The Golden Chain

Studies in the Development of Platonism and Christianity

John Dillon

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781040241851
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Index: History

This volume gathers together a series of widely -scattered articles concerned with the great tradition of Platonic scholarship " The Golden Chain" from the time of Plato himself up into the period of Middle Platonism. The main emphasis, however, is on the first three centuries AD. The first articles address the question of what exactly was the nature of the Platonic school at various stages of its development and what kind of organization the Academy may have had. The following ones present studies on figures from Speusippus in the Old Academy, through Philo of Alexandria and Origen (more honorary members of the Golden Chain), to Plotinus, Iamblichus and Proclus, and on some more general issues, such as the fall of the soul, which span much of the period. Dans ce volume sont rassembles des articles jusque"la très dispersés et qui traitent de la grande tradition du savoir platonicien " la "Chaîne d'Or"" Sur une période allant de Platon au Moyen"Platonisme et à l'avènement de la pensée chrétienne. Cependant, l'accent est surtout mis sur les trois premières siècles ap. J.C. Les premières articles s'attachent à la nature exacte de l'Ecole platonicienne à différents stades de son évolution et aussi a l'organisation adoptée par "l'Académie". Les études suivantes examinent différents personnages, de Speusippe, qui appartenait à l'Ancienne Académie, en passant par Philon d'Aleandrie et Origiène (membres semi"honoraires de la Chaîne d'Or), jusqu'à Plotin, Iamblique et Procle; y sont aussi traitées des questions d'ordre plus général, telles la chute de l'âme, qui furent embrassées durant la majeure partie de cette période.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter I: What Happened to Plato's Garden?
• Chapter II: Self-Definition in Later Platonism
• Chapter III: The Academy in the Middle Platonic Period
• Chapter IV: Female Principles in Platonism
• Chapter V: Tampering with the Timaeus: Ideological Emendations in Plato
• Chapter VI: Speusippus in Iamblichus
• Chapter VII: "Xenocrates" Metaphysics: Fr. 15 (Heinze) Re-examined
• Chapter VIII: "Metriopatheia and Apatheia": Some Reflections on a Controversy in Later Greek Ethics
• Chapter IX: The Transcendence of God in Philo: Some Possible Sources
• Chapter X: Philo and the Stoic Doctrine of Eupatheiai (with Abraham Terian)
• Chapter XI: Ganymede as the Logos: Traces of a Forgotten Allegorisation in Philo?
• Chapter XII: The Descent of the Soul in Middle Platonic and Gnostic Thought
• Chapter XIII: Plutarch and Second-Century Platonism
• Chapter XIV: Harpocration's Commentary on Plato: Fragments of a Middle Platonic Commentary
• Chapter XV: A Date for the Death of Nicomachus of Gerasa?
• Chapter XVI: The Concept of Two Intellects: A Footnote to the History of Platonisrn
• Chapter XVII: The Platonising of Mithra
• Chapter XVIII: Plotinus, Philo and Origen on the Grades of Virtue
• Chapter XIX: Aisthêsis Noêtê: A Doctrine of Spiritual Senses in Origen and in Plotinus
• Chapter XX: The Theory of Three Classes of Men in Plotinus and in Philo
• Chapter XXI: Origen's Doctrine of the Trinity and Sorne Later Neoplatonic Theories
• Chapter XXII: Looking on the Light: Some Rernarks on the Imagery of Light in the First Chapter of Origen's Peri Archôn
• Chapter XXIII: The Magical Power of Names in Origen and Later Platonism
• Chapter XXIV: Plotinus and the Transcendental Imagination
• Chapter XXV: Plotinus, Enn. III 9, 1 and Later Views on the Intelligible World
• Chapter XXVI: Iamblichus and the Origin of the Doctrine of Henads
• Chapter XXVII: Proclus and the Parmenidean Dialectic
• Chapter XXVIII: Image, Symbol and Analogy: Three Basic Concepts of Neoplatonic Exegesis
• Addenda and Corrigenda
• Index