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Platonism in late antiquity, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J., Blumenthal, Henry J. (Ed.)

Title	Platonism in late antiquity
Type	Book Section
Language	English
Date	1993
Published in	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Pages	1-27
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Translator(s)

The Platonism of late antiquity is, of course, what we now call Neoplatonism. That term is a modern one. ‘Neoplatonist’ and ‘Neoplatonic’ first appeared in English and French in the 1830s. All the philosophers whose work comes under this heading thought of themselves simply as Platonists, and the doctrine they were expounding as the Platonic philosophy. For Plotinus, the man normally thought of as the founder of this type of philosophy, all that he might have to say had been said before, though it might not have been set out explicitly, and could be found in the text of Plato (cf. V 1.8.10-14). For Proclus in the 5th century, after two hundred years of this kind of thinking, the same view of what he was doing still stood, as it did for Simplicius and Damascius into the 6th. Thus, Proclus, in the preface to his Platonic Theology, could write of his whole enterprise, and that of his Neoplatonic predecessors, as the understanding and exposition of the truths in Plato. Given our modern views of Plato and Aristotle, as working philosophers whose views developed and whose answers to questions were not always the same, it is important to realize that their ancient interpreters looked at them as creators of fixed systems: though they might recognize that they did not always say the same things about the same questions, they saw such apparent inconsistencies as problems about the relation of disparate statements to an assumed single doctrine rather than about how one different doctrine might relate to another. Before going on, I should perhaps offer some explanations and an apology. The apology is to those who know a great deal, or even a little, about Neoplatonism to whom some of what I shall say is basic common knowledge. The explanations are two. First, that I am taking late antiquity to start in the 3rd century A.D., following an old Cambridge custom of taking ancient Greek philosophy to have ended with the death of Marcus Aurelius. The second is to say what I am going to do here. It relates to the first. When this view of the limits of classical antiquity still held, the study of Neoplatonism was regarded as rather disreputable, in the English-speaking world at least, and the few apparent exceptions—Elements of Theology, still one of the great achievements of Neoplatonic scholarship, and the first modern commentary on a Neoplatonic work—was seen not so much as evidence that there was here a rich field for new scholarly endeavor as an indication of that scholar’s eccentricity. The common attitude found its expression in the preface to the first volume of W.K.C. Guthrie’s History of Greek Philosophy, where he relegated Neoplatonism to the realms of the unphilosophical and the un-Greek: "With Plotinus and his followers, as well as with their Christian contemporaries, there does seem to enter a new religious spirit which is not fundamentally Greek..." That was in 1962. What I want to do is to look at some of the characteristics of Neoplatonism and to see how the picture of this philosophy, or rather group of philosophies, has changed during the last three decades. I think most would now agree it is basically Greek. As to the importance of the religious and soteriological elements in it, which for many of its adherents was rather small in any case, that is arguable, and its significance depends on the extent to which one regards other forms of ancient philosophy as enquiries into how one should live the best life either in relation to one’s own society or to the gods which that society recognized. What is important is that most of the Neoplatonic writings we have are clearly philosophical rather than religious or otherwise concerned with the supernatural. I shall therefore take it for granted that we are talking about philosophy, and not any of the other things with which Neoplatonism has sometimes been associated, and which may undoubtedly be found in some of its products. [introduction p. 1-2]

