019 belief in immortality, but Socrates is not impressed. He confronts Simmias with a difficult choice: If you stick to the harmony doctrine, you will have to give up the other doctrine you just accepted, because it is incompatible with the harmony thesis, namely that all knowledge is recollection. What will you keep then, Simmias, this new theory or the former you already accepted? Simmias answers without hesitation that he would stand by the anamnesis doctrine.\r\n\r\nFor this other (sc. the doctrine that the soul is like a harmony) came to me without demonstration; it merely seemed probable and attractive, which is the reason why many people hold it. I am conscious that arguments which base their demonstrations on mere probability are deceptive, and if we are not on our guard against them, they deceive us greatly, in geometry and in all other things.\r\n\r\nWhen commenting on this passage, Damascius, the last head of the Platonic Academy in Athens, distinguishes between what he calls superficial (\u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03b9) and profound (\u03b2\u03b1\u03b8\u03cd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9) thinkers, but not in any esoteric sense. Superficial thinkers, he says, \u201cfind pleasure in plausible arguments,\u201d based on analogies and comparisons, metaphors. That is why the analogy of the soul with the harmony of the lyre is so attractive. \u201cThe more profound thinkers, who scorn the world of senses and its ready-at-hand (\u03c0\u03c1\u03cc\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd) beliefs, rise above plausibilities and love arguments that are connected by necessity.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn this sense, I would also like to be a \u2018profound\u2019 reader ... alas, there arises again a problem. The doctrine that, according to Socrates, is supposedly demonstrated by sound, almost geometrical arguments, and not by analogy, as the rejected harmony thesis, is itself based on analogy and metaphor.\r\n\r\nFor, Aristotle, sitting in this hall, would stand up and say: \u201cWhat do you mean, Socrates, by that anamnesis? Is it not a metaphor and poetical phrase?\u201d [conclusion p. 490-492]","btype":2,"date":"2013","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/3r4OKQesOkyPwb0","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":164,"full_name":"Erler, Michael ","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":478,"full_name":"He\u00dfler, Jan Erik","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":479,"full_name":"Blumenfelder, Benedikt","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":482,"section_of":322,"pages":"469-494","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":322,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"en","title":"Argument und literarische Form in antiker Philosophie. Akten des 3. Kongresses der Gesellschaft f\u00fcr antike Philosophie 2010","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"Erler2013","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2013","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2013","abstract":"In der modernen Universit\u00e4t werden Literatur, Philologie und Philosophie als unterschiedliche Bereiche betrachtet. Damit wird eine im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert zunehmende Entfremdung zwischen der Erforschung antiker Philosophie und Philologie manifest, die den urspr\u00fcnglichen Gegebenheiten in der Antike keineswegs gerecht wird. Denn die Philosophie entwickelt sich in Griechenland und Rom in enger Verbindung mit und oft in einem Spannungsverh\u00e4ltnis zu unterschiedlichen literarischen Genres. Dies hat zur Folge, dass die Autoren und Interpreten infolge der Wahl bestimmter Gattungen als Medium philosophischer Botschaften neben der eigentlichen Argumentation auch Darstellungsformen der jeweiligen Gattungen zu w\u00fcrdigen haben. Dieses oft spannungsvolle Verh\u00e4ltnis von philosophischem Argument und literarischer Form auszuleuchten hatte sich der 3. Kongress der Gesellschaft f\u00fcr antike Philosophie vorgenommen. In Vortr\u00e4gen und Diskussionsrunden von Philosophen und Philologen wurde diese Frage unter verschiedenen Aspekten mit Blick auf antike Philosophen verschiedener Epochen lebendig diskutiert. Dieser Band, der den Gro\u00dfteil dieser Beitr\u00e4ge versammelt, mag einen Eindruck von der Diskussion vermitteln und Philologen, Philosophen und an der Antike Interessierte zu weiteren \u00dcberlegungen anregen. [author's abstract]","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/0QiKNhBCl16gJMn","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":322,"pubplace":"Berlin","publisher":"de Gruyter","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":[2013]}

‘Simplicius.’ On Aristotle, On the Soul 3.6–13, 2013
By: Simplicius
Title ‘Simplicius.’ On Aristotle, On the Soul 3.6–13
Type Edited Book
Language English
Date 2013
Publication Place Bristol - London
Publisher Bristol Classical Press
Series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle
Categories no categories
Author(s) Simplicius
Editor(s)
Translator(s) Steel, Carlos(Steel, Carlos ) , Ritups, Arnis(Ritups, Arnis) ,
This is the fourth and last volume of the translation in this series of the commentary on Aristotle On the Soul, wrongly attributed to Simplicius. Its real author, most probably Priscian of Lydia, proves in this work to be an original philosopher who deserves to be studied, not only because of his detailed explanation of an often difficult Aristotelian text, but also because of his own psychological doctrines. In chapter six the author discusses the objects of the intellect. In chapters seven to eight he sees Aristotle as moving towards practical intellect, thus preparing the way for discussing what initiates movement in chapters nine to 11. His interpretation offers a brilliant investigation of practical reasoning and of the interaction between desire and cognition from the level of perception to the intellect. In the commentator's view, Aristotle in the last chapters (12-13) investigates the different type of organic bodies corresponding to the different forms of life (vegetative and sensory, from the most basic, touch, to the most complex).

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Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 2005
By: Leinkauf, Thomas (Ed.), Steel, Carlos (Ed.)
Title Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Type Edited Book
Language undefined
Date 2005
Publication Place Leuven
Publisher Leuven University Press
Series Ancient and Medieval Philosophy de Wulf-Mansion Centre, Series 1
Volume 29
Categories no categories
Author(s)
Editor(s) Leinkauf, Thomas , Steel, Carlos
Translator(s)
The particular focus of this volume is a study of the influence of Timaeus on the development of Western cosmology in three axial periods of European culture: Late Antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance. In each period, the Timaeus was read in a different context and from different perspectives. During the Middle Ages, scholars were mostly interested in reconciling the rational cosmology of the Timaeus with the Christian understanding of creation. In Late Antiquity, the concordance of Plato with Aristotle was considered the most important issue, whereas in early modern times, the confrontation with the new mathematical physics offered possibilities for a fresh assessment of Plato's explanation of the cosmos. The present volume has three sections corresponding to these three periods of interpreting the Timaeus, each sectionis introduced by a synthesis of the main issues at discussion. This 'epochal' approach gives this volume its particular character. [author's abstract]

