Table Of ContentTHE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF NEOPLATONISM
Th e Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism is an authoritative and comprehensive survey
of the most important issues and developments in one of the fastest growing areas of
research in ancient philosophy. An international team of scholars situates and re- evaluates
Neoplatonism within the history of ancient philosophy and thought, and explores its
infl uence on philosophical and religious schools worldwide. Th e Routledge Handbook of
Neoplatonism is a major reference source for all students and scholars in Neoplatonism and
ancient philosophy, as well as researchers in the philosophy of science, ethics, aesthetics
and religion.
Pauliina Remes is University Lecturer in Philosophy at Uppsala University (Sweden). She
is the author of Plotinus on Self: Th e Philosophy of the “We” (2007) and Neoplatonism (2008),
and the editor of Ancient Philosophy of the Self (2008, with J. Sihvola) and Consciousness:
From Perception to Refl ection in the History of Philosophy (2007, with S. Heinämaa and
V. Lähteenmäki).
Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n is Associate Professor of Classics and a core faculty in the History
and Philosophy of Science Program at the Florida State University. She has published on
a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, including Plotinus on Number (2009).
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Th e Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition
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Th e Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism
Edited by Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n
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Edited by Darrel Moellendorf and Heather Widdows
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Th e Routledge Handbook of German Idealism
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Th e Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Well-Being
Edited by Guy Fletcher
Th e Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination
Edited by Amy Kind
Th e Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Colour
Edited by Derek Brown and Fiona Macpherson
Th e Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Biodiversity
Edited by Justin Garson, Anya Plutynski, and Sahotra Sarkar
Th e Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of the Social Mind
Edited by Julian Kiverstein
Th e Routledge Handbook of Collective Intentionality
Edited by Marija Jankovic and Kirk Ludwig
Th e Routledge Handbook of Brentano and the Brentano School
Edited by Uriah Kriegel
Th e Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism
Edited by Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa
Th e Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Evolution
Edited by Richard Joyce
Th e Routledge Handbook of Modality
Edited by Otávio Bueno and Scott Shalkowski
THE ROUTLEDGE
HANDBOOK OF
NEOPLATONISM
Edited by
Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Th ird Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n, selection and editorial matter;
individual chapters, the contributors
Th e right of Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n to be identifi ed as the
authors of the editorial matter, and of the individual authors for their contributions,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been applied for
ISBN: 978-1-844-65626-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74418-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Minion Pro and Frutiger by Kate Williams, Swansea.
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction: Neoplatonism today 1
Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n
PART I: (RE)SOURCES, INSTRUCTION AND INTERACTION
Introduction 13
2. Platonist curricula and their infl uence 15
Harold Tarrant
3. Th e Alexandrian classrooms excavated and sixth-century philosophy teaching 30
Richard Sorabji
4. Middle Platonism and its relation to Stoicism and the Peripatetic tradition 40
Gretchen Reydams-Schils and Franco Ferrari
5. Plotinus and the Gnostics: opposed heirs of Plato 52
John D. Turner
6. Plotinus and the Orient: aoristos dyas 77
Vishwa Adluri
PART II: METHODS AND STYLES OF EXEGESIS
Introduction 103
7. Aristotelian commentary tradition 106
Han Baltussen
v
vi CONTENTS
8. Th e non-commentary tradition 115
Andrew Smith
9. Plotinus’ style and argument 126
Luc Brisson
10. Proclus’ geometrical method 145
Marije Martijn
PART III: METAPHYSICS AND METAPHYSICAL PERSPECTIVES
Introduction 163
11. Metaphysics: the origin of becoming and the resolution of ignorance 166
Sara Ahbel-Rappe
12. Th e metaphysics of the One 182
Jens Halfwassen
13. Number in the metaphysical landscape 200
Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n
14. Substance 216
Riccardo Chiaradonna
15. Matter and evil in the Neoplatonic tradition 231
Jean-Marc Narbonne
PART IV: LANGUAGE, KNOWLEDGE, SOUL AND SELF
Introduction 247
16. Th e gift of Hermes: the Neoplatonists on language and philosophy 251
Robbert M. van den Berg
17. Neoplatonic epistemology: knowledge, truth and intellection 266
Lloyd P. Gerson
18. Iamblichus on soul 280
John F. Finamore
19. From Alexander of Aphrodisias to Plotinus 293
Frederic M. Schroeder
20. Metaphysics of soul and self in Plotinus 310
Gwenaëlle Aubry
21. Perceptual awareness in the ancient commentators 323
Péter Lautner
CONTENTS vii
PART V: NATURE: PHYSICS, MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY
Introduction 341
22. Physics and metaphysics 343
Alessandro Linguiti
23. Neoplatonism and medicine 356
James Wilberding
24. Humans, other animals, plants and the question of the good: the Platonic
and Neoplatonic traditions 372
Kevin Corrigan
PART VI: ETHICS, POLITICAL THEORY AND AESTHETICS
Introduction 393
25. Plotinus on metaphysics and morality 396
Suzanne Stern-Gillet
26. Plotinus on founding freedom in Ennead VI.8[39] 421
Bernard Collette-Dučić
27. Freedom, providence and fate 437
Peter Adamson
28. Action, reasoning and the highest good 453
Pauliina Remes
29. Political theory 471
Dominic J. O’Meara
30. Plotinus’ aesthetics: in defence of the lifelike 484
Panayiota Vassilopoulou
PART VII: LEGACY
Introduction 505
31. Neoplatonism and Christianity in the West 508
Dermot Moran
32. Neoplatonism and Christianity in the East: philosophical and theological
challenges for bishops 525
Dimitar Y. Dimitrov
33. Islamic and Jewish Neoplatonisms 541
Sarah Pessin
Contributors 559
Bibliography 563
Index of passages cited 613
General index 631
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Acknowledgements
Th e appearance of this volume would have been impossible without the support of many
individuals and institutions. Besides the contributors, we wish to thank the anonymous
reviewers for upholding the Handbook to the highest standards of scholarship and giving
it all in their comments; Michael Chase, Simon Fortier and Coralie Seizilles de Mazanco
for their help in translating certain articles from French; Carl O’Brien for translating
Jens Halfwassen’s chapter from German with the assistance of Th omas Arnold and Tolga
Ratzsch; Marcaline Boyd and Amanda Richard for their editorial assistance; Steven Gerrard
and the production team at Acumen for their vision, and patience, at every stage of the
project; Tony Bruce and the production team at Routledge for their wholehearted welcome
of the book into their Handbooks series; the Department of Classics and the Program
in the History and Philosophy of Science at Florida State University; the Department of
Philosophy at Uppsala University; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; Riksbankens
Jubileumsfond, the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, and its
“Understanding Agency” Programme; the Florida State University Council on Research
and Creativity; C. H. Beck for allowing here the appearance of an English translation of
a chapter from Halfwassen (2004); University of Laval Press for allowing the appearance
of a revised version of Finamore (2009); and University of London Press for allowing the
appearance of an updated version of a chapter from Sorabji (2010). We are most in debt
to the forgiving understanding of our families. But none of this would have been possible
without a friendship that knows no limits and no borders, from the long Finnish summer
days of Mikkeli to the cosy coff ee houses of stormy Cardiff .
Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffi n
ix
Description:The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the most important issues and developments in one of the fastest growing areas of research in ancient philosophy. An international team of scholars situates and re-evaluates Neoplatonism within the history of anc
