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Porphyry (philosopher)

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Porphyry of Tyre
Porphyry.jpg
Porphire Sophiste, in a French 16th-century engraving
Bornc. 234 AD
Tyre, Roman Empire (present-day Lebanon)
Died305 (aged 70–71)
Rome, Roman Empire
Notable work
List
  • Introduction to Categories (Εἰσαγωγή; Introductio in Praedicamenta or Isagoge et in Aristotelis Categorias commentarium), The Life of Pythagoras (Πυθαγόρου βίος; Vita Pythagorae), On Abstinence from Animal Food (Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων; De Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium), On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey (Περὶ τοῦ ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ τῶν Νυμφῶν Ἄντρου; De Antro Nympharum), Introduction to Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos (Εἰσαγωγὴ εἰς τὴν Ἀποτελεσματικὴν τοῦ Πτολεμαίου), Commentary on Ptolemy's Harmonics (Εἰς τὰ ἁρμονικὰ Πτολεμαίου ὑπόμνημα), On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Work (Περὶ τοῦ Πλωτίνου βίου καὶ τῆς τάξεως τῶν βιβλίων αὐτοῦ; Vita Plotini), Starting-points leading to the intelligibles (Ἀφορμαὶ πρὸς τὰ νοητά; Sententiae ad intelligibilia ducentes), Philosophy from Oracles (Περὶ τῆς ἐκ λογίων φιλοσοφίας; De Philosophia ex Oraculis Haurienda), Against the Christians (Κατὰ Χριστιανῶν; Adversus Christianos)
EraAncient philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolNeoplatonism
Main interests
Metaphysics, astrology
Notable ideas
Porphyrian tree, criticism of Christianity, vegetarianism
Influences
Influenced
Library resources about
Porphyry
By Porphyry

Porphyry of Tyre (/ˈpɔːrfɪri/; Greek: Πορφύριος, Porphýrios; Arabic: فُرْفُورِيُوس, Furfūriyūs; c. 234 – c. 305 AD) was a Neoplatonic philosopher born in Tyre, Roman Phoenicia[1] during Roman rule.[a][1][2] He edited and published The Enneads, the only collection of the work of Plotinus, his teacher. His commentary on Euclid's Elements was used as a source by Pappus of Alexandria.[3]

He wrote original works in the Greek language on a wide variety of topics, ranging from music theory to Homer to vegetarianism.[b] His Isagoge or Introduction, an introduction to logic and philosophy,[c] was the standard textbook on logic throughout the Middle Ages in its Latin and Arabic translations.[4] Porphyry was, and still is, also well-known for his anti-Christian polemics.[5] Through works such as Philosophy from Oracles and Against the Christians (which was banned by Constantine the Great),[6] he was involved in a controversy with early Christians.[7]

Discover more about Porphyry (philosopher) related topics

Greek language

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy, southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

Euclid

Euclid

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Euclid's Elements

Euclid's Elements

Euclid's Elements is a mathematical treatise consisting of 13 books attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt c. 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulates, propositions, and mathematical proofs of the propositions. The books cover plane and solid Euclidean geometry, elementary number theory, and incommensurable lines. Elements is the oldest extant large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics. It has proven instrumental in the development of logic and modern science, and its logical rigor was not surpassed until the 19th century.

Homer

Homer

Homer was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.

Isagoge

Isagoge

The Isagoge or "Introduction" to Aristotle's "Categories", written by Porphyry in Greek and translated into Latin by Boethius, was the standard textbook on logic for at least a millennium after his death. It was composed by Porphyry in Sicily during the years 268–270, and sent to Chrysaorium, according to all the ancient commentators Ammonius, Elias, and David. The work includes the highly influential hierarchical classification of genera and species from substance in general down to individuals, known as the Tree of Porphyry, and an introduction which mentions the problem of universals.

Logic

Logic

Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises in a topic-neutral way. When used as a countable noun, the term "a logic" refers to a logical formal system that articulates a proof system. Formal logic contrasts with informal logic, which is associated with informal fallacies, critical thinking, and argumentation theory. While there is no general agreement on how formal and informal logic are to be distinguished, one prominent approach associates their difference with whether the studied arguments are expressed in formal or informal languages. Logic plays a central role in multiple fields, such as philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics.

