Michiel Meeusen

This article is devoted to Plutarch’s natural-philosophical interests and aspirations, as expressed more precisely in his collection of Quaestiones Naturales, which has been generally underestimated by scholars. In order to speculate about the actual position of this collection in the Corpus Plutarcheum, I present a case study of one particular problem, viz. Q.N. 19 (916BF). In the first part of the article, the scope is primarily confined to the traditional sources on which Plutarch relies, but I also take into account Plutarch’s conception of scientific innovation, as it is formulated in Quaestiones convivales. In the second part, I deal with the problematic degree of moral dynamics and literary stylistics, which are, in the main, absent from Quaestiones Naturales. I analyse a cluster of parallel passages (De soll. an. 978EF; De am. mult. 96F–97A; De ad. et am. 51D–53D; Alc. 23, 4–5) by way of contrast to Q.N. 19. This yields insight into Plutarch’s argumentative tactics and his process of writing and rewriting, with a particular focus on his use of ὑπομνήματα. On chronological grounds, I argue that at a certain point Plutarch bears the hypomnematic material of Q.N. 19 in his topical mind, but also that there are certain indications that Q.N. 19 itself is based on other ὑπομνήματα, which in turn provides new material for speculating about the true nature of Quaestiones Naturales as a “collection of notes” and about what the actual range of this label might be.

The value of Plutarch’s perception of physical reality and his attitude towards the natural spectacle Plutarch was very interested in the natural world around him, not only in terms of its elementary composition and physical processes, but also with respect to its providential ordering and marvels. His writings teach us a lot about his perception of physical reality and about his attitude to the natural spectacle. He found his greatest inspiration in the ontological and epistemological framework of Plato’s Timaeus, but a wide range of other authors were also of seminal interest to his project. Moreover, the highly literary value of Plutarch’s natural philosophical writings should not be underrated. It is therefore not surprising that recently scholars have started to reassess the ancient scientific value of Plutarch’s natural philosophical writings. Natural Spectaculars aims to give further impetus to this dynamic by treating several aspects of Plutarch’s natural philosophy which have remained unexplored up to now.