Abstract
The development of Greek and Roman philosophy ‘after Plato and Aristotle’ is challenging to reconstruct because of the fragmentary state of the evidence, and while the period includes some acknowledged highlights—the Stoics and, eventually in the third century AD, Plotinus—it was long held to be a relatively impoverished epoch in the history of intellectual thought, especially relative to the great lights of Plato and Aristotle themselves. For some years now, however, scholarly attention has turned to it with zeal, even to its most obscure parts. Diatribai, from which this volume emerges as the fifth in the series, is one example of this trend, providing a biennial forum for discussion of Hellenistic, Imperial, and Late Ancient philosophy during the last decade. The papers collected in the present volume come from the 2009 conference.
It was Plato who made theoria (‘contemplation’, ‘contemplative vision’) central to the philosophical life, seeking especially in the Republic to indicate its relationship to praxis (the practical life). Aristotle took up the issue, especially in the Nicomachean Ethics. The discussion of these two authors has been extensive, but the subsequent history of the ancient debate has been relatively neglected. The volume under review shows that it remained a rich area of debate throughout antiquity.
The volume opens with an overview of ‘Theoria and bios theoretikos from the Presocratics to the End of Antiquity’ by the editors. This concise and nuanced summary identifies four features of the contemplative life that Plato and Aristotle leave as problems for subsequent thinkers: (1) its ethical justification; (2) its psychological explanation; (3) the ontology and cosmology of the things contemplated, which are also models for the contemplative; (4) the analogy between philosophical theoria and religious theoria (state pilgrimage to see a religious spectacle).
The essays collected in the volume are arranged in three sections: Part One on ‘The Hellenistic and Post-Hellenistic Debate’ makes contributions on Theophrastus (in French, by T. Bénatouïl), Epicurus (in German, by M. Erler), Cicero (in French, by C. Lévy), Seneca (M. Graver), and Sextus Epicurus (E. Spinelli). Part Two on ‘Early Imperial Platonism and Neoplatonism’ provides discussions of Philo (in French, by V. Laurand), Plutarch (M. Bonazzi), Alcinous (D. Sedley), Plotinus and Porphyry (A. Linguiti), and Damascius (G. van Riel). Part Three on ‘The Christian Reception’ concludes with essays on Augustine (G. Catapano) and Maximus the Confessor (C. Steel).
The contributors each frame their questions independently, according to what they find most interesting or significant in their particular author. So Lévy asks in what sense the contemplative life was ‘impossible’ for Cicero, while Laurand seeks a deeper understanding of the notion of contemplative as servant and ‘suppliant’ in Philo. This is no introductory volume: all essays assume some versatility in ancient philosophical debate and seek to break new ground; several take unexpected or highly specialised routes into their topics. Graver fruitfully approaches Seneca’s attitude to the contemplative life by comparing the fragmentary treatise de otio with his most voluminous extant work on ethics, epistulae morales, while Catapano focuses his discussion of Augustine on the figurative exegesis of Jacob’s wives in Contra Faustum Manichaeum 22, proceeding from this to the place of contemplation in the longer development of Augustine’s theology.
It is pleasing that Jewish and Christian authors are discussed, but I would wish for an even fuller integration of them into a volume such as this. If it is questionable to tuck Philo tightly into the category of ‘Platonism’, it is denigrating in a different way to bracket off ‘Christian Reception’ from ‘Post-Hellenistic Debate’. Educated Jews and Christians were actively engaged in the same debates as educated Greek and Roman philosophers; they did not merely receive what more distinguished pagans transmitted to them. The decision to omit discussion of any Christians before Augustine contributes to the distorting effect. On the basis of extant sources, it seems to have been Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150–ca. 215) who coined theoria for the Christian tradition, as Al Baker pointed out in his doctoral thesis (University of St Andrews, 2001), and he did so in a way that grappled with the same issues of tension between theoria and praxis as the pagan authors discussed in this book, many of whom were conversation partners in his written work.
The volume as a whole is wide-ranging and intellectually challenging. It makes a coherent contribution to the study of antiquity by showing the importance and continued vibrancy of the debate about the nature and value of theoria and praxis in varied social and philosophical settings. The book has been well produced, with a consolidated bibliography, and indices of ancient texts, ancient authors and modern names.