Middle Ages

Middle Ages

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

Latin

Latin

Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition.

Arabic

Arabic

Arabic is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world. Having emerged in the 1st century, it is named after the Arab people; the term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula, as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece.

Anti-Christian sentiment

Anti-Christian sentiment

Anti-Christian sentiment or Christophobia constitutes the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against Christians, the Christian religion, and/or its practices. Anti-Christian sentiment is sometimes referred to as Christophobia or Christianophobia, although these terms actually encompass "every form of discrimination and intolerance against Christians", according to the Council of European Episcopal Conferences.

Against the Christians

Against the Christians

Against the Christians is a late-3rd century book written by Roman-Phoenician Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry of Tyre, criticizing the writings of Christian philosophers and theologians. Due to widespread censorship by Christian imperial authorities, no known copies of this book exist. Only through references to it in Christian writings attacking it can its contents be reconstructed.

Constantine the Great

Constantine the Great

Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterranea, he was the son of Flavius Constantius, a Roman army officer of Illyrian origin who had been one of the four rulers of the Tetrarchy. His mother, Helena, was a Greek Christian of low birth. Later canonized as a saint, she is traditionally attributed with the conversion of her son. Constantine served with distinction under the Roman emperors Diocletian and Galerius. He began his career by campaigning in the eastern provinces before being recalled in the west to fight alongside his father in Britain. After his father's death in 306, Constantine became emperor. He was acclaimed by his army at Eboracum, and eventually emerged victorious in the civil wars against emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire by 324.

Life

The Suda (a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia based on many sources now lost) reports that Porphyry was born in Tyre.[8] His parents named him Malkos or Malchus ("King" in the Semitic languages)[d] though he changed it into the name "Basileus" ("King" in Greek), and into his nickname "Porphyrius" (lit. "Clad in purple") later in his life.[5] In his work The Life of Plotinus he refers to Aramaic as his "native tongue."[9] Under Cassius Longinus, in Athens, he studied grammar and rhetoric, and got acquainted with Middle Platonism.[5]

In 262 he went to Rome, attracted by the reputation of Plotinus, and for six years devoted himself to the practice of Neoplatonism, during which time he severely modified his diet. At one point becoming suicidal.[10] On the advice of Plotinus he went to live in Sicily for five years to recover his mental health. On returning to Rome, he lectured on philosophy and completed an edition of the writings of Plotinus (who had died in the meantime) together with a biography of his teacher. Iamblichus is mentioned in ancient Neoplatonic writings as his disciple, but this is most likely only meant to indicate that he was the dominant figure in the next generation of philosophers succeeding him. The two men differed publicly on the issue of theurgy.

In his later years, he married Marcella, a widow with seven children and an enthusiastic student of philosophy.[11] Little more is known of his life, and the date of his death is uncertain.

Discover more about Life related topics

Basileus

Basileus

Basileus is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs in history. In the English-speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean "monarch", referring to either a "king" or an "emperor" and also by bishops of the Eastern orthodox church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The title was used by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece, the Byzantine emperors, and the kings of modern Greece.

Greek language

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy, southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

Nickname

Nickname

A nickname or short name is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is distinct from both pseudonym and stage name, and also from a title, although there may be overlap in these concepts.

Aramaic

Aramaic

Aramaic is a Northwest Semitic language that originated among the Arameans in the ancient region of Syria, and quickly spread to Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia where it has been continually written and spoken, in different varieties, for over three thousand years. Aramaic served as a language of public life and administration of ancient kingdoms and empires, and also as a language of divine worship and religious study. Several modern varieties, namely the Neo-Aramaic languages, are still spoken.

Cassius Longinus (philosopher)

Cassius Longinus (philosopher)

Cassius Longinus was a Greek rhetorician and philosophical critic. Born in either Emesa or Athens, he studied at Alexandria under Ammonius Saccas and Origen the Pagan, and taught for thirty years in Athens, one of his pupils being Porphyry. Longinus did not embrace the Neoplatonism then being developed by Plotinus, but continued as a Platonist of the old type and his reputation as a literary critic was immense. During a visit to the east, he became a teacher, and subsequently chief counsellor to Zenobia, queen of Palmyra. It was by his advice that she endeavoured to regain her independence from Rome. Emperor Aurelian, however, crushed the revolt, and Longinus was executed.

