Byzantine philosophy
Byzantine philosophy refers to the distinctive philosophical ideas of the philosophers and scholars of the
History
Greek science and literature remained alive in the Byzantine world, and Byzantine philosophy drew heavily on
University of Constantinople
Byzantine society was well educated by the standards of its time, with high levels of literacy compared to the rest of the world. Significantly it possessed a secular education system that was a continuation of the academies of classical antiquity. Primary education was widely available, even at the village level. Uniquely in that society education was available for both sexes. It was in this context that the secular
The original school was founded in 425 by Emperor Theodosius II with 31 chairs for Law, Philosophy, Medicine, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music, Rhetoric and other subjects, 15 to Latin and 16 to Greek. The university existed until the 15th century.[4]
The main content of higher education for most students was rhetoric, philosophy and law. With the aim of producing competent, and learned personnel to staff the bureaucratic postings of state and church. In this sense the university was the secular equivalent of the Theological Schools. The university maintained an active philosophical tradition based on Platonism and Aristotelianism, with the former being the longest unbroken Platonic school, running for close to two millennia until the 15th century.
The School of Magnaura was founded in the 9th century and in the 11th new schools of philosophy and law were established at the Capitol School. The period of decline begun with the Latin conquest of 1204 although the university survived as a non-secular institution under Church management until the Fall of Constantinople.
Issues and ideas
The principal characteristics of Byzantine philosophy are:[2]
- The personal hypostases of God as the principle not only of substance but also of being (Ontology, Metaphysics). Person as ontological rather than substance or essence.
- The creation of the world by God and the limited timescale of the universe
- The continuous process of creation and the purpose behind it
- The perceptible world as the realization in time of that which is perceptible to the mind, having its eternal hypostasis in the divine intellect (nous)
The world and humanity are subject to
Neoplatonism
The relationship between the mystic, religious understanding of God and a philosophical one has various stages of development in the history of the Roman East. The nous as mind in Byzantine philosophy is given the central role of understanding only when it is placed or reconciled with the heart or soul of the person. The soul being the whole unit of man the mind as rational and noetic being an integral part of man's soul. Earlier versions of Christian and Greek philosophical syncretism are in modern times referred to as Neoplatonic. An example of this can be seen in the works of Origen and his teaching on the nous as to Origen, all souls pre-existed with their Creator in a perfect, spiritual (non-material) state as "minds" or nous, but later fell away in order to pursue an existence independent of God. Since all souls were created absolutely free, God could not simply force them to return to Him (this was, according to Origen, due to God's boundless love and respect for His creatures). Instead, God created the material cosmos, and initiated history, for the purpose of guiding the wayward souls back to contemplation of His infinite mind, which is, according to Origen, the perfect state.[5]
See also
- Eastern Orthodox theology
- Byzantine literature
- Byzantine science
- Halki seminary
- Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae
- Greek scholars in the Renaissance
- Medieval Greek
Notes
- ^ a b c Ninian Smart, World Philosophies, pages 151-2. Routledge
- ^ a b c d Phil Linos Benakis, "Byzantine philosophy" entry in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1998)
- ^ Europe: A Cultural History, by Peter Rietbergen 1998, p.101
- ^ Myriobiblos
- ^ Apokatastasis - In pre-Christian Stoic and Middle Platonic philosophy, this term referred to the universal restoration of the cosmos to the state in which it was first constituted by the divine mind or first principle. The great Christian theologian Origen of Alexandria used this term to denote the final restoration of all souls to God. According to Origen, all souls pre-existed with their Creator in a perfect, spiritual (non-material) state as "minds," but later fell away in order to pursue an existence independent of God. Since all souls were created absolutely free, God could not simply force them to return to Him (this was, according to Origen, due to God's boundless love and respect for His creatures). Instead, God created the material cosmos, and initiated history, for the purpose of guiding the wayward souls back to contemplation of His infinite mind, which is, according to Origen, the perfect state. This obviously excludes any concept of eternal damnation or hell. "Theology Glossary - Theandros - an Online Journal of Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy". Archived from the original on 2006-06-20. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
References
- Tatakis, B., 1949, La philosophie Byzantine, Paris. Modern Greek translation with bibliography for 1949–76 by L. Benakis, Athens 1977. English translation by N. J. Moutafakis, Indianapolis & Cambridge 2003.
Further reading
- Linos Benakis, Texts and Studies on Byzantine Philosophy, Parousia, Athenai, 2002.
- Linos Benakis, Byzantine Philosophy B, Parousia, Athenai, 2013.
- Linos Benakis, Byzantine Philosophy - An Introductory Approach, Lambert Academic Publishing (LAP), Saarbrücken 2017, 104 pp. ISBN 978-3-330-03021-3.
- Alberto del Campo Echevarría, La teoría platónica de las Ideas en Bizancio (ss. V-XI), Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, 2010.
- Katerina Ierodiakonou (ed.). Byzantine Philosophy and Its Ancient Sources. Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Frederick Lauritzen]], Sarah Wear (eds.), Byzantine Platonists (284-1453), Franciscan University Press, Steubenville Ohio, 2021. ISBN 9781736656105.
- B. N. Tatakis, La philosophie Byzantine, Paris, 1949. English translation: Byzantine Philosophy by Nicholas Moutafakis, Hackett Publishing, 2003.
- Michele Trizio, Byzantine Philosophy as a Contemporary Historiographical Project, Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales, 74, 247–294, 2007.
- Denis Walter: Michael Psellos – Christliche Philosophie in Byzanz, Mittelalterliche Philosophie im Verhältnis zu Antike und Spätantike. De Gruyter, Berlin, Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-052597-7.
- doi:10.3726/b14585.
External links
- Ierodiakonou, Katerina; Bydén, Börje. "Byzantine Philosophy". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- The Platonic Theory of Ideas in Byzantium, digital thesis by Alberto del Campo Echevarría, at the E-Prints Archived 2022-04-03 at the Wayback Machine section of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid