Introduction to the philosophy of Porphyry
Date
1989
Authors
Chase, Michael
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Abstract
This thesis examines the philosophical thought of the 4th century C.E. author Porphyry of Tyre. It is intended primarily as a bibliographical status quaestionis. Since I consider reference material on Porphyry currently available in English to be only partially satisfactory, I have thought it desirable to provide, for the student interested in Porphyry, information on what useful primary and secondary sources may be most profitably consulted, and in what editions Porphyry's own works may be found.
Underlying the thesis is the conviction that the picture of Porphyry emerging from the few works in English which deal with him is one-sided. There he is portrayed as a derivative and uninteresting popularizer of Plotinus. I try to show that researches by continental European scholars must cause us to re-evaluate this view. Porphyry, besides being a prolific scholar, is to be considered a creative ethicist and metaphysician, highly influential on the Medieval Latin West, and probably on the Islamic East as well.
In Chapter One, I sketch Porphyry's life and times, giving data on the contents and composition of some of his more influential works. Chapter Two deals with 20th-century Porphyrian scholarship. I attempt to describe the conflicting assessments of Porphyry's thought given by Anglo-Saxon and Continental scholars. The one-sided portrayal given by the former is attributed to a positivistic methodology inadequate to deal with the subject at hand. Chapter Three sketches Porphyry's cosmology, ontology and metaphysics, as they have recently been reconstructed by European scholars, especially Hadot. Chapter Four discusses the conflicting interpretations given by modern scholars to Porphyry's influential doctrine of the soul : i ts descent from t he intelligible world through the celestial spheres to incarnation on earth. The role played by the pneuma or astral body during the soul ' s descent, its psychological function during terrestrial existence, and the decisive part it plays in the post-mortem destiny of the soul, are discussed.
A brief Conclusion discusses future prospects for Porphyrian studies. Finally, a Bibliography of Ancient Authors gives information on editions and translations of Porphyry's writings, as well as those of his contemporaries, and an Annotated Bibliography gives a critical evaluation of 20th-century secondary literature relevant to Porphyry's life, thought and place in the history of ideas.