Commentaries on Plato
Encyclopedia
Commentaries on Plato refers to the great mass of literature produced, especially in the ancient and medieval world, to explain and clarify the works of Plato
. Many Platonist philosophers in the centuries following Plato sought to clarify and summarise his thoughts, but it was during the Roman era, that the Neoplatonists, in particular, wrote many commentaries on individual dialogues of Plato, many of which survive to the present day.
sought to clarify and explain Plato's ideas. Already in the 3rd century BC, we hear of a commentary to Plato's Timaeus
being written by Crantor of Soli
; and in the 1st century AD a commentary on Plato's Republic was written by Onasander
. By the 2nd century the Middle Platonists
were producing paraphrases and summaries of Plato's thought. Thus we have Albinus
, who wrote an introduction to Plato's works, and Alcinous
and Apuleius
who both wrote manuals of Platonism. From the physician Galen
we have fragments of a commentary on the Timaeus. Already though the influence of Aristotle
was being felt on the popular Platonism of the day, and we have the figure of Atticus (c. 175) who opposed the eclecticism which had invaded the school and contested the theories of Aristotle as an aberration from Plato.
The Neoplatonists though sought to exhibit the philosophical ideas of Plato and Aristotle as a unity. Porphyry
(3rd century) attempted in a special work to show the agreement of Aristotelian
and Platonist philosophy and wrote a number of commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, and Theophrastus
. Additional commentaries on Plato were written by Dexippus, Plutarch of Athens
, and Syrianus
. A partial translation and commentary in Latin
of Plato's Timaeus by Calcidius
was significant for being the only substantial work of Plato known to scholars in the Latin west for approximately 800 years. The best commentaries date from this era; most of the works of Proclus
are commentaries on single dialogues of Plato and similar subjects. The commentaries on Plato were either given in lectures or written; and many have come down to us. Later Neoplatonist commentators on Plato whose works partially survive include Damascius
and Olympiodorus
.
era, Aristotle was read more often than Plato, because of the importance placed on Aristotle's logical treatises. A key figure was Arethas
, the 10th century Archbishop of Caesarea
, who concerned himself with the preservation of the manuscripts of Plato and other ancient writers, and wrote scholia to the texts of Plato in his own hand. By the 11th century enthusiastic admirers of Platonism could be found in figures such as Michael Psellos
and John Italus
. The only surviving commentary from the late empire is a commentary on the Parmenides by George Pachymeres
.
. He was seen more as a symbol and as an inspiration rather than a source of practical philosophy. Islamic Platonism, when it came, was a development within Aristotelian philosophy. Far fewer of his works were known to the Islamic world than those of Aristotle. It seems that only the Laws
, the Sophist
, the Timaeus
, and the Republic, were available in Arabic translation. Averroes
, who wrote many commentaries on Aristotle, was probably motivated to write his one Platonic commentary, on the Republic, only because he could not find a copy of Aristotle's Politics
.
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
. Many Platonist philosophers in the centuries following Plato sought to clarify and summarise his thoughts, but it was during the Roman era, that the Neoplatonists, in particular, wrote many commentaries on individual dialogues of Plato, many of which survive to the present day.
Greek commentators
Many of the scholars in the Platonic AcademyPlatonic Academy
The Academy was founded by Plato in ca. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC...
sought to clarify and explain Plato's ideas. Already in the 3rd century BC, we hear of a commentary to Plato's Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)
Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...
being written by Crantor of Soli
Crantor
Crantor was a Greek philosopher of the Old Academy, probably born around the middle of the 4th century BC, at Soli in Cilicia.-Life:Crantor moved to Athens in order to study philosophy, where he became a pupil of Xenocrates and a friend of Polemo, and one of the most distinguished supporters of...
; and in the 1st century AD a commentary on Plato's Republic was written by Onasander
Onasander
Onasander, Onisander or Onosander was a Greek philosopher. He was the author of a commentary on the Republic of Plato, which is lost, but we still possess his Strategikos , a short but comprehensive work on the duties of a general. It is dedicated to Quintus Veranius Nepos, consul in AD 49, and...
. By the 2nd century the Middle Platonists
Middle Platonism
Middle Platonism is the modern name given to a stage in the development of Plato's philosophy, lasting from about 90 BC, when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected the scepticism of the New Academy, until the development of Neoplatonism under Plotinus in the 3rd century. Middle Platonism absorbed many...
were producing paraphrases and summaries of Plato's thought. Thus we have Albinus
Albinus (philosopher)
Albinus was a Platonist philosopher, who lived at Smyrna, and was teacher of Galen. A short tract by him, entitled Introduction to Plato's dialogues, has come down to us. From the title of one of the extant manuscripts we learn that Albinus was a pupil of Gaius the Platonist...
, who wrote an introduction to Plato's works, and Alcinous
Alcinous (philosopher)
__FORCETOC__Alcinous , or Alcinoos, or Alkinoos, was a Middle Platonist philosopher. He probably lived in the 2nd century AD, although nothing is known about his life. He is the author of The Handbook of Platonism, an epitome of Middle Platonism intended as a manual for teachers...
and Apuleius
Apuleius
Apuleius was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus . He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the...
who both wrote manuals of Platonism. From the physician Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
we have fragments of a commentary on the Timaeus. Already though the influence of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
was being felt on the popular Platonism of the day, and we have the figure of Atticus (c. 175) who opposed the eclecticism which had invaded the school and contested the theories of Aristotle as an aberration from Plato.
The Neoplatonists though sought to exhibit the philosophical ideas of Plato and Aristotle as a unity. Porphyry
Porphyry (philosopher)
Porphyry of Tyre , Porphyrios, AD 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics...
(3rd century) attempted in a special work to show the agreement of Aristotelian
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...
and Platonist philosophy and wrote a number of commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, and Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...