Grammar

Grammar

In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domains such as phonology, morphology, and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are currently two different approaches to the study of grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar.

Middle Platonism

Middle Platonism

Middle Platonism is the modern name given to a stage in the development of Platonic 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 doctrines from the rival Peripatetic and Stoic schools. The pre-eminent philosopher in this period, Plutarch, defended the freedom of the will and the immortality of the soul. He sought to show that God, in creating the world, had transformed matter, as the receptacle of evil, into the divine soul of the world, where it continued to operate as the source of all evil. God is a transcendent being, who operates through divine intermediaries, which are the gods and daemons of popular religion. Numenius of Apamea combined Platonism with neopythagoreanism and other eastern philosophies, in a move which would prefigure the development of neoplatonism.

Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi), Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy. Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City". Rome is generally considered to be the "cradle of Western civilization and Christian culture", and the centre of the Catholic Church.

Plotinus

Plotinus

Plotinus was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius Saccas, who belonged to the Platonic tradition. Historians of the 19th century invented the term "neoplatonism" and applied it to refer to Plotinus and his philosophy, which was vastly influential during Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Much of the biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' most notable literary work, The Enneads. In his metaphysical writings, Plotinus described three fundamental principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His works have inspired centuries of Pagan, Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, and Islamic metaphysicians and mystics, including developing precepts that influence mainstream theological concepts within religions, such as his work on duality of the One in two metaphysical states.

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common ideas it does maintain is that of monism, the doctrine that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One".

Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Some sources claim the term was coined by Pythagoras, although this theory is disputed by some. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation.

Iamblichus

Iamblichus

Iamblichus was a Syrian neoplatonic philosopher of Arabic origin. He determined a direction later taken by neoplatonism. Iamblichus was also the biographer of the Greek mystic, philosopher, and mathematician Pythagoras. In addition to his philosophical contributions, his Protrepticus is important for the study of the sophists because it preserved about ten pages of an otherwise-unknown sophist known as the Anonymus Iamblichi.

Works

Introduction (Isagoge)

Imaginary debate between Averroes (1126–1198 AD) and Porphyry (234–c. 305 AD). Monfredo de Monte Imperiali Liber de herbis, 14th century.[12]
Imaginary debate between Averroes (1126–1198 AD) and Porphyry (234–c. 305 AD). Monfredo de Monte Imperiali Liber de herbis, 14th century.[12]

Porphyry is best known for his contributions to philosophy. Apart from writing the Aids to the Study of the Intelligibles (Ἀφορμαὶ πρὸς τὰ νοητά; Sententiae Ad Intelligibilia Ducentes), a basic summary of Neoplatonism, he is especially appreciated for his Introduction to Categories (Introductio in Praedicamenta or Isagoge et in Aristotelis Categorias commentarium), a very short work often considered to be a commentary on Aristotle's Categories, hence the title.[e] According to Barnes 2003, however, the correct title is simply Introduction (Εἰσαγωγή Isagoge), and the book is an introduction not to the Categories in particular, but to logic in general, comprising as it does the theories of predication, definition, and proof. The Introduction describes how qualities attributed to things may be classified, famously breaking down the philosophical concept of substance into the five components genus, species, difference, property, accident.

As Porphyry's most influential contribution to philosophy, the Introduction to Categories incorporated Aristotle's logic into Neoplatonism, in particular the doctrine of the categories of being interpreted in terms of entities (in later philosophy, "universal"). Boethius' Isagoge, a Latin translation of Porphyry's "Introduction", became a standard medieval textbook in European schools and universities, which set the stage for medieval philosophical-theological developments of logic and the problem of universals. In medieval textbooks, the all-important Arbor porphyriana ("Porphyrian Tree") illustrates his logical classification of substance. To this day, taxonomy benefits from concepts in Porphyry's Tree, in classifying living organisms (see cladistics).

