BMCR 2009.05.06: Wear on Tarrant, Reading Plato in Antiquity

Harold Tarrant, Dirk Baltzly (ed.), Reading Plato in Antiquity.
London:  Duckworth, 2006.  Pp. 268.  ISBN 0-7-156-3455-0.  $90.00;
L50.00.

Reviewed by Sarah Klitenic Wear, Franciscan University of Steubenville
([email protected])
Word count:  1712 words
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Reading Plato in Antiquity, edited by Harold Tarrant and Dirk Baltzly
is a useful contribution to the field of Neoplatonic studies, in
particular the topic of the interpretation of Plato by his inheritors.
The book is a collection of fifteen essays, the result of a conference
held at the University of Newcastle, Australia in July 2002.  The
essays cover different approaches to Plato and the Platonic corpus
throughout antiquity (25BC-Byzantium), with the bulk of the articles
concerning the later Athenian and Alexandrian schools and their
understanding of Plato.  While some essays focus on a narrow issue
relating to one particular aspect of commentary making, others take a
fascinating look at trends or methods of exegesis with respect to the
interpretation of the Platonic text.  All of the articles, narrow or
broad, offer high-level expertise in the field, making this a helpful
book for the scholar already initiated in the generals of Platonism who
has an interest in the particulars.  Each article in this collection
has much to offer on its topic, making the book highly valuable.

The book begins with a fine introduction by the conference organizers,
Tarrant and Baltzly, who provide a cohesive summary of the articles.
This introduction is extremely helpful for highlighting the major
issues brought up in each article, how the issue is indicative of the
concerns of the school of Platonism, and how variations show general
trends in the history of interpretation.  If the major weakness of the
book is that some articles seem to be focused on a single philosophical
issue, the introduction helps alleviate the narrowness of such an
article by putting it in the larger context of the issue, relating it
to the history of interpretation of Platonic texts.

The first essay, Tarrant's "Platonic Interpretation and Eclectic
Theory" is an excellent look at how Plato's successors in the first 250
years after his death are united in their interpretation of Plato;
particularly, in how they reflect Stoicism and the dialogue form.
Tarrant argues that the Old Academy was defined by practices (e.g.,
self-examination), rather than doctrine.  The writings of the early
academy are identifiable from the Stoic school in the way it considers
Plato an authority so that a correct interpretation must agree with
Plato.  Tarrant's article is a fascinating look at what was at stake
for early interpreters.

John Dillon's essay, "Pedantry and Pedestrianism? Some Reflections on
the Middle Platonic Commentary Tradition", follows.  Here, Dillon
examines the types of remarks made by Middle Platonists in their
commentaries on the Timaeus, particularly in their reading of the first
sentence (17a) in order to see what kind of exegesis they engaged in.
In his examination, Dillon rescues the Middle Platonists, who have been
accused of having a pedantic approach to textual interpretation, from
charges of pedestrianism.  Dillon argues that not only is the Middle
Platonic approach to the Platonic text similar to that of the
Neoplatonic counterparts, but that Neoplatonic commentators borrowed
wholesale from their predecessors.

The third essay is John Finamore's "Apuleius on the Platonic Gods",
which examines Apuleius' De Platone et Eius Dogmate and De Mundo and
shows how Apuleius reworks material from the Greek originals (the De
Platone from a basic handbook; the De Mundo, from a Pseudo-Aristotelian
On the Universe), shifting the emphasis away from the transcendent god
to a hierarchical, demonic universe. Much of the article does not
concern itself with Apuleius' debt to this handbook or the
Pseudo-Aristotelian tradition, but instead shows Apuleius' connection
to Plato.  Finamore argues that Apuleius re-interprets Plato in some
areas, while maintaining Platonic doctrine in others, including the
hypercosmic placement of the demiurge.

The Middle Platonists are discussed again in Julius Rocca's "Plato Will
Tell You: Galen's Use of the Phaedrus in De Placitis Hippocratis et
Platonis IX". The author argues that Galen's use of the Phaedrus is
interesting primarily because he did not consider himself a Platonist,
but read Plato directly without mediation through the later
philosophers.  Galen argues that Hippocrates and Plato should be read
as complementary and uses the Phaedrus to show how Plato's tripartite
soul and Hippocratic notions on the powers that govern us are in
accord.

Essays five and six treat Plotinus's reading of Plato.  In "Platonists
on the Origin of Evil", John Phillips addresses Plotinus' doctrine on
evil, connecting it to Plato's theory of disorderly motion and the fall
of the soul.  Phillips says, at the conclusion of his essay, that
Plotinus re-interprets Middle Platonic theories on Plato's description
of the descent of the soul so as to reject any form of dualism; a
theory this reviewer finds problematic, as well as Phillips' remarks
accusing pre-Plotinian and post-Plotinian philosophy of being "staid".
Still, Phillips does a sound job of showing Plotinus' use of Plato in
Enn. I.8. In the next essay, "The Species Infima as the Infinite:
Timaeus 39e7-9, Parmenides 144b4-c1 and Philebus 16e1-2 in Plotinus
Ennead VI.2.33", Atsushi Sumi shows how Plotinus's discussion of genera
in the intelligible world in Enn. VI.2 is derived from an analysis of
Sophist 25d-257a and Philebus VI.2.22, as well as sections of the
Timaeus and Parmenides.  This essay does a fine job of showing how a
Platonist, accepting the authority of Plato and the unity of his
thought, was able to read the Platonic corpus as a comprehensive
account of the universe.

