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book: Anaxagoras, Origen, and Neoplatonism
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Anaxagoras, Origen, and Neoplatonism

The Legacy of Anaxagoras to Classical and Late Antiquity
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2016
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About this book

Origen has been always studied as a theologian and too much credit has been given to Eusebius’ implausible hagiography of him. This book explores who Origen really was, by pondering into his philosophical background, which determines his theological exposition implicitly, yet decisively. For this background to come to light, it took a ground-breaking exposition of Anaxagoras’ philosophy and its legacy to Classical and Late Antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Origen, Neoplatonism), assessing critically Aristotle’s distorted representation of Anaxagoras. Origen, formerly a Greek philosopher of note, whom Proclus styled an anti-Platonist, is placed in the history of philosophy for the first time. By drawing on his Anaxagorean background, and being the first to revive the Anaxagorean Theory of Logoi, he paved the way to Nicaea. He was an anti-Platonist because he was an Anaxagorean philosopher with far-reaching influence, also on Neoplatonists such as Porphyry. His theology made an impact not only on the Cappadocians, but also on later Christian authors. His theory of the soul, now expounded in the light of his philosophical background, turns out more orthodox than that of some Christian stars of the Byzantine imperial orthodoxy.

Author / Editor information

Panayiotis Tzamalikos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Reviews

"[...] Tzamalikos has a grasp of the ancient philosophical corpus, including the Aristotelian commentators who make up almost half of it, that is matched by only a handful of living scholars, none of whom could pretend to his equally comprehensive grasp of patristic literature. For this reason alone, his study demands our attention [...]"
M. J. Edwards in: Journal of Ecclesiastical History 2018, 610-612

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
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    Preface

    ix
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  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    xi
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    Abbreviations

    xvii
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    Introduction

    1
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  • Part I. The Philosophy of Anaxagoras
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    Chapter 1. The Principles

    105
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    Chapter 2. A religious outcast criticized

    163
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    Chapter 3. Aristotle as a critic

    196
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    Chapter 4. A twofold creation

    263
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    Chapter 5. The will of Mind

    311
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    Chapter 6. Potentiality

    323
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    Chapter 7. Simplicius’ reply to Aristotle

    421
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    Conclusion of Part I: Truth and Becoming in Anaxagoras

    488
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  • Part II. The Legacy of Anaxagoras to Classical and Late Antiquity
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    Chapter 8. Plato and Aristotle

    527
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    Chapter 9. The Stoics

    607
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    Chapter 10. The Neoplatonists

    702
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  • Part III. Origen
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    Chapter 11. Origen, a pupil of Anaxagoras

    827
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    Chapter 12. Divine intellects: from Aristotle to Late Antiquity

    1096
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  • Part IV. Theory of the Soul
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    Chapter 13. Theory of the soul: from Anaxagoras to Late Antiquity

    1178
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    Conclusion

    1463
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    Appendix I. The wondrous Greek travels to the East

    1516
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    Appendix II. Origen and the homoousion. A critical edition of two unpublished texts

    1559
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    Bibliography

    1605
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    Index of Names

    1666
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    Index of Terms

    1760
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    Index of Greek Terms

    1776
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    Index of Modern Names

    1791
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 26, 2016
eBook ISBN:
9783110420104
Hardcover published on:
September 26, 2016
Hardcover ISBN:
9783110419467
Edition:
2 volumes
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
28
Main content:
1794
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110420104
eBook ISBN: 9783110420104
Hardcover ISBN: 9783110419467
Keywords for this book
Origen; Presocratic Philosophy; Plato; Aristotle; Stoicism; Neoplatonism; Heidegger
Audience(s) for this book
Academics, Libraries, Institutes
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