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/A5Y90b8NYMkY9Vs

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That term is a modern one. \u2018Neoplatonist\u2019 and \u2018Neoplatonic\u2019 first appeared in English and French in the 1830s. All the philosophers whose work comes under this heading thought of themselves simply as Platonists, and the doctrine they were expounding as the Platonic philosophy. For Plotinus, the man normally thought of as the founder of this type of philosophy, all that he might have to say had been said before, though it might not have been set out explicitly, and could be found in the text of Plato (cf. V 1.8.10-14). For Proclus in the 5th century, after two hundred years of this kind of thinking, the same view of what he was doing still stood, as it did for Simplicius and Damascius into the 6th. Thus, Proclus, in the preface to his Platonic Theology, could write of his whole enterprise, and that of his Neoplatonic predecessors, as the understanding and exposition of the truths in Plato.\r\n\r\nGiven our modern views of Plato and Aristotle, as working philosophers whose views developed and whose answers to questions were not always the same, it is important to realize that their ancient interpreters looked at them as creators of fixed systems: though they might recognize that they did not always say the same things about the same questions, they saw such apparent inconsistencies as problems about the relation of disparate statements to an assumed single doctrine rather than about how one different doctrine might relate to another.\r\n\r\nBefore going on, I should perhaps offer some explanations and an apology. The apology is to those who know a great deal, or even a little, about Neoplatonism to whom some of what I shall say is basic common knowledge. The explanations are two.\r\n\r\nFirst, that I am taking late antiquity to start in the 3rd century A.D., following an old Cambridge custom of taking ancient Greek philosophy to have ended with the death of Marcus Aurelius. The second is to say what I am going to do here. It relates to the first. When this view of the limits of classical antiquity still held, the study of Neoplatonism was regarded as rather disreputable, in the English-speaking world at least, and the few apparent exceptions\u2014Elements of Theology, still one of the great achievements of Neoplatonic scholarship, and the first modern commentary on a Neoplatonic work\u2014was seen not so much as evidence that there was here a rich field for new scholarly endeavor as an indication of that scholar\u2019s eccentricity. The common attitude found its expression in the preface to the first volume of W.K.C. Guthrie\u2019s History of Greek Philosophy, where he relegated Neoplatonism to the realms of the unphilosophical and the un-Greek:\r\n\r\n\"With Plotinus and his followers, as well as with their Christian contemporaries, there does seem to enter a new religious spirit which is not fundamentally Greek...\"\r\n\r\nThat was in 1962.\r\n\r\nWhat I want to do is to look at some of the characteristics of Neoplatonism and to see how the picture of this philosophy, or rather group of philosophies, has changed during the last three decades. I think most would now agree it is basically Greek. As to the importance of the religious and soteriological elements in it, which for many of its adherents was rather small in any case, that is arguable, and its significance depends on the extent to which one regards other forms of ancient philosophy as enquiries into how one should live the best life either in relation to one\u2019s own society or to the gods which that society recognized. What is important is that most of the Neoplatonic writings we have are clearly philosophical rather than religious or otherwise concerned with the supernatural. I shall therefore take it for granted that we are talking about philosophy, and not any of the other things with which Neoplatonism has sometimes been associated, and which may undoubtedly be found in some of its products.\r\n[introduction p. 1-2]","btype":2,"date":"1993","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/A5Y90b8NYMkY9Vs","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":108,"full_name":"Blumenthal, Henry J.","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":108,"full_name":"Blumenthal, Henry J.","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":1126,"section_of":214,"pages":"1-27","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":214,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":1,"language":"en","title":"Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"Blumenthal1993c","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"1993","edition_no":null,"free_date":"1993","abstract":"This book presents a series of Dr. Blumenthal\u2019s studies on the history of Neoplatonism, from its founder Plotinus to the end of Classical Antiquity, relating especially to the Neoplatonists\u2019 doctrines about the soul. The work falls into two parts. The first deals with Plotinus and considers the soul both as part of the structure of the universe and in its capacity as the basis of the individual\u2019s vital and cognitive functions. The second part is concerned with the later history of Neoplatonism, including its end. Its main focus is the investigation of how Neoplatonic psychology was modified and developed by later philosophers, in particular the commentators on Aristotle, and used as the starting point for their Platonizing interpretations of his philosophy.","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/Hj2vOznXoMqSzco","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":214,"pubplace":"Aldershot (Hampshire)","publisher":"Variorum","series":"Variorum collected studies series","volume":"426","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":[1993]}

Simplicius(?) on the first book of Aristotle’s De Anima, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J., Blumenthal, Henry J. (Ed.)

Title	Simplicius(?) on the first book of Aristotle’s De Anima
Type	Book Section
Language	English
Date	1993
Published in	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Pages	91-112
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Translator(s)

Neoplatonic exposition of classical Greek philosophy includes two kinds of reinterpretation. The first and most basic is, of course, the reading of Plato himself as a Neoplatonist. This is, it goes without saying, to be found primarily in all the independent works of Neopla tonism, as well as in commentaries on works of Plato. The other, with which readers of the Aristotelian commentators are more often concerned, is the Platonization of Aristotle. The latter is crucial to our understanding of any Neoplatonist commentator, both in himself and also as an authority on Aristotle. And since we are dealing with a text at least superficially based on Aristotle, I shall devote most of this paper to some of the somewhat strange interpretations of him to be found in Book 1 of the De anima commentary. At the same time this particular book also offers an opportunity, which the commentary on what will have seemed to him the more obviously philosophically in teresting parts of the De anima does not1, to see how Simplicius works in the area of Plato interpretation, and we shall look at the way in which Plato and Aristotle are both subjected to similar tech niques of interpretation. [p. 91]

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/b0MGk7ACSQL6CCE

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Soul Vehicles in Simplicius, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J., Blumenthal, Henry J. (Ed.)