The Introduction was translated into Arabic by Abd-Allāh Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ from a Syriac version. With the Arabicized name Isāghūjī (إيساغوجي) it long remained the standard introductory logic text in the Muslim world and influenced the study of theology, philosophy, grammar, and jurisprudence. Besides the adaptations and epitomes of this work, many independent works on logic by Muslim philosophers have been entitled Isāghūjī. Porphyry's discussion of accident sparked a long-running debate on the application of accident and essence.[13]

Philosophy from Oracles (De Philosophia ex Oraculis Haurienda)

Porphyry is also known as an opponent of Christianity and defender of Paganism; his precise contribution to the philosophical approach to traditional religion may be discovered in the fragments of Philosophy from Oracles (Περὶ τῆς ἐκ λογίων φιλοσοφίας; De Philosophia ex Oraculis Haurienda), which was originally three books in length. There is debate as to whether it was written in his youth (as Eunapius reports[10]) or closer in time to the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian and Galerius.[f]

Whether or not Porphyry was the pagan philosopher opponent in Lactantius' Divine Institutes, written at the time of the persecutions, has long been discussed. The fragments of the Philosophy from Oracles are only quoted by Christians, especially Eusebius, Theodoret, Augustine, and John Philoponus. The fragments contain oracles identifying proper sacrificial procedure, the nature of astrological fate, and other topics relevant for Greek and Roman religion in the third century. Whether this work contradicts his treatise defending vegetarianism, which also warned the philosopher to avoid animal sacrifice, is disputed among scholars.[15]

Against the Christians (Adversus Christianos)

Main article: Against the Christians
Porphyry, a detail of the Tree of Jesse, 1535, Sucevița Monastery.
Porphyry, a detail of the Tree of Jesse, 1535, Sucevița Monastery.

During his retirement in Sicily, Porphyry wrote Against the Christians (Κατὰ Χριστιανῶν; Adversus Christianos) which consisted of fifteen books. Some thirty Christian apologists, such as Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinaris, Augustine, Jerome, etc., responded to his challenge. In fact, everything known about Porphyry's arguments is found in these refutations, largely because Theodosius II ordered every copy burned in AD 435 and again in 448.[16][17][18]

Augustine and the 5th-century ecclesiastical historian Socrates of Constantinople, assert that Porphyry was once a Christian.[19]

Other subjects

Porphyry was opposed to the theurgy of his disciple Iamblichus. Much of Iamblichus' mysteries is dedicated to the defense of mystic theurgic divine possession against the critiques of Porphyry. French philosopher Pierre Hadot maintains that for Porphyry, spiritual exercises are an essential part of spiritual development.[20]

Porphyry was, like Pythagoras, an advocate of vegetarianism on spiritual and ethical grounds. These two philosophers are perhaps the most famous vegetarians of classical antiquity. He wrote the On Abstinence from Animal Food [nl] (Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων; De Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium), advocating against the consumption of animals, and he is cited with approval in vegetarian literature up to the present day.

Porphyry also wrote widely on music theory,[21] astrology, religion, and philosophy. He produced a History of Philosophy (Philosophos historia) with vitae of philosophers that included a life of his teacher, Plotinus. His life of Plato from book iv exists only in quotes by Cyril of Alexandria.[g] His book Vita Pythagorae on the life of Pythagoras is not to be confused with the book of the same name by Iamblichus. His commentary on Ptolemy's Harmonics[22] (Eis ta Harmonika Ptolemaiou hypomnēma) is an important source for the history of ancient harmonic theory.

Porphyry also wrote about Homer. Apart from several lost texts known only from quotations by other authors, two texts survive at least in large parts: the Homeric Questions (Homēriká zētḗmata, largely a philological comment on the Iliad and Odyssey) and On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey (Peri tou en Odysseia tōn nymphōn antrou).

