Plethon and Scholarios on Aristotle

Abstract

Abstract With Plethon and Scholarios the scenery for a heated philosophical debate was set. Scholarios’ student, Matthew Kamariotes, will write against Ple- thon, while Theodore Gazes will be equally critical of him. Plethon’s views also found support. Michael Apostoles responds to Gazes with a brief treatise in which he criticizes Aristotle’s views on substance. This prompted Gazes’ cousin, Andronikos Kallistos, to write in defence of Gazes, advocating Aristotle’s views against the criticisms of Plethon and Apostoles. The most ardent critic of Plethon, and admittedly the most bitter writer in the whole controversy, will be George Trapezountios (1395-1472/3) who writes a po- lemical work in which he praises Aristotle and vilifies Plato. Trapezountios was the first in the controversy to write in Latin. His work will open up the discussion to Westerners, and indeed several Italians will take part in it. A thorough reply to Trapezountios will come from Plethon’s friend and corres- pondent Bessarion, who had closely followed the development of this debate. Bessarion criticizes Trapezountios for his hostility to Plato but also attempts to approach the whole issue of the merits of the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, and how the two compare, in a scholarly way; he not only shows a far better knowledge of the ancient texts than anyone involved in the controversy that far, but also tries to be fair in his judgement. Though he himself was an ardent Platonist, Bessarion takes an intermediary position between Platonists and Aristotelians, arguing that the ancients used to see the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle as being largelv in accord.

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