. Additional commentaries on Plato were written by Dexippus, Plutarch of Athens
Plutarch of Athens
Plutarch of Athens was a Greek philosopher and Neoplatonist who taught at Athens at the beginning of the 5th century. He reestablished the Platonic Academy there and became its leader...
, and Syrianus
Syrianus
Syrianus ; died c. 437) was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, and head of Plato's Academy in Athens, succeeding his teacher Plutarch of Athens in 431/432. He is important as the teacher of Proclus, and, like Plutarch and Proclus, as a commentator on Plato and Aristotle. His best-known extant work...
. A partial translation and commentary in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
of Plato's Timaeus by Calcidius
Calcidius
Calcidius was a 4th century Christian who translated the first part of Plato's Timaeus from Greek into Latin around the year 321 and provided with it an extensive commentary. This was done for Bishop Hosius of Córdoba...
was significant for being the only substantial work of Plato known to scholars in the Latin west for approximately 800 years. The best commentaries date from this era; most of the works of Proclus
Proclus
Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...
are commentaries on single dialogues of Plato and similar subjects. The commentaries on Plato were either given in lectures or written; and many have come down to us. Later Neoplatonist commentators on Plato whose works partially survive include Damascius
Damascius
Damascius , known as "the last of the Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the School of Athens. He was one of the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into the empire...
and Olympiodorus
Olympiodorus the Younger
Olympiodorus the Younger was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in the early years of the Byzantine Empire, after Justinian's Decree of 529 A.D. which closed Plato's Academy in Athens and other pagan schools...
.
Byzantine commentaries
In the ByzantineByzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
era, Aristotle was read more often than Plato, because of the importance placed on Aristotle's logical treatises. A key figure was Arethas
Arethas of Caesarea
Arethas of Caesarea became Archbishop of Caesarea early in the 10th century, and is reckoned one of the most scholarly theologians of the Greek Orthodox Church.-Life:He was born at Patrae . He was a disciple of Photius...
, the 10th century Archbishop of Caesarea
Archbishop of Caesarea
The Archbishop of Caesarea was one of the major suffragans of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem during the Crusades. The Bishop of Caesarea became metropolitan of Palestine in the early 3rd century but after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 he was subordinate to the Patriarch of Jerusalem...
, who concerned himself with the preservation of the manuscripts of Plato and other ancient writers, and wrote scholia to the texts of Plato in his own hand. By the 11th century enthusiastic admirers of Platonism could be found in figures such as Michael Psellos
Michael Psellos
Michael Psellos or Psellus was a Byzantine monk, writer, philosopher, politician and historian...
and John Italus
John Italus
John Italus, also Johannes Italos, Ioannis Italos, Ioánnes Italós was a Neoplatonic Byzantine philosopher of the eleventh century. He was Calabrian in origin, his father being a soldier. He came to Constantinople, where he became a student of Michael Psellus in classical Greek philosophy. He...
. The only surviving commentary from the late empire is a commentary on the Parmenides by George Pachymeres
George Pachymeres
Georgius Pachymeres , a Byzantine Greek historian and miscellaneous writer, was born at Nicaea, in Bithynia, where his father had taken refuge after the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204...
.
Islamic commentaries
Compared to Aristotle, Plato figured far less prominently in Islamic philosophyIslamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
. He was seen more as a symbol and as an inspiration rather than a source of practical philosophy. Islamic Platonism, when it came, was a development within Aristotelian philosophy. Far fewer of his works were known to the Islamic world than those of Aristotle. It seems that only the Laws
Laws (dialogue)
The Laws is Plato's last and longest dialogue. The question asked at the beginning is not "What is law?" as one would expect. That is the question of the Minos...
, the Sophist
Sophist (dialogue)
The Sophist is a Platonic dialogue from the philosopher's late period, most likely written in 360 BCE. Having criticized his Theory of Forms in the Parmenides, Plato presents a new conception of the forms in the Sophist, more mundane and down-to-earth than its predecessor...
, the Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)
Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...
, and the Republic, were available in Arabic translation. Averroes
Averroes
' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...
, who wrote many commentaries on Aristotle, was probably motivated to write his one Platonic commentary, on the Republic, only because he could not find a copy of Aristotle's Politics
Politics (Aristotle)
Aristotle's Politics is a work of political philosophy. The end of the Nicomachean Ethics declared that the inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, and the two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise, or perhaps connected lectures, dealing with the...
.
Sources
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
, (1896), Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Part One. Greek Philosophy. - Eduard ZellerEduard ZellerEduard Gottlob Zeller , was a German philosopher and theologian of the Tübingen School of theology.- Life :Eduard Zeller was born at Kleinbottwar in Württemberg, and educated at the University of Tübingen and under the influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel...
, (1895), Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy. - Dimiter Angelov, (2007), Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in Byzantium, 1204-1330. Cambridge University Press
- Hugh H. Benson, (2006), A Companion to Plato. Blackwell
- Antony Black, (2001), The History of Islamic Political Thought. Routledge
- Eleanor Dickey, Ancient Greek Scholarship. Oxford University Press
- Albrecht Dihle, Manfred Malzahn, (1994), Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire: From Augustus to Justinian. Routledge
- Edward Grant, (2004), Science and Religion, 400 B.C. to A.D. 1550, pages 93-4. Greenwood Publishing Group
- George Alexander Kennedy, (1999), Classical Rhetoric & Its Christian & Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times. UNC Press
Further reading
- Roy K. Gibson, Christina Shuttleworth Kraus, (editors), (2002), The Classical Commentary: Histories, Practices, Theory. BRILL
- Richard Sorabji, (2005), The Philosophy of the Commentators 200-600 AD. A Sourcebook. Cornell University Press