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Proclus' Defence of the Timaeus against Aristotle's Objections. A reconstruction of a lost polemical treatise, 2005
By: Steel, Carlos, Leinkauf, Thomas (Ed.), Steel, Carlos (Ed.)
Title Proclus' Defence of the Timaeus against Aristotle's Objections. A reconstruction of a lost polemical treatise
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2005
Published in Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Pages 163-193
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Leinkauf, Thomas , Steel, Carlos
Translator(s)
In this paper, we have made a reconstruction of an early treatise of Proclus in which he attempted to refute the objections Aristotle had put forward against Plato’s doctrine in the Timaeus. Simplicius, Philoponus, and Proclus himself have been our sources. Proclus recycles the arguments of his earlier treatise in his great commentary on the Timaeus. Philoponus fully exploits Proclus’ treatise against Proclus himself to refute his views on the eternity of the world. In this question and in many others, Philoponus believes Plato and Aristotle are radically opposed. Proclus does not dissimulate their disagreement, but, to Philoponus' anger, he does not take distance from Aristotle's interpretation of the Timaeus in the discussion about the eternity of the world. Instead of sincerely accepting with Plato that the world is generated and temporal, he defects to the Aristotelian view and thus comes in contradiction with his earlier work, as Philoponus demonstrates. Simplicius also read the early treatise of Proclus, and he quotes large extracts from it in his commentary on the De Caelo. Simplicius, who is a great advocate of the harmony of Plato and Aristotle, is often embarrassed with Proclus’ polemics. Whenever Proclus quotes a text from Aristotle to convince the philosopher that he too is “forced” to admit the truth of the Platonic principles, Simplicius makes of it an argument to demonstrate that Aristotle is fundamentally in agreement with Plato. How different their ultimate goals may have been in this polemic, both ideological opponents, Philoponus and Simplicius, offer us valuable information on a lost work of Proclus, in which he attacked Aristotle with youthful zeal in defense of the Timaeus. The treatise witnesses both his admiration for the Timaeus and his irritation at Aristotle’s unfair treatment. [conclusion p. 193]

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A reconstruction of a lost polemical treatise","main_title":{"title":"Proclus' Defence of the Timaeus against Aristotle's Objections. A reconstruction of a lost polemical treatise"},"abstract":"In this paper, we have made a reconstruction of an early treatise of Proclus in which he attempted to refute the objections Aristotle had put forward against Plato\u2019s doctrine in the Timaeus. Simplicius, Philoponus, and Proclus himself have been our sources. Proclus recycles the arguments of his earlier treatise in his great commentary on the Timaeus. Philoponus fully exploits Proclus\u2019 treatise against Proclus himself to refute his views on the eternity of the world.\r\n\r\nIn this question and in many others, Philoponus believes Plato and Aristotle are radically opposed. Proclus does not dissimulate their disagreement, but, to Philoponus' anger, he does not take distance from Aristotle's interpretation of the Timaeus in the discussion about the eternity of the world. Instead of sincerely accepting with Plato that the world is generated and temporal, he defects to the Aristotelian view and thus comes in contradiction with his earlier work, as Philoponus demonstrates.\r\n\r\nSimplicius also read the early treatise of Proclus, and he quotes large extracts from it in his commentary on the De Caelo. Simplicius, who is a great advocate of the harmony of Plato and Aristotle, is often embarrassed with Proclus\u2019 polemics. Whenever Proclus quotes a text from Aristotle to convince the philosopher that he too is \u201cforced\u201d to admit the truth of the Platonic principles, Simplicius makes of it an argument to demonstrate that Aristotle is fundamentally in agreement with Plato.\r\n\r\nHow different their ultimate goals may have been in this polemic, both ideological opponents, Philoponus and Simplicius, offer us valuable information on a lost work of Proclus, in which he attacked Aristotle with youthful zeal in defense of the Timaeus. The treatise witnesses both his admiration for the Timaeus and his irritation at Aristotle\u2019s unfair treatment. [conclusion p. 193]","btype":2,"date":"2005","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/kMYAmCjyTBGx2oh","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":152,"full_name":"Leinkauf, Thomas","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":483,"section_of":321,"pages":"163-193","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":321,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"no language selected","title":"Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Sp\u00e4tantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"Leinkauf\/Steel2005","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2005","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2005","abstract":"The particular focus of this volume is a study of the influence of Timaeus on the development of Western cosmology in three axial periods of European culture: Late Antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance. In each period, the Timaeus was read in a different context and from different perspectives. During the Middle Ages, scholars were mostly interested in reconciling the rational cosmology of the Timaeus with the Christian understanding of creation. In Late Antiquity, the concordance of Plato with Aristotle was considered the most important issue, whereas in early modern times, the confrontation with the new mathematical physics offered possibilities for a fresh assessment of Plato's explanation of the cosmos. The present volume has three sections corresponding to these three periods of interpreting the Timaeus, each sectionis introduced by a synthesis of the main issues at discussion. This 'epochal' approach gives this volume its particular character. [author's abstract]","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/KnuUmtY75XXXeEK","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":321,"pubplace":"Leuven","publisher":"Leuven University Press","series":"Ancient and Medieval Philosophy de Wulf-Mansion Centre, Series 1","volume":"29","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":[2005]}

Plato's Timaeus in Simplicius' In De Caelo. A confrontation with Alexander, 2005
By: Guldentops, Guy, Steel, Carlos (Ed.), Leinkauf, Thomas (Ed.)
Title Plato's Timaeus in Simplicius' In De Caelo. A confrontation with Alexander
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2005
Published in Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Pages 195-212
Categories no categories
Author(s) Guldentops, Guy
Editor(s) Steel, Carlos , Leinkauf, Thomas
Translator(s)
In this paper, I shall try to shed some light on Simplicius’ use of the Ti­ maeus in his commentary on De Caelo, and particularly on the difference between his own interpretation and that of Alexander of Aphrodisias. [...] In what follows, I’ll try to detail some differences between Alexander’s and Simplicius' uses and interpretations o f the Timaeus-, in particular, I’ll focus on their arguments concerning the generation of the world, the world soul, and the immobility of the earth. Before looking at some selected pas­ sages, however, it is necessary to outline Simplicius’ general attitude toward Alexander of Aphrodisias and to sketch their overall interpretations of the theme of De Caelo. [Introduction, pp. 196 f.]

