Ladder of the Sciences in Late Antique Platonism
Selected Essays

By (author) Dominic J. O'Meara

ISBN13: 9781009539937

Imprint: Cambridge University Press

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Format: Hardback

Published: 31/01/2026

Availability: Not yet available

Description
Introduction: the ladder of the sciences as divinization in late antique Platonismt Part I. Rhetoric as an Instrument of Philosophy: 1. Good and bad rhetors in Damascius' Life of Isidore; 2. Epistolographic philosophy: the many functions of Iamblichus' correspondence; 3. Lamblichus' On the Pythagorean Life in Context; 4. The praise of the mathematical sciences in late antique philosophy; 5. The rhetoric of the ineffable in late antique philosophy; Part II. Ethics: 6. Ethics in Plotinus and his successors; 7. Innovations in Plotinus' theory of virtue; 8. Ancient biographies of Pythagoras and Epicurus as models of the philosophical life; 9. Patterns of perfection in Damascius' Life of Isidore; 10. Love in Plotinus' thought; 11. Explaining evil in late antiquity: Plotinus and his critics; 12. Explaining evil in Justinian's reign: Simplicius and Procopius; 13. Philosophos Oikonomos. Household ethics in Porphyry's Vita Plotini and in Marinus' Vita Procli; Part III. Political Science: 14. Political theory; 15. Lady philosophy and politics in late antiquity: a tense relationship; 16. Simplicius on the place of the philosopher in the city (In Epictetum, ch. 32); 17. Souls and cities in late antique platonic philosophy; 18. The legislation of the world and human legislation in late antique Platonism; 19. Law and legislator in the philosophy of Julian the Emperor; 20. Plato's tyrant in Neoplatonic philosophy; Part IV. Mathematics: 21.Mathematics and the sciences in Proclus; 22. The music of philosophy in late antiquity; 23. The music of the virtues in late ancient Platonism; 24. Hearing the harmony of the spheres in late antiquity; Part V. Metaphysics: 25. The transformation of metaphysics in late antiquity; 26. Intentional objects in later Neoplatonism; 27. Metaphysical science (or theology) in Proclus as spiritual exercise; 28. The foundation of the principle of non-contradiction in Syrianus; 29. Notes on the aporetics of the one in Greek Neoplatonism.
  • Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500
Height:
Width:
Spine:
Weight:0.00
List Price: £105.00