James Wilberding

The first chapter, by James Wilberding, studies the emergence of the concept of eternity in ancient Greek philosophy and its close scrutiny in late antiquity. The chapter is divided into four sections. In the brief first section, Wilberding introduces and discusses the vocabulary the ancients used to discuss eternity. Here he pays particular attention to the Greek term _aiôn_, which by the end of late antiquity comes to refer to eternity but which was originally used to denote “life” with varying connotations. The second section is devoted to Parmenides, who is taken by some to be the first thinker to have articulated some notion of timeless eternity. The third section is devoted to Plato and Aristotle, both of whom grapple with one of the central problems of eternity in antiquity, namely determining how the sensible world, which is changing and in time, can be caused by an eternal principle. The final and longest section is devoted to later Platonic theories of eternity.

This chapter argues that there is a unique embryological theory that is advanced by a wide-ranging group of Neoplatonists. This theory consists of three theses: there is a single (male) seed; this seed is a collection of immaterial form-principles in state of potentiality; and these principles must be actualized by an external agent, who is usually identified with the mother. What is revolutionary about this theory is its ascribing this crucial active role to the female. A close examination of texts by Porphyry, Proclus, Ammonius, Asclepius, Simplicius, and Philoponus demonstrates how widely held this theory was in Neoplatonic circles. It is further argued that this theory results from the application of the metaphysical model of emanation to embryology.

This paper proposes a new way of understanding the thematic unity of the Timaeus. One of the major obstacles to appreciating the unity of the dialogue has been the apparent disconnect between the prologue, which prominently includes Critias’ account of ancient Athens (20d–26d), and Timaeus’ cosmological account. Past attempts to establish unity have worked on the assumption that the Timaeus as a whole is looking forward to the Critias and have sought to show that Critias’ account is in some sense complementary to Timaeus’ cosmological program. Building on recent work that calls the authenticity of the Critias into question, I argue that we can best appreciate the thematic unity of the dialogue by reading Timaeus’ account as a critical response to Critias’ account.

The most characteristic feature of Plotinus’ ethics is his distinction of social or civic virtues (aretai politikai) and kathartic or purificatory virtues (aretai kathartikai), from which later Neoplatonists developed the doctrine of the scales of virtues. Already in Plotinus himself, civic and karthartic virues are steps of an ascending movement that successively purifies the philosopher’s soul and enables it to contemplate Intellect itself, where the paradigmatic Forms of the virtues reside. This chapter discusses the characteristics of the Plotinian kinds of virtue and the ways in which they are acquired and addresses the problem – much debated in scholarship – if and how, in an ethical theory that largely equates virtue and self-perfection, there can be a convincing argument for other-regard and an ethics of social life.

Plotinus’ cosmology is a neglected but important part of his philosophy. Broadly speaking, it can be read as an exegesis of Plato’s Timaeus, the philosophical difficulties and ambiguities of which it attempts to clarify. Against a literal reading of Plato, Plotinus defends the everlastingness of the world for metaphysical reasons and addresses the problem how a corporeal being, which is in constant flux, can be eternal. He discusses the role of the World Soul in the transmission of the transcendent Forms to the visible cosmos (an issue left open by Plato) and explains how the spiritual motion of Intellect and Soul can be the cause of heavenly motion, which is corporeal.

James Wilberding - The Philosophy of the Commentators, 200-600 AD: A Sourcebook. Vol. I, Psychology . Vol. II, Physics. Vol. III, Logic and Metaphysics - Journal of the History of Philosophy 44:3 Journal of the History of Philosophy 44.3 470-471 Richard Sorabji. The Philosophy of the Commentators, 200–600 AD: A Sourcebook. Vol. I, Psychology . Pp. xv + 430. Vol. II, Physics. Pp. xix + 401. Vol. III, Logic and Metaphysics. Pp. xvii + 394. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005. Paper, $39.50, each volume. Interest in the Greek commentators continues to grow, thanks in large part to Richard Sorabji, who has done more than anyone else to reestablish them as at once faithful and original philosophers who remain relevant even to modern students of philosophy. The Sourcebook makes the commentators still more accessible by..

The concept of the world soul is difficult to understand in large part because over the course of history it has been invoked to very different ends and within the frameworks of very different philosophical systems, with very different concepts of the world soul emerging as a result. This volume brings together eleven chapters by leading philosophers in their respective fields that collectively explore the various ways in which this concept has been understood and employed, covering the following philosophical areas: Platonism, Stoicism, Medieval, Indian (Vedāntic), Kabbalah, Renaissance, Early Modern, German Romanticism, German Idealism, American Transcendentalism, and contemporary quantum mechanics and panpsychism theories. In addition, short reflections illuminate the impact the concept of the world soul has had on a small selection of areas outside of philosophy: harmony, biology (spontaneous generation), the music of Henry Purcell, psychoanalysis, and Gaia theories.

David Foster Wallace was genuinely troubled by what he perceived to be a serious incongruity in the mental lives of elite athletes. To perform with grace and beauty, elite athletes must be ‘geniuses,’ yet in conversation and prose these same athletes often exhibit such vapidity and banality that he was tempted to simply write them off as unintelligent or worse. In response to this puzzle, Wallace developed different philosophical conceptions of the elite athlete aimed at bridging the gap between genius and dumb jock. For Wallace, this was an exercise designed to help him live a more compassionate life.

Forms, Souls, and Embryos allows readers coming from different backgrounds to appreciate the depth and originality with which the Neoplatonists engaged with and responded to a number of philosophical questions central to human reproduction, including: What is the causal explanation of the embryo's formation? How and to what extent are Platonic Forms involved? In what sense is a fetus 'alive,' and when does it become a human being? Where does the embryo's soul come from, and how is it connected to its body? This is the first full-length study in English of this fascinating subject, and is a must-read for anyone interested in Neoplatonism or the history of medicine and embryology.

Plotinus stands at a crossroads in ancient philosophy, between the more than 600 years of philosophy that came before him and the new Platonic tradition. He was the first and perhaps the greatest systematizer of Plato's thought, and all later students of Plato in the following centuries approached Plato through him. This Companion from a new generation of ancient philosophy scholars reflects the current state of research on Plotinus, with chapters on topics including mathematics, fate and determinism, happiness, the theory of forms, categories of reality, matter and evil, and Plotinus' legacy. The volume offers an accessible overview of the thought of one of the pivotal figures in the history of philosophy, and reveals his importance as a thinker whose impact goes far beyond his importance as an interpreter of Plato.