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Neue Forschungen zum Neuplatonismus (1995-2003). Teil II, 2004
By: Steel, Carlos, Helmig, Christoph
Title Neue Forschungen zum Neuplatonismus (1995-2003). Teil II
Type Article
Language German
Date 2004
Journal Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie
Volume 29
Pages 225-247
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos , Helmig, Christoph
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
Dieser Artikel berichtete über weniger als zehn Jahre Forschung im Bereich des Neuplatonismus. Und doch ist es erfreulich festzustellen, wie viel seit Mitte der 90er Jahre zustande gekommen ist, auch wenn es für die Zukunft noch viel zu tun gibt. Die Aufgabe stellt sich in doppelter Hinsicht: philologisch und philosophisch. In erster Linie ist es notwendig, das so rasant angewachsene Interesse für die neuplatonische Philosophie dahingehend zu nutzen, dass die Editionen und kommentierten Übersetzungen wichtiger Texte weitergeführt werden. Das ist eine intensive, mühevolle und oft undankbare Arbeit, weil so etwas im heutigen „Forschungsklima“ nicht immer in ausreichendem Maße gewürdigt wird. Und dennoch bleibt es eine der drängendsten Aufgaben, und das umso mehr, weil wir befürchten müssen, dass die Kenntnis der alten Sprachen immer weiter zurückgeht. Wie im Mittelalter die antike Philosophie nur überleben und neuen Einfluss gewinnen konnte durch massive Übersetzungsaktivitäten (ins Arabische und Lateinische), so werden in diesem Jahrhundert – ob man es nun bedauert oder nicht – viele neuplatonische Autoren nur noch in Reihen wie „The Ancient Commentators on Aristotle“ oder in anderen Übersetzungen gelesen werden. Darum ist es wichtig, dass die Übersetzungen zuverlässig sind und auf guten Editionen fußen. Es wäre daher wünschenswert, dass gerade auch in Deutschland vermehrt zentrale Texte aus dem späteren Neuplatonismus übersetzt und kommentiert würden. Aber neben dieser Editions- und Übersetzungsarbeit sollte das eigentliche Ziel der Forschung eine philosophische Annäherung sein an diese große Tradition der Geistesgeschichte mit ihren vielfachen kulturellen Verzweigungen im Mittelalter (von Syrien über den Irak und Andalusien bis nach Köln), in der Renaissance und in der Neuzeit. Dabei müssen wir uns aber davor hüten, den Neuplatonismus allzu leicht mit Schwärmerei oder einer Art von Esoterik in Verbindung zu bringen. Er ist und bleibt vor allem eine Philosophie, auch wenn er eine Philosophie ist, die rational die Grenzen der Rationalität einsieht. Gerade in der deutschsprachigen Forschung haben wir schöne Beispiele für ein fruchtbares Zusammengehen von philologischer akribeia und philosophischer Annäherung. Ein Paradigma einer solchen Forschung am Neuplatonismus bleiben für uns die zahlreichen philosophisch anregenden Arbeiten von Werner Beierwaltes. [p. 246-247]

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Proclus: On the Existence of Evils, 2003
By: Opsomer, Jan, Steel, Carlos,
Title Proclus: On the Existence of Evils
Type Monograph
Language English
Date 2003
Publication Place London
Publisher Bloomsbury Academic
Series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle
Categories no categories
Author(s) Opsomer, Jan , Steel, Carlos
Editor(s)
Translator(s) Opsomer, Jan() , Steel, Carlos() .
Proclus’ On the Existence of Evils is not a commentary, but helps to compensate for the dearth of Neoplatonist ethical commentaries. The central question addressed in the work is: how can there be evil in a providential world? Neoplatonists agree that it cannot be caused by higher and worthier beings. Plotinus had said that evil is matter, which, unlike Aristotle, he collapsed into mere privation or lack, thus reducing its reality. He also protected higher causes from responsibility by saying that evil may result from a combination of goods. Proclus objects: evil is real, and not a privation. Rather, it is a parasite feeding off good. Parasites have no proper cause, and higher beings are thus vindicated as being the causes only of the good off which evil feeds. [author's abstract]

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  • PAGE 1 OF 1
Neue Forschungen zum Neuplatonismus (1995-2003). Teil II, 2004
By: Steel, Carlos, Helmig, Christoph
Title Neue Forschungen zum Neuplatonismus (1995-2003). Teil II
Type Article
Language German
Date 2004
Journal Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie
Volume 29
Pages 225-247
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos , Helmig, Christoph
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
Dieser Artikel berichtete über weniger als zehn Jahre Forschung im Bereich des Neuplatonismus. Und doch ist es erfreulich festzustellen, wie viel seit Mitte der 90er Jahre zustande gekommen ist, auch wenn es für die Zukunft noch viel zu tun gibt. Die Aufgabe stellt sich in doppelter Hinsicht: philologisch und philosophisch.

In erster Linie ist es notwendig, das so rasant angewachsene Interesse für die neuplatonische Philosophie dahingehend zu nutzen, dass die Editionen und kommentierten Übersetzungen wichtiger Texte weitergeführt werden. Das ist eine intensive, mühevolle und oft undankbare Arbeit, weil so etwas im heutigen „Forschungsklima“ nicht immer in ausreichendem Maße gewürdigt wird. Und dennoch bleibt es eine der drängendsten Aufgaben, und das umso mehr, weil wir befürchten müssen, dass die Kenntnis der alten Sprachen immer weiter zurückgeht.

Wie im Mittelalter die antike Philosophie nur überleben und neuen Einfluss gewinnen konnte durch massive Übersetzungsaktivitäten (ins Arabische und Lateinische), so werden in diesem Jahrhundert – ob man es nun bedauert oder nicht – viele neuplatonische Autoren nur noch in Reihen wie „The Ancient Commentators on Aristotle“ oder in anderen Übersetzungen gelesen werden. Darum ist es wichtig, dass die Übersetzungen zuverlässig sind und auf guten Editionen fußen.

Es wäre daher wünschenswert, dass gerade auch in Deutschland vermehrt zentrale Texte aus dem späteren Neuplatonismus übersetzt und kommentiert würden. Aber neben dieser Editions- und Übersetzungsarbeit sollte das eigentliche Ziel der Forschung eine philosophische Annäherung sein an diese große Tradition der Geistesgeschichte mit ihren vielfachen kulturellen Verzweigungen im Mittelalter (von Syrien über den Irak und Andalusien bis nach Köln), in der Renaissance und in der Neuzeit.

Dabei müssen wir uns aber davor hüten, den Neuplatonismus allzu leicht mit Schwärmerei oder einer Art von Esoterik in Verbindung zu bringen. Er ist und bleibt vor allem eine Philosophie, auch wenn er eine Philosophie ist, die rational die Grenzen der Rationalität einsieht.