Next, in "The Doctrine of the Degrees of Virtues in the Neoplatonists:
an Analysis of Porphyry's Sentence 32, its Antecedents, and its
Heritage", Luc Brisson discusses Porphyry's theory of the virtues,
paying special attention to its place in the history of Platonism.
Brisson outlines virtue for Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and Plotinus,
before showing how Porphyry amalgamates the earlier positions, adds a
fourth degree of virtue called the "paradigmatic virtues", and makes
the sum total of virtue a philosophical way of life.  The article ends
with a summary of virtue for the later Platonists, including the
influence of Porphyry's paradigmatic virtue in the moral theory of
Iamblichus, Proclus and Damascius; Marinus and Olympiodorus; and
Psellus in the East, and Macrobius in the West.

The place of mathematics in the philosophical realm, particularly in
the realm of political theory, is described by Hayden W. Ausland in
"The Mathematics of Justice". Ausland shows how Plato's three
mathematical means: the arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic are
embedded metaphysically in the World Soul, psychologically in the
individual soul, and politically, in his account of justice.  He also
shows how Iamblichus uses Plato's Pythagorean understanding of Justice
to derive a highly numerical account of justice, which bears little
resemblance to any discussion on what is owed one, but is based on the
fundamentally Platonic idea that justice involves proportion and
harmony.

In Tim Buckley's "A historical Cycle of Hermeneutics in Proclus'
Platonic Theology," Buckley argues that the Phaedrus, not the
Parmenides, is the key text for understanding Proclan hermeneutics.
Buckley boldly argues that Proclus' literal reading of the Phaedrus
shows that Proclus saw himself and his predecessors as "actors in the
drama" of the myth.

Proclus' interpretation of Plato is treated further by John J. Cleary
in "Proclus as a reader of Plato's Timaeus".   This is, in my opinion,
a particularly fine piece that examines Proclus' hermeneutical
assumptions made while reading and commenting upon the Timaeus.  For
instance, Cleary makes the point that Proclus treats Plato's hypotheses
and demonstrations as assumptions regarding the metaphysical order of
the cosmos.  Cleary, moreover, also argues for various divisions within
the Timaeus manufactured by Proclus for his own plan for his
commentary.

Marije Martijn, in "The eiko^s mythos in Proclus' Commentary on the
Timaeus", also takes on the topic of exegetical strategy.  Here, she
discusses, among other things, the skopos of the Timaeus which guides
Proclus' reading of the dialogue, displaying graphs (an impressive
undertaking!) which show the number of pages Proclus spends on the
lemmata and how the time is divided between theoria and lexis.  With
this, she shows that Proclus uses the division loosely; she suggests
the possibility that the lexis-theoria structure might be a remnant of
Proclus' method used in lecturing on the Timaeus.

Dirk Baltzly looks at the later commentators' understanding of Phaedo's
cathartic virtues in his essay, "Pathways to Purification: the
Cathartic Virtues in the Neoplatonic Commentary Tradition".  Here, he
examines, in part, how the later Platonists derived a cohesive
doctrine, made it responsive to their own philosophical arguments, and
integrated it with the Orphic poems and Chaldean Oracles. Baltzly makes
a compelling argument that one can achieve separation of soul from body
through ritual acts or through the purgation of false opinion, making
the cathartic virtues reliant upon ritual and intellectual
purification.

The relationship between Plato and Aristotle as viewed by the
commentators is treated in essays by Richard Sorabji, "The
Transformation of Plato and Aristotle", and Lloyd Gerson, "The Harmony
of Aristotle and Plato According to Neoplatonism".  Sorabji argues that
harmonization is not the driving motivation for all Platonists who
grapple with differences between the Plato and Aristotle; rather, Plato
is transformed, as well as Aristotle, by later commentators,
particularly in the areas of perception, concepts, the fifth element,
individuals and universals.  Of interest in Sorabji's discussion is an
investigation into the issue of individual immortality, a topic which
caused great reinterpretation of Platonic and Aristotelian works by
Christians such as Thomas Aquinas.  Gerson also addresses the question
of how harmony between Plato and Aristotle was achieved through
Platonist interpretation; in doing so, he underscores the rather
important point that Aristotle, when harmonized, was said to be in
harmony with Platonism, rather than Plato.  Gerson looks at the
categories, the ethics, the four causes, the immortality of the soul,
and the forms to show how the Aristotle of the Platonists is a separate
creature unto itself.

In the last essay, Ken Parry discusses the indirect assimilation and
direct promotion of Proclus in Byzantium in his essay, "Reading Proclus
Diadochus in Byzantium".  Parry examines the ways in which Byzantine
readers, including Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus Confessor, and John of
Damascus, among others, use Proclus without attributing their source or
offering quotations.  Parry does a nice job of listing the works of
Proclus which would have been available to the Byzantine reader and
giving a general account of the Byzantine reception of Proclus.

This collection of essays is well-edited with a fine bibliography and
fine indices.