Title	Soul Vehicles in Simplicius
Type	Book Section
Language	English
Date	1993
Published in	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Pages	173-188
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Translator(s)

There has been a not inconsiderable amount of discussion of the nature and function of the ochêma—or ochêmata—the body or bodies made of not quite bodily substance, which served as an intermediary between body and soul in various Neoplatonisms from Porphyry, or even arguably Plotinus, down to and including Proclus. Rather less attention, and in Simplicius’ case virtually none, has been paid to the nature and role of such intermediary vehicles in the Neoplatonist commentators on Aristotle. The purpose of the following pages will be to examine the use of the concept in Simplicius. In particular, it will seek to establish: How many such vehicles there were. What they were made of. What was their function, and, related to this: What was their life expectancy. Were they simply such as one would expect to find in the work of a Neoplatonist at this time, or are they in some way modified by the commentary context? In considering these matters, special attention will be paid to the vocabulary used to discuss them. It should not, however, come as a surprise to discover that it is not significantly, if at all, different from that of those Neoplatonists who did not concentrate their endeavors on the exposition of Aristotle. [introduction p. 173]

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/iFGbdffl8v5SpA9

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Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J.

Title	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Type	Monograph
Language	English
Date	1993
Publication Place	Aldershot (Hampshire)
Publisher	Variorum
Series	Variorum collected studies series
Volume	426
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)
Translator(s)

This book presents a series of Dr. Blumenthal’s studies on the history of Neoplatonism, from its founder Plotinus to the end of Classical Antiquity, relating especially to the Neoplatonists’ doctrines about the soul. The work falls into two parts. The first deals with Plotinus and considers the soul both as part of the structure of the universe and in its capacity as the basis of the individual’s vital and cognitive functions. The second part is concerned with the later history of Neoplatonism, including its end. Its main focus is the investigation of how Neoplatonic psychology was modified and developed by later philosophers, in particular the commentators on Aristotle, and used as the starting point for their Platonizing interpretations of his philosophy.

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/Hj2vOznXoMqSzco

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PAGE 1 OF 1

Platonism in late antiquity, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J., Blumenthal, Henry J. (Ed.)

Title	Platonism in late antiquity
Type	Book Section
Language	English
Date	1993
Published in	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Pages	1-27
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Translator(s)

Given our modern views of Plato and Aristotle, as working philosophers whose views developed and whose answers to questions were not always the same, it is important to realize that their ancient interpreters looked at them as creators of fixed systems: though they might recognize that they did not always say the same things about the same questions, they saw such apparent inconsistencies as problems about the relation of disparate statements to an assumed single doctrine rather than about how one different doctrine might relate to another.

Before going on, I should perhaps offer some explanations and an apology. The apology is to those who know a great deal, or even a little, about Neoplatonism to whom some of what I shall say is basic common knowledge. The explanations are two.

First, that I am taking late antiquity to start in the 3rd century A.D., following an old Cambridge custom of taking ancient Greek philosophy to have ended with the death of Marcus Aurelius. The second is to say what I am going to do here. It relates to the first. When this view of the limits of classical antiquity still held, the study of Neoplatonism was regarded as rather disreputable, in the English-speaking world at least, and the few apparent exceptions—Elements of Theology, still one of the great achievements of Neoplatonic scholarship, and the first modern commentary on a Neoplatonic work—was seen not so much as evidence that there was here a rich field for new scholarly endeavor as an indication of that scholar’s eccentricity. The common attitude found its expression in the preface to the first volume of W.K.C. Guthrie’s History of Greek Philosophy, where he relegated Neoplatonism to the realms of the unphilosophical and the un-Greek:

"With Plotinus and his followers, as well as with their Christian contemporaries, there does seem to enter a new religious spirit which is not fundamentally Greek..."

That was in 1962.

