Alcinous (philosopher)

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Alcinous (

Middle Platonist philosopher. He probably lived in the 2nd century AD,[1] although nothing is known about his life.[2] He is the author of The Handbook of Platonism, an epitome of Middle Platonism intended as a manual for teachers. He has, at times, been identified by some scholars with the 2nd century Middle Platonist Albinus
.

Writings

Alcinous is the author of work called The Handbook of Platonism (Ἐπιτομὴ τῶν Πλάτωνος δογμάτων, also Διδασκαλικὸς τῶν Πλάτωνος δογμάτων;

Corpus Aristotelicum, and it often appropriates popular concepts from other philosophical schools—in particular the Peripatetic and Stoic
schools—which could be seen as having been prefigured in the works of Plato.

Alcinous's handbook has been dated to the middle of the 2nd century AD.[1] In 1879 the German scholar Jacob Freudenthal argued that Alcinous was really the philosopher Albinus, the teacher of Galen the physician. This theory remained largely unchallenged until 1974, when John Whittaker made a fresh case convincingly reaffirming Alcinous's authenticity.[3][4]

Alcinous held the world and its animating soul to be eternal.

daimones)[11] who superintend the production of all living things, and hold intercourse with men. The human soul passes through various transmigrations, thus connecting the series with the lower classes of being, until it is finally purified and rendered acceptable to God.[12] His system is understood as a synthesis of Plato and Aristotle, with some elements borrowed from the East, and perhaps derived from a study of the Pythagorean system, which experienced a revival
of sorts concomitant to that which produced Middle Platonism.

References

  1. ^
    Atticus, Numenius, the Peripatetic Aspasius, ... and Maximus of Tyre
    as approximate contemporaries." John Dillon, 1993, Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism, page xiii. Oxford.
  2. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Alcinous (3)". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 102–103. Archived from the original on 2007-10-28.
  3. ^ John Whittaker, (1974), Parisinus Graecus 1962 and the Writings of Albinus, Phoenix 28, 320–354, 450–456.
  4. ^ "Bryn Mawr Classical Review 94.10.14". Archived from the original on 2001-05-04. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  5. ^ a b Alcinous, Handbook, 14.3.
  6. ^ Alcinous, Handbook, 14.6–7, 15.1.
  7. ^ Alcinous, Handbook, 9.1.
  8. ^ Alcinous, Handbook, 9.2.
  9. ^ Alcinous, Handbook, 9.3.
  10. ^ Alcinous, Handbook, 10.4–6.
  11. ^ Alcinous, Handbook, 15.1.
  12. ^ Alcinous, Handbook, 16.1–2.

Sources

External links