List of works

Extant

  • Life of Plotinus. Editions: Luc Brisson, La Vie de Plotin. Histoire de l'antiquité classique 6 & 16, Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin: 1986–1992, 2 vols; A. H. Armstrong, Plotinus, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1968, pp. 2–84. Translation: Neoplatonic Saints: The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus. Translated Texts for Historians 35 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000).
  • Life of Pythagoras. Edition: E. des Places, Vie de Pythagore, Lettre à Marcella, Paris: Les Belles Lettre, 1982.
  • Introduction to Aristotle's Categories (Isagoge). Translations: E. Warren, Isagoge, Mediaeval Sources in Translation 16, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1975; J. Barnes, Porphyry's Introduction. Translation of the 'Isagoge' with a Commentary, Oxford, 2003; Steven K. Strange, Porphyry. On Aristotle's Categories, Ithaca, New York, 1992; Octavius Freire Owen, The Organon or Logical Treatises of Aristotle with the Introduction of Porphyry. Bohn's Classical Library 11–12, London: G. Bell, 1908–1910, 2 vols; Paul Vincent Spade, Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994.
  • Introduction to the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy. Editions: Stefan Weinstock, in: Franz Cumont (ed.), Catalogus Codicum astrologorum Graecorum, (Brussels, 1940): V.4, 187–228; Kommentar zur Harmonielehre des Ptolemaios Ingemar Düring. ed. (Göteborg: Elanders, 1932). Translation: James Herschel Holden, Porphyry the Philosopher, Introduction to the Tetrabiblos and Serapio of Alexandria, Astrological Definitions, Tempe, Az.: A.F.A., Inc., 2009.
  • Against the Christians (Contra Christianos). Editions: A. Ramos Jurado, J. Ritoré Ponce, A. Carmona Vázquez, I. Rodríguez Moreno, J. Ortolá Salas, J. M. Zamora Calvo (eds), Contra los Cristianos: Recopilación de Fragmentos, Traducción, Introducción y Notas – (Cádiz: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Cádiz 2006); Adolf von Harnack, Porphyrius, "Gegen die Christen," 15 Bücher: Zeugnisse, Fragmente und Referate. Abhandlungen der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften: Jahrgang 1916: philosoph.-hist. Klasse: Nr. 1 (Berlin: 1916). Translations: R. M. Berchman, Porphyry Against the Christians, Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Texts and Contexts 1, Leiden: Brill, 2005; R. Joseph Hoffmann, Porphyry’s Against the Christians: The Literary Remains, Amherst: Prometheus Books, 1994.
  • Commentary on Plato's Timaeus. Edition: A. R. Sodano, Porphyrii in Platonis Timaeum commentarium fragmenta, Napoli: 1964.
  • Homeric Questions. Edition: The Homeric Questions: a Bilingual Edition – Lang Classical Studies 2, R. R. Schlunk, trans. (Frankfurt-am-Main: Lang, 1993).
  • On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey (De antro nympharum). Edition: The Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey. A revised text with translation by Seminar Classics 609, State University of New York at Buffalo, Arethusa Monograph 1 (Buffalo: Dept. of Classics, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1969). Translation: Robert Lamberton, On the Cave of the Nymphs, Barrytown, N. Y.: Station Hill Press, 1983.
  • On the abstinence of eating animals (De abstinentia ab esu animalium). Edition: Jean Bouffartigue, M. Patillon, and Alain-Philippe Segonds, edd., 3 vols., Budé (Paris, 1979–1995). Translation: Gillian Clark, On Abstinence from Killing Animals, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.
  • On philosophy from oracles (De Philosophia ex oraculis haurienda). Edition: G. Wolff, Berlin: 1856; Porphyrii Philosophi fragmenta, ed. by Andrew Smith, Stuttgart and Leipzig, Teubner 1993.
  • Aids to the Study of the Intelligibles (Sententiae ad Intelligibilia Ducentes). Edition: E. Lamberz, Leipzig: Teubner, 1975. Translation: K. Guthrie, Launching-Points to the Realm of Mind, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1988.
  • Letter to Marcella. Edition: Kathleen O’Brien Wicker, Porphyry, the Philosopher, to Marcella: Text and Translation with Introduction and Notes, Text and Translations 28; Graeco-Roman Religion Series 10 (Atlanata: Scholars Press, 1987); Pros Markellan Griechischer Text, herausgegeben, übersetzt, eingeleitet und erklärt von W. Pötscher (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969). Translation: Alice Zimmern, Porphyry's Letter to His Wife Marcella Concerning the Life of Philosophy and the Ascent to the Gods, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1989.
  • Letter to Anebo (Epistula ad Anebonem). Edition: A. R. Sodano, Naples: L'arte Tipografia: 1958.

