Eudorus of Alexandria
1st century BC Greco-Egyptian philosopher
Eudorus of Alexandria ( Greek : Εὔδωρος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς ; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher , and a representative of Middle Platonism . [1] He attempted to reconstruct Plato 's philosophy in terms of Pythagoreanism . [2]
Life
Little is known about Eudorus' life. Chronologically, he lived in the 1st century BC, and did his work prior to Strabo and Arius Didymus , both of whom quote him. [3] He was involved in a plagiarism controversy with Aristo of Alexandria , one of Antiochus of Ascalon 's students, as they had both written a work on the Nile. [4] but he is not mentioned by Antiochus' contemporary Cicero , implying he was not one of Antiochus' students. [3] Eudorus also wrote a survey of philosophy, at least one portion of which dealt with ethics, of which a summary by Arius Didymus is preserved in Stobaeus . [5] [3] He also wrote a commentary on Plato's Timaeus which is referred to by Plutarch, [3] and may also have written a commentary on the Categories of Aristotle . [3]
Philosophy
Eudorus combined Platonist , Pythagorean and Stoic ideas in his philosophy. [6] He divided philosophy into ethics, physics, and logic, taking Ethics as prior to Physics, as opposed to the Stoics, who considered physics to come before ethics. [3] In ethics, Eudorus formulated a teleological principle for Platonism, derived from the Theaetetus : "as much as we can, become like God." [7] In this he believed that he had found an apt definition of the common goal of Pythagoras , Socrates , and Plato . [6] In physics, Eudorus' account of first principles , [8] postulates the existence of a highest principle, called " The One ," above the Pythagorean Monad and Dyad , which Eudorus called God . [9] Although Eudorus considers this to be a Pythagorean doctrine, modern scholars such as John M. Dillon consider this to have likely originated with Eudorus, based on the extant Pythagorean fragments recorded by Alexander Polyhistor , which show little or no trace of this doctrine. [9] In logic, Eudorus appears to have rejected Aristotle's theory of categories, preferring to derive them from the Old Academy categories of "Absolute" and "Relative" which were developed by Xenocrates . [10]
Legacy
Eudorus is mentioned by Alexander of Aphrodisias in his commentary on Aristotle 's Metaphysics . [11] [12] Simplicius refers to him as a Peripatetic philosopher, and relates that he had written on the Aristotelian Categories .
The way Aristotle's texts were available to Eudorus is now an open field for research. [13]
Notes
- ↑ "Middle Platonism" . Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
- ↑ George E. Karamanolis, 2006, Plato and Aristotle in agreement? , pages 82-4. Oxford University Press
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dillon 1996 , pp. 115–117.
- ↑ Strabo , Geographica , xvii.
- ↑ Stobaeus II.42.7
- 1 2 Eduard Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy , 13th edition, page 306
- ↑ Plato, Theaetetus , 176b
- ↑ Simplicius, In Phys. 181
- 1 2 Dillon 1996 , pp. 126–129.
- ↑ Dillon 1996 , pp. 133–135.
- ↑ Alexander of Aphrodisias, ad Arist. Metaph. p. 59 line 7 Hayduck
- ↑ This mention has been often taken as a reference to a former commentary by Eudorus on Aristotle 's Metaphysics , although Alexander's text does not really say this.Fazzo, Silvia, "The Metaphysics from Aristotle to Alexander of Aphrodisias, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2012, 55: 51-68.
- ↑ Rashed, Marwan and Auffret Thomas, “Aristote, Métaphysique A 6, 988a 7–14, Eudore d’Alexandrie et l’histoire ancienne du texte de la Métaphysique.” In Chr. Brockmann et al., eds., Handschriften- und Textforschung heute. Zur Überlieferung der griechischen Literatur. Festschrift für Dieter Harlfinger aus Anlass seines 70. Geburtstages, 55–84. Wiesbaden 2014.
Bibliography
- Bonazzi, Mauro, "Eudorus and early Imperial Platonism", in R.W. Sharples-R. Sorabji (eds.), Greek and Roman Philosophy 100 BC-200 AD , London, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 2007, Vol. II, pp. 365–378.
- Dillon, John M. (1996). The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220 . Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5 . Retrieved 15 April 2023 .
- Mazzarelli, Claudio. Raccolta e interpretazione delle testimonianze e dei frammenti del medioplatonico Eudoro di Alessandria , in Rivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica , 77 (1985), pp. 197–209 e 535-555 (Greek text of the extant fragments with Italian translation).
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