Gerade in der deutschsprachigen Forschung haben wir schöne Beispiele für ein fruchtbares Zusammengehen von philologischer akribeia und philosophischer Annäherung. Ein Paradigma einer solchen Forschung am Neuplatonismus bleiben für uns die zahlreichen philosophisch anregenden Arbeiten von Werner Beierwaltes. [p. 246-247]

{"_index":"sire","_id":"481","_score":null,"_source":{"id":481,"authors_free":[{"id":651,"entry_id":481,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":14,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Steel, Carlos","free_first_name":"Carlos","free_last_name":"Steel","norm_person":{"id":14,"first_name":"Carlos ","last_name":"Steel","full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/122963083","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":652,"entry_id":481,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":146,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Helmig, Christoph","free_first_name":"Christoph","free_last_name":"Helmig","norm_person":{"id":146,"first_name":"Christoph","last_name":"Helmig","full_name":"Helmig, Christoph","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/1107028760","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Neue Forschungen zum Neuplatonismus (1995-2003). Teil II","main_title":{"title":"Neue Forschungen zum Neuplatonismus (1995-2003). Teil II"},"abstract":"Dieser Artikel berichtete \u00fcber weniger als zehn Jahre Forschung im Bereich des Neuplatonismus. Und doch ist es erfreulich festzustellen, wie viel seit Mitte der 90er Jahre zustande gekommen ist, auch wenn es f\u00fcr die Zukunft noch viel zu tun gibt. Die Aufgabe stellt sich in doppelter Hinsicht: philologisch und philosophisch.\r\n\r\nIn erster Linie ist es notwendig, das so rasant angewachsene Interesse f\u00fcr die neuplatonische Philosophie dahingehend zu nutzen, dass die Editionen und kommentierten \u00dcbersetzungen wichtiger Texte weitergef\u00fchrt werden. Das ist eine intensive, m\u00fchevolle und oft undankbare Arbeit, weil so etwas im heutigen \u201eForschungsklima\u201c nicht immer in ausreichendem Ma\u00dfe gew\u00fcrdigt wird. Und dennoch bleibt es eine der dr\u00e4ngendsten Aufgaben, und das umso mehr, weil wir bef\u00fcrchten m\u00fcssen, dass die Kenntnis der alten Sprachen immer weiter zur\u00fcckgeht.\r\n\r\nWie im Mittelalter die antike Philosophie nur \u00fcberleben und neuen Einfluss gewinnen konnte durch massive \u00dcbersetzungsaktivit\u00e4ten (ins Arabische und Lateinische), so werden in diesem Jahrhundert \u2013 ob man es nun bedauert oder nicht \u2013 viele neuplatonische Autoren nur noch in Reihen wie \u201eThe Ancient Commentators on Aristotle\u201c oder in anderen \u00dcbersetzungen gelesen werden. Darum ist es wichtig, dass die \u00dcbersetzungen zuverl\u00e4ssig sind und auf guten Editionen fu\u00dfen.\r\n\r\nEs w\u00e4re daher w\u00fcnschenswert, dass gerade auch in Deutschland vermehrt zentrale Texte aus dem sp\u00e4teren Neuplatonismus \u00fcbersetzt und kommentiert w\u00fcrden. Aber neben dieser Editions- und \u00dcbersetzungsarbeit sollte das eigentliche Ziel der Forschung eine philosophische Ann\u00e4herung sein an diese gro\u00dfe Tradition der Geistesgeschichte mit ihren vielfachen kulturellen Verzweigungen im Mittelalter (von Syrien \u00fcber den Irak und Andalusien bis nach K\u00f6ln), in der Renaissance und in der Neuzeit.\r\n\r\nDabei m\u00fcssen wir uns aber davor h\u00fcten, den Neuplatonismus allzu leicht mit Schw\u00e4rmerei oder einer Art von Esoterik in Verbindung zu bringen. Er ist und bleibt vor allem eine Philosophie, auch wenn er eine Philosophie ist, die rational die Grenzen der Rationalit\u00e4t einsieht.\r\n\r\nGerade in der deutschsprachigen Forschung haben wir sch\u00f6ne Beispiele f\u00fcr ein fruchtbares Zusammengehen von philologischer akribeia und philosophischer Ann\u00e4herung. Ein Paradigma einer solchen Forschung am Neuplatonismus bleiben f\u00fcr uns die zahlreichen philosophisch anregenden Arbeiten von Werner Beierwaltes. [p. 246-247]","btype":3,"date":"2004","language":"German","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/J1gdFPhAmlKlP6l","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":146,"full_name":"Helmig, Christoph","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":481,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Allgemeine Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Philosophie","volume":"29","issue":"","pages":"225-247"}},"sort":["Neue Forschungen zum Neuplatonismus (1995-2003). Teil II"]}

Plato's Timaeus in Simplicius' In De Caelo. A confrontation with Alexander, 2005
By: Guldentops, Guy, Steel, Carlos (Ed.), Leinkauf, Thomas (Ed.)
Title Plato's Timaeus in Simplicius' In De Caelo. A confrontation with Alexander
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2005
Published in Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Pages 195-212
Categories no categories
Author(s) Guldentops, Guy
Editor(s) Steel, Carlos , Leinkauf, Thomas
Translator(s)
In  this paper,  I  shall try to shed some light on Simplicius’ use of the  Ti­
maeus  in his commentary on De Caelo,  and particularly on the difference 
between his own interpretation and that of Alexander of Aphrodisias. [...] In  what  follows,  I’ll  try  to  detail  some  differences between  Alexander’s 
and  Simplicius'  uses  and  interpretations o f the  Timaeus-,  in  particular,  I’ll 
focus on their arguments concerning the generation of the world, the world 
soul,  and the immobility of the earth. Before looking at some selected pas­
sages, however, it is necessary to outline Simplicius’ general attitude toward 
Alexander of Aphrodisias and to sketch their overall interpretations of  the 
theme of De Caelo. [Introduction, pp. 196 f.]