Lost

  • Ad Gedalium, a lost commentary on Aristotle's Categories in seven books.[23] The testimonia are published in Andrew Smith (ed.), Porphyrius, Porphyrii Philosophi fragmenta. Fragmenta Arabica David Wasserstein interpretante, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1993.
  • A Treatise concerning the Secret Doctrines of the Philosophers. Mentioned by Eunapius according to John Toland in "Clidophorus, or of the Exoteric and Esoteric Philosophy." Eunapius says that Porphyry "commended the medicine of perspicuity, and tasting it by experience, wrote "A Treatise concerning the Secret Doctrines of the Philosophers", which they involv'd in obscurity, as in the Fables of the Poets, but which he brought to light."[24]
  • There is a fragment attributed to Porphyry in Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera's De'ot ha-Filusufim, from the 13th century. It is a Hebrew translation from an unknown Arabic translation of a lost work. Gad Freudenthal and Aaron Johnson tentatively accept its authenticity.[25]

Uncertain attribution

  • Ad Gaurum (of uncertain attribution).[26] Edition: K. Kalbfleisch. Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akadamie der Wissenschaft. phil.-hist. kl. (1895): 33-62. Translation: J. Wilberding, To Gaurus On How Embryos are Ensouled, and On What is in our Power. Ancient Commentators on Aristotle Series, R. Sorabji (ed.), Bristol: Classical Press, 2011.
  • #6 and #9 in Corpus dei Papiri Filosofici Greci e Latini III: Commentari – (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1995) may or may not be by Porphyry.

Discover more about Works related topics

Averroes

Averroes

Ibn Rushd, often Latinized as Averroes, was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, mathematics, Islamic jurisprudence and law, and linguistics. The author of more than 100 books and treatises, his philosophical works include numerous commentaries on Aristotle, for which he was known in the Western world as The Commentator and Father of Rationalism.

Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, drama, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, meteorology, geology, and government. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.

Categories (Aristotle)

Categories (Aristotle)

The Categories is a text from Aristotle's Organon that enumerates all the possible kinds of things that can be the subject or the predicate of a proposition. They are "perhaps the single most heavily discussed of all Aristotelian notions". The work is brief enough to be divided, not into books as is usual with Aristotle's works, but into fifteen chapters.

Boethius

Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius, was an Italian senator, consul, magister officiorum, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the translation of the Greek classics into Latin, a precursor to the Scholastic movement, and, along with Cassiodorus, one of the two leading Christian scholars of the 6th century. The local cult of Boethius in the Diocese of Pavia was sanctioned by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1883, confirming the diocese's custom of honouring him on the 23 October.

Problem of universals

Problem of universals

The problem of universals is an ancient question from metaphysics that has inspired a range of philosophical topics and disputes: Should the properties an object has in common with other objects, such as color and shape, be considered to exist beyond those objects? And if a property exists separately from objects, what is the nature of that existence?

Cladistics

Cladistics

Cladistics is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived characteristics (synapomorphies) that are not present in more distant groups and ancestors. However, from an empirical perspective, common ancestors are inferences based on a cladistic hypothesis of relationships of taxa whose character states can be observed. Theoretically, a last common ancestor and all its descendants constitute a (minimal) clade. Importantly, all descendants stay in their overarching ancestral clade. For example, if the terms worms or fishes were used within a strict cladistic framework, these terms would include humans. Many of these terms are normally used paraphyletically, outside of cladistics, e.g. as a 'grade', which are fruitless to precisely delineate, especially when including extinct species. Radiation results in the generation of new subclades by bifurcation, but in practice sexual hybridization may blur very closely related groupings.

Essentialism

Essentialism

Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In Categories, Aristotle similarly proposed that all objects have a substance that, as George Lakoff put it, "make the thing what it is, and without which it would be not that kind of thing". The contrary view—non-essentialism—denies the need to posit such an "essence'".

Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and chronicled in the New Testament.

