The Demiurge in Ancient Thought

The Demiurge in Ancient Thought PDF Author: Carl Séan O'Brien
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110707536X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
This book examines religious and 'scientific'/philosophical accounts of world-generation as represented by the figure of the Demiurge, or Craftsman-god.

The Demiurge in Ancient Thought

The Demiurge in Ancient Thought PDF Author: Carl Séan O'Brien
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110707536X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines religious and 'scientific'/philosophical accounts of world-generation as represented by the figure of the Demiurge, or Craftsman-god.

The Demiurge in Ancient Thought

The Demiurge in Ancient Thought PDF Author: Carl Séan O'Brien
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316240657
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
How was the world generated and how does matter continue to be ordered so that the world can continue functioning? Questions like these have existed as long as humanity has been capable of rational thought. In antiquity, Plato's Timaeus introduced the concept of the Demiurge, or Craftsman-god, to answer them. This lucid and wide-ranging book argues that the concept of the Demiurge was highly influential on the many discussions operating in Middle Platonist, Gnostic, Hermetic and Christian contexts in the first three centuries AD. It explores key metaphysical problems such as the origin of evil, the relationship between matter and the First Principle and the deployment of ever-increasing numbers of secondary deities to insulate the First Principle from the sensible world. It also focuses on the decreasing importance of demiurgy in Neoplatonism, with its postulation of procession and return.

The Demiurge in Ancient Thought

The Demiurge in Ancient Thought PDF Author: Carl Séan O'Brien
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107428096
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
How was the world generated and how does matter continue to be ordered so that the world can continue functioning? Questions like these have existed as long as humanity has been capable of rational thought. In antiquity, Plato's Timaeus introduced the concept of the Demiurge, or Craftsman-god, to answer them. This lucid and wide-ranging book argues that the concept of the Demiurge was highly influential on the many discussions operating in Middle Platonist, Gnostic, Hermetic and Christian contexts in the first three centuries AD. It explores key metaphysical problems such as the origin of evil, the relationship between matter and the First Principle and the deployment of ever-increasing numbers of secondary deities to insulate the First Principle from the sensible world. It also focuses on the decreasing importance of demiurgy in Neoplatonism, with its postulation of procession and return.

Productive Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy

Productive Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy PDF Author: Thomas Kjeller Johansen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108624154
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
This work investigates how ancient philosophers understood productive knowledge or technê and used it to explain ethics, rhetoric, politics and cosmology. In eleven chapters leading scholars set out the ancient debates about technê from the Presocratic and Hippocratic writers, through Plato and Aristotle and the Hellenistic age (Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics), ending in the Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Proclus. Amongst the many themes that come into focus are: the model status of ancient medicine in defining the political art, the similarities between the Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of technê, the use of technê as a paradigm for virtue and practical rationality, technê ́s determining role in Platonic conceptions of cosmology, technê ́s relationship to experience and theoretical knowledge, virtue as an 'art of living', the adaptability of the criteria of technê to suit different skills, including philosophy itself, the use in productive knowledge of models, deliberation, conjecture and imagination.

One Book, the Whole Universe

One Book, the Whole Universe PDF Author: Richard D. Mohr
Publisher: Parmenides Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
"The most wide ranging and stimulating presentation of ancient and modern views on Plato's cosmological dialogue ever published. Highly recommended." David T. Runia, University of Melbourne --

Plato's Timaeus and the Latin Tradition

Plato's Timaeus and the Latin Tradition PDF Author: Christina Hoenig
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108415806
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The book explores the development of Platonic philosophy by Roman writers between the first century BCE and the early fifth century CE. Discusses the interpretation of Plato's Timaeus by Cicero, Apuleius, Calcidius, and Augustine, and examines how they contributed to the construction of the complex and multifaceted genre of Roman Platonism.

A Free Will

A Free Will PDF Author: Michael Frede
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520272668
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
"As readers will quickly discover, the quality of the text that [Frede] has bequeathed fully matches the brilliance and incisiveness for which all his work is admired." From the foreword by David Sedley

Chorology

Chorology PDF Author: John Sallis
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253046696
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
“The major American philosopher . . . makes us want to re-read the Platonic text with fascination. And that is but its grandest gift.” —Daniel Guerriere, professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University, Long Beach In Chorology, John Sallis takes up one of the most enigmatic discourses in the history of philosophy. Plato’s discourse on the chora—the chorology—forms the pivotal moment in the Timaeus. The implications of the chorology are momentous and communicate with many of the most decisive issues in contemporary philosophical discussions. “This excellent work . . . deserves the serious consideration of all who are interested in contemporary philosophy as well as those who concern themselves with ancient philosophy, especially Plato.” —Review of Metaphysics

Apocalypse of the Alien God

Apocalypse of the Alien God PDF Author: Dylan M. Burns
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812245792
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
In the second century, Platonist and Judeo-Christian thought were sufficiently friendly that a Greek philosopher could declare, "What is Plato but Moses speaking Greek?" Four hundred years later, a Christian emperor had ended the public teaching of subversive Platonic thought. When and how did this philosophical rupture occur? Dylan M. Burns argues that the fundamental break occurred in Rome, ca. 263, in the circle of the great mystic Plotinus, author of the Enneads. Groups of controversial Christian metaphysicians called Gnostics ("knowers") frequented his seminars, disputed his views, and then disappeared from the history of philosophy—until the 1945 discovery, at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, of codices containing Gnostic literature, including versions of the books circulated by Plotinus's Christian opponents. Blending state-of-the-art Greek metaphysics and ecstatic Jewish mysticism, these texts describe techniques for entering celestial realms, participating in the angelic liturgy, confronting the transcendent God, and even becoming a divine being oneself. They also describe the revelation of an alien God to his elect, a race of "foreigners" under the protection of the patriarch Seth, whose interventions will ultimately culminate in the end of the world. Apocalypse of the Alien God proposes a radical interpretation of these long-lost apocalypses, placing them firmly in the context of Judeo-Christian authorship rather than ascribing them to a pagan offshoot of Gnosticism. According to Burns, this Sethian literature emerged along the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity, drew on traditions known to scholars from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Enochic texts, and ultimately catalyzed the rivalry of Platonism with Christianity. Plunging the reader into the culture wars and classrooms of the high Empire, Apocalypse of the Alien God offers the most concrete social and historical description available of any group of Gnostic Christians as it explores the intersections of ancient Judaism, Christianity, Hellenism, myth, and philosophy.

From Stoicism to Platonism

From Stoicism to Platonism PDF Author: Troels Engberg-Pedersen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107166195
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
This book explores the process during 100 BCE-100 CE by which dualistic Platonism became the reigning school in philosophy.