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A confrontation with Alexander","main_title":{"title":"Plato's Timaeus in Simplicius' In De Caelo. A confrontation with Alexander"},"abstract":"In this paper, I shall try to shed some light on Simplicius\u2019 use of the Ti\u00ad\r\nmaeus in his commentary on De Caelo, and particularly on the difference \r\nbetween his own interpretation and that of Alexander of Aphrodisias. [...] In what follows, I\u2019ll try to detail some differences between Alexander\u2019s \r\nand Simplicius' uses and interpretations o f the Timaeus-, in particular, I\u2019ll \r\nfocus on their arguments concerning the generation of the world, the world \r\nsoul, and the immobility of the earth. Before looking at some selected pas\u00ad\r\nsages, however, it is necessary to outline Simplicius\u2019 general attitude toward \r\nAlexander of Aphrodisias and to sketch their overall interpretations of the \r\ntheme of De Caelo. [Introduction, pp. 196 f.]","btype":2,"date":"2005","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/650gVOAyvHZdk8u","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":151,"full_name":"Guldentops, Guy","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":152,"full_name":"Leinkauf, Thomas","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":526,"section_of":321,"pages":"195-212","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":321,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"no language selected","title":"Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Sp\u00e4tantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"Leinkauf\/Steel2005","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2005","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2005","abstract":"The particular focus of this volume is a study of the influence of Timaeus on the development of Western cosmology in three axial periods of European culture: Late Antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance. In each period, the Timaeus was read in a different context and from different perspectives. During the Middle Ages, scholars were mostly interested in reconciling the rational cosmology of the Timaeus with the Christian understanding of creation. In Late Antiquity, the concordance of Plato with Aristotle was considered the most important issue, whereas in early modern times, the confrontation with the new mathematical physics offered possibilities for a fresh assessment of Plato's explanation of the cosmos. The present volume has three sections corresponding to these three periods of interpreting the Timaeus, each sectionis introduced by a synthesis of the main issues at discussion. This 'epochal' approach gives this volume its particular character. [author's abstract]","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/KnuUmtY75XXXeEK","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":321,"pubplace":"Leuven","publisher":"Leuven University Press","series":"Ancient and Medieval Philosophy de Wulf-Mansion Centre, Series 1","volume":"29","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":["Plato's Timaeus in Simplicius' In De Caelo. A confrontation with Alexander"]}

Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 2005
By: Leinkauf, Thomas (Ed.), Steel, Carlos (Ed.)
Title Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Type Edited Book
Language undefined
Date 2005
Publication Place Leuven
Publisher Leuven University Press
Series Ancient and Medieval Philosophy de Wulf-Mansion Centre, Series 1
Volume 29
Categories no categories
Author(s)
Editor(s) Leinkauf, Thomas , Steel, Carlos
Translator(s)
The particular focus of this volume is a study of the influence of Timaeus on the development of Western cosmology in three axial periods of European culture: Late Antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance. In each period, the Timaeus was read in a different context and from different perspectives. During the Middle Ages, scholars were mostly interested in reconciling the rational cosmology of the Timaeus with the Christian understanding of creation. In Late Antiquity, the concordance of Plato with Aristotle was considered the most important issue, whereas in early modern times, the confrontation with the new mathematical physics offered possibilities for a fresh assessment of Plato's explanation of the cosmos. The present volume has three sections corresponding to these three periods of interpreting the Timaeus, each sectionis introduced by a synthesis of the main issues at discussion. This 'epochal' approach gives this volume its particular character. [author's abstract]

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Proclus' Defence of the Timaeus against Aristotle's Objections. A reconstruction of a lost polemical treatise, 2005
By: Steel, Carlos, Leinkauf, Thomas (Ed.), Steel, Carlos (Ed.)
Title Proclus' Defence of the Timaeus against Aristotle's Objections. A reconstruction of a lost polemical treatise
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2005
Published in Platons Timaios als Grundtext der Kosmologie in Spätantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance - Plato's Timaeus and the Foundations of Cosmology in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Pages 163-193
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Leinkauf, Thomas , Steel, Carlos
Translator(s)
In this paper, we have made a reconstruction of an early treatise of Proclus in which he attempted to refute the objections Aristotle had put forward against Plato’s doctrine in the Timaeus. Simplicius, Philoponus, and Proclus himself have been our sources. Proclus recycles the arguments of his earlier treatise in his great commentary on the Timaeus. Philoponus fully exploits Proclus’ treatise against Proclus himself to refute his views on the eternity of the world.

In this question and in many others, Philoponus believes Plato and Aristotle are radically opposed. Proclus does not dissimulate their disagreement, but, to Philoponus' anger, he does not take distance from Aristotle's interpretation of the Timaeus in the discussion about the eternity of the world. Instead of sincerely accepting with Plato that the world is generated and temporal, he defects to the Aristotelian view and thus comes in contradiction with his earlier work, as Philoponus demonstrates.

Simplicius also read the early treatise of Proclus, and he quotes large extracts from it in his commentary on the De Caelo. Simplicius, who is a great advocate of the harmony of Plato and Aristotle, is often embarrassed with Proclus’ polemics. Whenever Proclus quotes a text from Aristotle to convince the philosopher that he too is “forced” to admit the truth of the Platonic principles, Simplicius makes of it an argument to demonstrate that Aristotle is fundamentally in agreement with Plato.

How different their ultimate goals may have been in this polemic, both ideological opponents, Philoponus and Simplicius, offer us valuable information on a lost work of Proclus, in which he attacked Aristotle with youthful zeal in defense of the Timaeus. The treatise witnesses both his admiration for the Timaeus and his irritation at Aristotle’s unfair treatment. [conclusion p. 193]

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Proclus: On the Existence of Evils, 2003
By: Opsomer, Jan, Steel, Carlos,
Title Proclus: On the Existence of Evils
Type Monograph
Language English
Date 2003
Publication Place London
Publisher Bloomsbury Academic
Series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle
Categories no categories
Author(s) Opsomer, Jan , Steel, Carlos
Editor(s)
Translator(s) Opsomer, Jan() , Steel, Carlos()
Proclus’ On the Existence of Evils is not a commentary, but helps to compensate for the dearth of Neoplatonist ethical commentaries. The central question addressed in the work is: how can there be evil in a providential world? Neoplatonists agree that it cannot be caused by higher and worthier beings. Plotinus had said that evil is matter, which, unlike Aristotle, he collapsed into mere privation or lack, thus reducing its reality. He also protected higher causes from responsibility by saying that evil may result from a combination of goods. Proclus objects: evil is real, and not a privation. Rather, it is a parasite feeding off good. Parasites have no proper cause, and higher beings are thus vindicated as being the causes only of the good off which evil feeds. [author's abstract]

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Surface Reading and Deeper Meaning. On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle, 2013
By: Steel, Carlos, Erler, Michael (Ed.), Heßler, Jan Erik (Ed.), Blumenfelder, Benedikt (Collaborator) (Ed.)
Title Surface Reading and Deeper Meaning. On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2013
Published in Argument und literarische Form in antiker Philosophie. Akten des 3. Kongresses der Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie 2010
Pages 469-494
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Erler, Michael , Heßler, Jan Erik , Blumenfelder, Benedikt (Collaborator)
Translator(s)
We are here together to discuss various forms of philosophy in antiquity. There is a surprising variety of literary genres of philosophy so different from the narrow academic format of proceedings, handbooks, and referred journal articles. Already among the works of Aristotle, as the commentators noticed, there is a great variety, and Aristotle always adapted his style to the genre: dialogues, letters, protreptics, documentation works, research discussions, treatises on ethics and politics aiming at a broader public.

