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Online Lecture

Ladders of Virtue and Inspiration:
Harmonizing Porphyry and Iamblichus
in Later Platonist Exegesis

May 23, 2023

Lecture will take place on Zoom
7-9pm Athens & 6-8pm Alexandria

6-8pm Paris

5-7pm Oxford
12-2pm New York

Image: Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Ghika (1906-1994), Paysage Initiatique [Initiatory Landscape], 1962, Oil on canvas, 198 x 122,5, National Gallery -Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Inv. N. Π.7327 © National Gallery -Alexandros Soutsos Museum

Abstract

Damascius famously reports that Porphyry and Iamblichus give priority, respectively, to philosophy and hieratic practice (On Phaedo 1.171-2). In this paper, I would explore how Hermias, Damascius, and Olympiodorus unpack and ultimately resolve the distinction. Some later Platonists frame Porphyrian philosophy as a ladder of virtues culminating, not only in contemplation, but in the ‘paradigmatic’ virtue that amounts to unity with Nous; ‘hieratic’ practice culminates in the highest inspiration, unity with the One. However, ‘hieratic’ virtue is also a parallel hierarchy coexisting alongside the philosophical scale of virtues, reaching each level of the soul by means of inspiration (enthousiasmos). Importantly, I would argue that each tier of inspiration also underlies and causes a tier of virtue, in a way that explains how Porphyry’ and Iamblichus’ views (as later Platonists construct them) can be reconciled.

Michael Griffin (University of British Columbia)

Michael Griffin is Associate Professor of Classics and Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, and currently Head of the Department of Ancient Mediterranean & Near Eastern Studies. His books include Aristotle’s Categories in the Early Roman Empire (2015) and a two-volume translation of Olympiodorus of Alexandria’s lectures on the Alcibiades I. With Richard Sorabji, he is co-editor of the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series (ancientcommentators.org.uk), and he is a participant in the Buddhist-Platonist Dialogues working group hosted by Yale-NUS (buddhistplatonistdialogues.com). His current project is a book-length study of the Greek Neoplatonic scale of virtues.