What I want to do is to look at some of the characteristics of Neoplatonism and to see how the picture of this philosophy, or rather group of philosophies, has changed during the last three decades. I think most would now agree it is basically Greek. As to the importance of the religious and soteriological elements in it, which for many of its adherents was rather small in any case, that is arguable, and its significance depends on the extent to which one regards other forms of ancient philosophy as enquiries into how one should live the best life either in relation to one’s own society or to the gods which that society recognized. What is important is that most of the Neoplatonic writings we have are clearly philosophical rather than religious or otherwise concerned with the supernatural. I shall therefore take it for granted that we are talking about philosophy, and not any of the other things with which Neoplatonism has sometimes been associated, and which may undoubtedly be found in some of its products.
[introduction p. 1-2]

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/A5Y90b8NYMkY9Vs

Simplicius(?) on the first book of Aristotle’s De Anima, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J., Blumenthal, Henry J. (Ed.)

Title	Simplicius(?) on the first book of Aristotle’s De Anima
Type	Book Section
Language	English
Date	1993
Published in	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Pages	91-112
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Translator(s)

Neoplatonic  exposition  of  classical  Greek  philosophy  includes 
two  kinds of reinterpretation. The  first  and  most basic  is,  of course, 
the reading of Plato himself as a Neoplatonist. This is, it goes without 
saying, to be found primarily in all the independent works of Neopla
tonism,  as  well  as  in  commentaries  on  works  of  Plato.  The  other, 
with which  readers of the Aristotelian commentators  are  more often 
concerned,  is  the  Platonization  of Aristotle.  The  latter  is  crucial  to 
our understanding of any Neoplatonist commentator, both in himself 
and also as an authority on Aristotle. And since we are dealing with a 
text at least superficially based on Aristotle, I shall devote most of this 
paper  to  some  of the  somewhat  strange  interpretations  of  him  to  be 
found in Book  1  of the De anima commentary. At the same time this 
particular book also offers an opportunity, which the commentary on 
what will  have seemed to  him the  more obviously philosophically in
teresting  parts  of  the  De  anima  does  not1,  to  see  how  Simplicius 
works  in  the  area  of  Plato  interpretation,  and  we  shall  look  at  the 
way  in  which  Plato  and  Aristotle  are  both  subjected  to  similar tech
niques of interpretation. [p. 91]

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/b0MGk7ACSQL6CCE

Soul Vehicles in Simplicius, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J., Blumenthal, Henry J. (Ed.)

Title	Soul Vehicles in Simplicius
Type	Book Section
Language	English
Date	1993
Published in	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Pages	173-188
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Translator(s)

There has been a not inconsiderable amount of discussion of the nature and function of the ochêma—or ochêmata—the body or bodies made of not quite bodily substance, which served as an intermediary between body and soul in various Neoplatonisms from Porphyry, or even arguably Plotinus, down to and including Proclus. Rather less attention, and in Simplicius’ case virtually none, has been paid to the nature and role of such intermediary vehicles in the Neoplatonist commentators on Aristotle.

The purpose of the following pages will be to examine the use of the concept in Simplicius. In particular, it will seek to establish:

    How many such vehicles there were.
    What they were made of.
    What was their function, and, related to this:
    What was their life expectancy.
    Were they simply such as one would expect to find in the work of a Neoplatonist at this time, or are they in some way modified by the commentary context?

In considering these matters, special attention will be paid to the vocabulary used to discuss them. It should not, however, come as a surprise to discover that it is not significantly, if at all, different from that of those Neoplatonists who did not concentrate their endeavors on the exposition of Aristotle. [introduction p. 173]

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/iFGbdffl8v5SpA9

Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism, 1993
By: Blumenthal, Henry J.

Title	Soul and intellect: Studies in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism
Type	Monograph
Language	English
Date	1993
Publication Place	Aldershot (Hampshire)
Publisher	Variorum
Series	Variorum collected studies series
Volume	426
Categories	no categories
Author(s)	Blumenthal, Henry J.
Editor(s)
Translator(s)

This book presents a series of Dr. Blumenthal’s studies on the history of Neoplatonism, from its founder Plotinus to the end of Classical Antiquity, relating especially to the Neoplatonists’ doctrines about the soul. The work falls into two parts. The first deals with Plotinus and considers the soul both as part of the structure of the universe and in its capacity as the basis of the individual’s vital and cognitive functions. The second part is concerned with the later history of Neoplatonism, including its end. Its main focus is the investigation of how Neoplatonic psychology was modified and developed by later philosophers, in particular the commentators on Aristotle, and used as the starting point for their Platonizing interpretations of his philosophy.

Online Resources

https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/Hj2vOznXoMqSzco

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