And if we take the whole literary production of ancient philosophy, the variety is even more impressive. Besides the treatises and commentaries, the summaries and paraphrases, refutations and replies, the handbooks, manuals, and doxographies, there are dialogues and diatribes and orations, letters and catechisms with sentences to be set in practice, epigraphical posters in public city galleries, philosophical poems and political pamphlets, revelations of Hermes Trismegistos, Chaldean oracles, and we must include the manifold Jewish and Christian interpretations of biblical texts, sermons, and theological polemics. They all require other ways of reading and interpreting.

The title of this introductory lecture does not mean that I would recommend us to seek for deeper meaning hidden under the many literary forms. It was undoubtedly a very influential hermeneutical model, in particular when combined with the esoteric/exoteric distinction. But in my view, it remains primarily a model for interpreting mythical and sacred texts and, since the secularization of sacred hermeneutics, for reading “challenging literary texts.” It is not a method for the interpretation of philosophical texts, where analysis, insight into the structure of arguments, questioning, and criticism are required.

To play with a well-known quote from Thoreau: “In this part of the world (i.e., in philosophy), it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation.” This refusal of a search for deeper meaning in philosophy, however, does not mean that we should remain just superficial readers, surfing on the text. Let us use all the possibilities we have, including attention to the literary context, to better understand the argument of the author.

To avoid the impression that I am finally agreeing with Aristotle against Plato, let me conclude with a remarkable statement of Plato in the Phaedo. It comes from the crucial section of the debate where Socrates starts his critique of Simmias’ argument that the soul is the harmony of the body and will disappear once the substrate is destroyed.

All participants are deeply impressed by the harmony argument, and there is an uneasy silence, as they thought it was a fatal blow to Socrates’ belief in immortality, but Socrates is not impressed. He confronts Simmias with a difficult choice: If you stick to the harmony doctrine, you will have to give up the other doctrine you just accepted, because it is incompatible with the harmony thesis, namely that all knowledge is recollection. What will you keep then, Simmias, this new theory or the former you already accepted? Simmias answers without hesitation that he would stand by the anamnesis doctrine.

For this other (sc. the doctrine that the soul is like a harmony) came to me without demonstration; it merely seemed probable and attractive, which is the reason why many people hold it. I am conscious that arguments which base their demonstrations on mere probability are deceptive, and if we are not on our guard against them, they deceive us greatly, in geometry and in all other things.

When commenting on this passage, Damascius, the last head of the Platonic Academy in Athens, distinguishes between what he calls superficial (ἐπιπόλαιοι) and profound (βαθύτεροι) thinkers, but not in any esoteric sense. Superficial thinkers, he says, “find pleasure in plausible arguments,” based on analogies and comparisons, metaphors. That is why the analogy of the soul with the harmony of the lyre is so attractive. “The more profound thinkers, who scorn the world of senses and its ready-at-hand (πρόχειρον) beliefs, rise above plausibilities and love arguments that are connected by necessity.”

In this sense, I would also like to be a ‘profound’ reader ... alas, there arises again a problem. The doctrine that, according to Socrates, is supposedly demonstrated by sound, almost geometrical arguments, and not by analogy, as the rejected harmony thesis, is itself based on analogy and metaphor.

For, Aristotle, sitting in this hall, would stand up and say: “What do you mean, Socrates, by that anamnesis? Is it not a metaphor and poetical phrase?” [conclusion p. 490-492]

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On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle","main_title":{"title":"Surface Reading and Deeper Meaning. On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle"},"abstract":"We are here together to discuss various forms of philosophy in antiquity. There is a surprising variety of literary genres of philosophy so different from the narrow academic format of proceedings, handbooks, and referred journal articles. Already among the works of Aristotle, as the commentators noticed, there is a great variety, and Aristotle always adapted his style to the genre: dialogues, letters, protreptics, documentation works, research discussions, treatises on ethics and politics aiming at a broader public.\r\n\r\nAnd if we take the whole literary production of ancient philosophy, the variety is even more impressive. Besides the treatises and commentaries, the summaries and paraphrases, refutations and replies, the handbooks, manuals, and doxographies, there are dialogues and diatribes and orations, letters and catechisms with sentences to be set in practice, epigraphical posters in public city galleries, philosophical poems and political pamphlets, revelations of Hermes Trismegistos, Chaldean oracles, and we must include the manifold Jewish and Christian interpretations of biblical texts, sermons, and theological polemics. They all require other ways of reading and interpreting.\r\n\r\nThe title of this introductory lecture does not mean that I would recommend us to seek for deeper meaning hidden under the many literary forms. It was undoubtedly a very influential hermeneutical model, in particular when combined with the esoteric\/exoteric distinction. But in my view, it remains primarily a model for interpreting mythical and sacred texts and, since the secularization of sacred hermeneutics, for reading \u201cchallenging literary texts.\u201d It is not a method for the interpretation of philosophical texts, where analysis, insight into the structure of arguments, questioning, and criticism are required.\r\n\r\nTo play with a well-known quote from Thoreau: \u201cIn this part of the world (i.e., in philosophy), it is considered a ground for complaint if a man\u2019s writings admit of more than one interpretation.\u201d This refusal of a search for deeper meaning in philosophy, however, does not mean that we should remain just superficial readers, surfing on the text. Let us use all the possibilities we have, including attention to the literary context, to better understand the argument of the author.\r\n\r\nTo avoid the impression that I am finally agreeing with Aristotle against Plato, let me conclude with a remarkable statement of Plato in the Phaedo. It comes from the crucial section of the debate where Socrates starts his critique of Simmias\u2019 argument that the soul is the harmony of the body and will disappear once the substrate is destroyed.\r\n\r\nAll participants are deeply impressed by the harmony argument, and there is an uneasy silence, as they thought it was a fatal blow to Socrates\u2019 belief in immortality, but Socrates is not impressed. He confronts Simmias with a difficult choice: If you stick to the harmony doctrine, you will have to give up the other doctrine you just accepted, because it is incompatible with the harmony thesis, namely that all knowledge is recollection. What will you keep then, Simmias, this new theory or the former you already accepted? Simmias answers without hesitation that he would stand by the anamnesis doctrine.\r\n\r\nFor this other (sc. the doctrine that the soul is like a harmony) came to me without demonstration; it merely seemed probable and attractive, which is the reason why many people hold it. I am conscious that arguments which base their demonstrations on mere probability are deceptive, and if we are not on our guard against them, they deceive us greatly, in geometry and in all other things.\r\n\r\nWhen commenting on this passage, Damascius, the last head of the Platonic Academy in Athens, distinguishes between what he calls superficial (\u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03b9) and profound (\u03b2\u03b1\u03b8\u03cd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9) thinkers, but not in any esoteric sense. Superficial thinkers, he says, \u201cfind pleasure in plausible arguments,\u201d based on analogies and comparisons, metaphors. That is why the analogy of the soul with the harmony of the lyre is so attractive. \u201cThe more profound thinkers, who scorn the world of senses and its ready-at-hand (\u03c0\u03c1\u03cc\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd) beliefs, rise above plausibilities and love arguments that are connected by necessity.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn this sense, I would also like to be a \u2018profound\u2019 reader ... alas, there arises again a problem. The doctrine that, according to Socrates, is supposedly demonstrated by sound, almost geometrical arguments, and not by analogy, as the rejected harmony thesis, is itself based on analogy and metaphor.\r\n\r\nFor, Aristotle, sitting in this hall, would stand up and say: \u201cWhat do you mean, Socrates, by that anamnesis? Is it not a metaphor and poetical phrase?\u201d [conclusion p. 490-492]","btype":2,"date":"2013","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/3r4OKQesOkyPwb0","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":164,"full_name":"Erler, Michael ","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":478,"full_name":"He\u00dfler, Jan Erik","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":479,"full_name":"Blumenfelder, Benedikt","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":482,"section_of":322,"pages":"469-494","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":322,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"en","title":"Argument und literarische Form in antiker Philosophie. Akten des 3. Kongresses der Gesellschaft f\u00fcr antike Philosophie 2010","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"Erler2013","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2013","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2013","abstract":"In der modernen Universit\u00e4t werden Literatur, Philologie und Philosophie als unterschiedliche Bereiche betrachtet. Damit wird eine im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert zunehmende Entfremdung zwischen der Erforschung antiker Philosophie und Philologie manifest, die den urspr\u00fcnglichen Gegebenheiten in der Antike keineswegs gerecht wird. Denn die Philosophie entwickelt sich in Griechenland und Rom in enger Verbindung mit und oft in einem Spannungsverh\u00e4ltnis zu unterschiedlichen literarischen Genres. Dies hat zur Folge, dass die Autoren und Interpreten infolge der Wahl bestimmter Gattungen als Medium philosophischer Botschaften neben der eigentlichen Argumentation auch Darstellungsformen der jeweiligen Gattungen zu w\u00fcrdigen haben. Dieses oft spannungsvolle Verh\u00e4ltnis von philosophischem Argument und literarischer Form auszuleuchten hatte sich der 3. Kongress der Gesellschaft f\u00fcr antike Philosophie vorgenommen. In Vortr\u00e4gen und Diskussionsrunden von Philosophen und Philologen wurde diese Frage unter verschiedenen Aspekten mit Blick auf antike Philosophen verschiedener Epochen lebendig diskutiert. Dieser Band, der den Gro\u00dfteil dieser Beitr\u00e4ge versammelt, mag einen Eindruck von der Diskussion vermitteln und Philologen, Philosophen und an der Antike Interessierte zu weiteren \u00dcberlegungen anregen. [author's abstract]","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/0QiKNhBCl16gJMn","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":322,"pubplace":"Berlin","publisher":"de Gruyter","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":["Surface Reading and Deeper Meaning. On Aristotle reading Plato and Platonists reading Aristotle"]}