Paganism

Paganism

Paganism is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. In the time of the Roman empire, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not milites Christi. Alternative terms used in Christian texts were hellene, gentile, and heathen. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Graeco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry".

Diocletian

Diocletian

Diocletian, nicknamed "Jovius", was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia. Diocles rose through the ranks of the military early in his career, eventually becoming a cavalry commander for the army of Emperor Carus. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on a campaign in Persia, Diocles was proclaimed emperor by the troops, taking the name Diocletianus. The title was also claimed by Carus's surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus.

Galerius

Galerius

Galerius Valerius Maximianus was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sasanian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across the Danube against the Carpi, defeating them in 297 and 300. Although he was a staunch opponent of Christianity, Galerius ended the Diocletianic Persecution when he issued an Edict of Toleration in Serdica in 311.

Lactantius

Lactantius

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus signo Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Crispus. His most important work is the Institutiones Divinae, an apologetic treatise intended to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity to pagan critics.

Source: "Porphyry (philosopher)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 16th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyry_(philosopher).

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Further Reading

Proclus

Plotinus

Eunapius

Iamblichus

Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist)

Porphyrian tree

Neoplatonism and Christianity

Commentaries on Aristotle

Medieval philosophy
See also
References

Notes

  1. ^ For Porphyry's dates, place of birth and philosophical school, see Barker 2003, pp. 1226–1227. Sarton 1936, pp. 429–430 identifies Transjordania as Porphyry's place of birth.
  2. ^ For a comprehensive list see Beutler (1894–1980); Guthrie 1988, p. 91 provides another list
  3. ^ Barnes 2003, p. xv clarifies that the Isagoge "[was] not an Introduction to the Categories, rather "[since it was] an introduction to the study of logic, [it] was... an introduction to philosophy--and hence accidentally an introduction to the Categories."
  4. ^ For connotations of West Semitic M-L-K, see Moloch and Malik; compare theophoric names like Abimelech.
  5. ^ Barnes 2003, p. xiv outlines the history of the opinion that Porphyry meant for his Isagoge to be an introductory work to the Categories.
  6. ^ The Christian apologist Eusebius states that "some Greek" might say "How can these people be thought worthy of forbearance? They have not only turned away from those who from earliest time have been thought of as divine among all Greeks and barbarians... but by emperors, law-givers and philosophers— all of a given mind... And to what sort of penalties might they not be subjected who... are fugitives from the things of their Fathers?" This material, once thought to be part of Against the Christians, but reassigned by Wilken 1979 to Philosophy from Oracles, is quoted in Digeser 1998, p. 129. However, it may not have been by Porphyry at all.[14]
  7. ^ Notopoulos 1940, pp. 284–293 attempted a reconstruction from Apuleius' use of it.

