Three Neoplatonic Introductions to Philosophy: Ammonius, David and Elias

Abstract

There is hardly a period in the history of western philosophy in which, for us, the heritage of Plato and his school is so tangible and ubiquitous as in the approximately four hundred years that are marked off by two rather different Neoplatonists, Plotinus (ca. 205 270) and Stephanus of Alexandria (/?. ca. 610).' Not only because it is in these centuries that the Platonists alone, with their strong holds in Athens and Alexandria, outlived the demise of a once rich variety of hellenistic schools, — but also even the representatives of the new faith, insofar as they were philosophically minded, appropriated Platonic-Neoplatonic concepts frequently in their attempt to explain by means of reason what inherently surpasses all understanding. During these four hundred years the Platonists succeeded in establishing a remarkably coherent school tradition, Neoplatonism, which cultivated at the same time two rather differ ent though complementary lines of inquiry. One was the quest of a speculative systematization of Neoplatonic metaphysics which is encountered most clearly in Iamblichus, Proclus, and Damascius. The other was a strong interest in the broadening of the philo sophical heritage, the attempt to expound their diverse philo sophical predecessors rigorously in the light of Platonism; this form of inquiry culminates in the learned commentaries of Simplicius and, to a lesser extent, of Olympiodorus. Thus, the last rep resentatives of Neoplatonic philosophy in antiquity had at their disposal a vast apparatus of philosophic material, both speculative and historical, which ranged from the 'One' to 'matter', from Homer right down to the contemporary philosophical teacher. In the last decade of this period one encounters signs which are generally taken to indicate that the Neoplatonic school, at least in Alexandria, had become a Christian institution: most significantly, names like Ioannes, Elias, David, and Stephanus appear in the titles of our manuscripts. Thus it seems that here, in the sixth century, the way was prepared for an altogether smooth transformation of Hellenic learning into the Christian school philosophy of later Byzantine

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