The Soul never thinks withous a Phantasm: How platonic commentators interpret a controversal aristotelian Thesis, 2018
By: Steel, C., Strobel, Benedikt (Ed.)
Title The Soul never thinks withous a Phantasm: How platonic commentators interpret a controversal aristotelian Thesis
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2018
Published in Die Kunst der philosophischen Exegese bei den spätanitken Platon- und Aristoteles Kommentatoren. Akten der 15. Tagung der Karl und Gertrud Abel-Stiftung vom 4. bis 6. Oktober 2012 in Trier
Pages 185-223
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, C.
Editor(s) Strobel, Benedikt
Translator(s)
Even Platonists, it seems, have to accept that the intellective soul, when connected to this earthy body, can never be entirely without imagination, not only in (1) practical thought or in (2) understanding sensible objects or in (3) mathematics, but even in its most excellent thought, (4) the contemplation of the intelligible forms. The role of imagination is, however, different in the four cases, as we have seen. Therefore, a good philosophical teacher will not only warn his students of the danger of imaginations, which may distort their thoughts, but also helps them to train and discipline their imagination so that it may be an obedient servant of the intellect. For that reason, he will use images and fantastic stories besides rational arguments. As Proclus explains in his introduction to his commentary of the myth of Er:

The souls, which are by essence intellectual and full of incorporeal and intellectual reasons, have put on (ἐνδυσαμέναις) the imaginative intellect and cannot live without it in this place of generation [...] – for these souls, which have become impassible passible and without figures figurative (γενομέναις ἀπαθέσι παθητικαῖς, ἀμορφώτοις μορφωτικαῖς) this teaching through myths [as here in the myth of Er] is appropriate.

Myths are particularly needed for those who only live according to imagination and only have practised the passive intellect, as is the case with the vulgar masses, who are incapable of following a purely rational argument. By contrast, some exceptional souls, which have set their mind on pure intellections, will be content with the intellectual light of the truth without needing the imaginary mise-en-scène of myths. But for us, Proclus says, who are ‘both together and have a twofold intellect’, the one which we really are and the one we have put on and projected outwards (i.e. the passive intellect linked to imagination), we find pleasures both in the fictive clothing of the story and in its deeper truth. Whereas the imaginative intellect ‘is stricken by the external and becomes thus ready for the path towards science,’ our true intellect ‘is nourished by what is inside the stories and becomes the contemplator of truth.’ [conclusion p. 211-212]