Citations

  1. ^ a b Schott, Jeremy M. (2013-04-23). Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0346-2.
  2. ^ Aaron P. Johnson, Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre: The Limits of Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Greek Culture in the Roman World) Cambridge University Press, May 20, 2013, p. 236 "...at the very least, we can affirm that all external evidence points to his being a Tyrian from Phoencia." https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mM7N_v0xcmQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=Porphyry+of+Tyre+phoenicia&ots=fE4JHByGG3&sig=6oipv1fUejZm4csw3hoaNhOYrCE#v=onepage&q=phoenicia&f=false
  3. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Porphyry Malchus", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews
  4. ^ Barnes 2003, p. ix.
  5. ^ a b c Macris, Constantinos (2015), Porphyry. Athens: Plato's Encyclopedia
  6. ^ Clarke 1989, p. 9.
  7. ^ Digeser 1998.
  8. ^ Suda, Porphyry
  9. ^ "The Enneads of Plotinus: Porphyry: On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Work". www.sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
  10. ^ a b Eunapius (1921). "Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists". tertullian.org. pp. 343–565. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  11. ^ Porphyry (1896). Porphyry, the philosopher, to his wife, Marcella;. Translated by Zimmern, Alice. London : G. Redway. LCCN 04006426. Archived from the original on 2009-11-03.
  12. ^ Sadaune 2014, p. 112.
  13. ^ Rahman 1986, pp. 271–273.
  14. ^ Johnson 2010, p. 53-58.
  15. ^ Johnson 2013, p. 135.
  16. ^ Digeser 1998, p. 130: "Constantine and other emperors banned and burned Porphyry's work".
  17. ^ Socrates Scholasticus 1885, pp. Book I, Ch 9, pp. 30-31, Letter of Constantine proscribing the works of Porphyry and Arius.
  18. ^ Stevenson 1987: Gelasius, Historia Ecclesiastica, II.36
  19. ^ Socrates Scholasticus 1885b, pp. Book III, Ch 23.
  20. ^ Hadot 1995, p. 100.
  21. ^ Richter, Lukas (2001). "Porphyry". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22125. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. Retrieved 25 September 2021. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  22. ^ "Τοξόλυρος - Εἰς τὰ ἁρμονικὰ Πτολεμαίου ὑπόμνημα - φιλοσοφικό Ακαδημίας" [In Ptolemy's Harmonized Memoirs – Philosophical Academy] (in Greek). Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.
  23. ^ Simplicius, In Aristotelis Categorias commentarium, 2.5-9v
  24. ^ Toland, John (1720). "Clidophorus, or of the Exoteric and Esoteric Philosophy, that is of the External and Internal Doctrine of the Ancients: the one open and public, accommodating to the popular prejudices and established Religions, the other private and secret, wherein, to the few capable and discrete, was taught the real truth stript of all disguises," in Tetradamus. Brotherton and Meadows (London). pp. v.
  25. ^ Freudenthal & Johnson 2020.
  26. ^ Barnes 2011, p. 109, n. 22.

Sources

Editions
  • Translations of several fragments are contained in Appendix 1 of Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre by Aaron Johnson (Cambridge, 2013).
  • Select Works of Porphyry. Translated by T. Taylor (Guildford, 1994). Contains Abstinence from Eating Animal Food, the Sententiae and the Cave of the Nymphs.
  • Fragments: Andrew Smith, Stvtgardiae et Lipsiae: B. G. Tevbneri, 1993.
  • Opuscula selecta Augusts Nauck, ed. (Lipsiae: B. G. Tevbneri, 1886) (online at archive.org).
Further reading
  • Bidez, J. (1913). Vie de Porphyre. Ghent.
  • Clark, Gillian, "Porphyry of Tyre on the New Barbarians," in R. Miles (ed), Constructing Identities in Late Antiquity (London: Routledge, 1999), 112–132; = in Eadem, Body and Gender, Soul and Reason in Late Antiquity (Farnham; Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 2011) (Variorum collected studies series, CS978), art. XIV.
  • Clark, Gillian, "Philosophic Lives and the philosophic life: Porphyry and Iamblichus," in T. Hägg and P. Rousseau (eds), Greek Biography and Panegyric in Late Antiquity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2000), 29–51; = in Eadem, Body and Gender, Soul and Reason in Late Antiquity (Farnham; Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 2011) (Variorum collected studies series, CS978), art. XV.
  • Clark, Gillian, "Fattening the soul: Christian asceticism and Porphyry On Abstinence," Studia Patristica, 35, 2001, 41–51; = in Eadem, Body and Gender, Soul and Reason in Late Antiquity (Farnham; Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 2011) (Variorum collected studies series, CS978), art. XVI.
  • Emilsson, E., "Porphyry". Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  • Iamblichus: De mysteriis. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon and Jackson P. Hershbell (Society of Biblical Literature; 2003) ISBN 1-58983-058-X.
  • Girgenti, G. (1987) Porfirio negli ultimi cinquant'anni: bibliografia sistematica e ragionata della letteratura primaria e secondaria riguardante il pensiero porfiriano e i suoi influssi storici Milan.
  • Smith, Andrew (1987) Porphyrian Studies since 1913, in W. Haase, ed., Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt II.36.2, pp. 717–773.
  • Smith, Andrew (1974) Porphyry's Place in the Neoplatonic Tradition. A Study in post-Plotinian Neoplatonism, The Hague, Nijhoff.
  • Zuiddam, B. A. "Old Critics and Modern Theology," Dutch Reformed Theological Journal (South Africa), xxxvi, 1995, No. 2.
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