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The role of imagination is, however, different in the four cases, as we have seen. Therefore, a good philosophical teacher will not only warn his students of the danger of imaginations, which may distort their thoughts, but also helps them to train and discipline their imagination so that it may be an obedient servant of the intellect. For that reason, he will use images and fantastic stories besides rational arguments. As Proclus explains in his introduction to his commentary of the myth of Er:\r\n\r\nThe souls, which are by essence intellectual and full of incorporeal and intellectual reasons, have put on (\u1f10\u03bd\u03b4\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2) the imaginative intellect and cannot live without it in this place of generation [...] \u2013 for these souls, which have become impassible passible and without figures figurative (\u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03b7\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2, \u1f00\u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u03ce\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u03c9\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2) this teaching through myths [as here in the myth of Er] is appropriate.\r\n\r\nMyths are particularly needed for those who only live according to imagination and only have practised the passive intellect, as is the case with the vulgar masses, who are incapable of following a purely rational argument. By contrast, some exceptional souls, which have set their mind on pure intellections, will be content with the intellectual light of the truth without needing the imaginary mise-en-sc\u00e8ne of myths. But for us, Proclus says, who are \u2018both together and have a twofold intellect\u2019, the one which we really are and the one we have put on and projected outwards (i.e. the passive intellect linked to imagination), we find pleasures both in the fictive clothing of the story and in its deeper truth. Whereas the imaginative intellect \u2018is stricken by the external and becomes thus ready for the path towards science,\u2019 our true intellect \u2018is nourished by what is inside the stories and becomes the contemplator of truth.\u2019 [conclusion p. 211-212]","btype":2,"date":"2018","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/iQkklQKce7ANXjV","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":14,"full_name":"Steel, Carlos ","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":326,"full_name":"Strobel, Benedikt","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":1170,"section_of":289,"pages":"185-223","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":289,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"de","title":"Die Kunst der philosophischen Exegese bei den sp\u00e4tanitken Platon- und Aristoteles Kommentatoren. Akten der 15. Tagung der Karl und Gertrud Abel-Stiftung vom 4. bis 6. 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The essays consistently reveal the linguistic difficulties encountered by the commentators due to the complex relationship between Platonic and Aristotelian theory.","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/rOy7sqluVGEXcC1","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":289,"pubplace":"Berlin \u2013 Boston","publisher":"De Gruyter","series":"Philosophie der Antike","volume":"36","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":["The Soul never thinks withous a Phantasm: How platonic commentators interpret a controversal aristotelian Thesis"]}

The Text Tradition of the 'Commentary On the Soul' Attributed to Simplicius, 2024
By: Steel, Carlos, Deckers, Daniel (Ed.), Brockmann, Christian (Ed.), Valente, Stefano (Ed.)
Title The Text Tradition of the 'Commentary On the Soul' Attributed to Simplicius
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2024
Published in Aristoteles-Kommentare und ihre Überlieferung. Wichtige Etappen von der Antike bis in die frühe Neuzeit
Pages 225-268
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Deckers, Daniel , Brockmann, Christian , Valente, Stefano
Translator(s)

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The Text Tradition of the Commentary On the Soul attributed to Simplicius, 2024
By: Steel, Carlos, Christian Brockmann (Ed.), Daniel Deckers (Ed.), Stefano Valente (Ed.)
Title The Text Tradition of the Commentary On the Soul attributed to Simplicius
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2024
Published in Aristoteles-Kommentare und ihre Überlieferung. Wichtige Etappen von der Antike bis in die frühe Neuzeit
Pages 225-268
Categories no categories
Author(s) Steel, Carlos
Editor(s) Christian Brockmann , Daniel Deckers , Stefano Valente
Translator(s)
About fifty years ago I published together with Fernand Bossier an article todemonstrate  that  theCommentary On the Soultraditionally  attributed  toSimplicius was not his work, but most probably that of a fellow member ofthe Athenian Academy, Priscian of Lydia.1An examination of the text tradi-tion of the commentary did not yield any indications to question the tradi-tional attribution. Nevertheless, arguments based on style, content, self-refer-ences are so convincing that it is now commonly accepted that the author ofthe commentary is not Simplicius.2The Hamburg colloquium offered me theincentive for a new and comprehensive study of the complicated text tradi-tion of this commentary, which enjoyed an extraordinary fortune in the re-ception of Aristotle’s treatiseOn the Soulamong Byzantine and Renaissancescholars.3For practical reasons, I keep using in this contribution the author’sname ‘Simplicius’ as it is known in the tradition but put it between singlequotations marks to distinguish him from the real Simplicius. [author's abstract]

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Nevertheless, arguments based on style, content, self-refer-ences are so convincing that it is now commonly accepted that the author ofthe commentary is not Simplicius.2The Hamburg colloquium offered me theincentive for a new and comprehensive study of the complicated text tradi-tion of this commentary, which enjoyed an extraordinary fortune in the re-ception of Aristotle\u2019s treatiseOn the Soulamong Byzantine and Renaissancescholars.3For practical reasons, I keep using in this contribution the author\u2019sname \u2018Simplicius\u2019 as it is known in the tradition but put it between singlequotations marks to distinguish him from the real Simplicius. 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Wichtige Etappen von der Antike bis in die fr\u00fche Neuzeit","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"Brockmann\/Deckers\/Valente2024","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2024","edition_no":null,"free_date":null,"abstract":"Von der Antike und der Sp\u00e4tantike bis ins Mittelalter und in die Neuzeit stellt die Kommentierung der aristotelischen Schriften eine der fundamentalen Formen philosophischer T\u00e4tigkeit dar. In diesem Sammelband werden wesentliche Etappen der griechischen Kommentartradition zu den Schriften des Aristoteles sowie ihre philosophische und kulturgeschichtliche Bedeutung an ausgew\u00e4hlten Beispielen analysiert und interpretiert. Die Autorinnen und Autoren setzen sich dabei sowohl mit den Manuskripten und der \u00dcberlieferung einzelner Schriften als auch mit der Rezeption und Weiterentwicklung der Aristotelischen Philosophie auseinander.\r\n\r\nDer Kernbestand der hier versammelten Beitr\u00e4ge geht auf die dreit\u00e4gige internationale Konferenz \u201eAristoteles-Kommentare und ihre \u00dcberlieferung in Sp\u00e4tantike, Mittelalter und Renaissance\" (26.\u201328.10.2017) zur\u00fcck, die dank der F\u00f6rderung der Karl und Gertrud Abel-Stiftung an der Universit\u00e4t Hamburg am Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures stattgefunden hat. 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‘Simplicius.’ On Aristotle, On the Soul 3.6–13, 2013
By: Simplicius
Title ‘Simplicius.’ On Aristotle, On the Soul 3.6–13
Type Edited Book
Language English
Date 2013
Publication Place Bristol - London
Publisher Bristol Classical Press
Series Ancient Commentators on Aristotle
Categories no categories
Author(s) , Simplicius
Editor(s)
Translator(s) Steel, Carlos(Steel, Carlos ) , Ritups, Arnis(Ritups, Arnis) ,
This is the fourth and last volume of the translation in this series of the commentary on Aristotle On the Soul, wrongly attributed to Simplicius. Its real author, most probably Priscian of Lydia, proves in this work to be an original philosopher who deserves to be studied, not only because of his detailed explanation of an often difficult Aristotelian text, but also because of his own psychological doctrines. In chapter six the author discusses the objects of the intellect. In chapters seven to eight he sees Aristotle as moving towards practical intellect, thus preparing the way for discussing what initiates movement in chapters nine to 11. His interpretation offers a brilliant investigation of practical reasoning and of the interaction between desire and cognition from the level of perception to the intellect. In the commentator's view, Aristotle in the last chapters (12-13) investigates the different type of organic bodies corresponding to the different forms of life (vegetative and sensory, from the most basic, touch, to the most complex).

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