DrZoidberg
Contributor
Justin Sledge of Esoterica has created an excellent lecture series on Middle-Platonism. It follows the creation of the Academy by Plato, it's debates with Aristotle, the Stoics and the Epicureans. How Platonism disappeared and was rediscovered around 100 ad. What's the Agrapha dogmata and what was Platos teaching for his initiates.
I have the utmost respect for Justin Sledge. He's an excellent scholar. Right now he's my top favourite guy on the Bible. Nobody can explain the context within which Christianity was formed better than him. That's his speciality. All the historical stuff at the margins around Christianity.
He hasn't finished the series yet. He's only on part 9. I have only gotten to Philo of Alexandria (part 6). But everything so far is pure gold. That's why I am mentioning this now.
The elephant in the room throughout this series is Christianity and how much Middle-Platonism influenced it. It's a lot. Christianity is basically Neo-Platonism fused with Stoicism. Those two are arguably two different schools of Platonism. If we accept that then Christianity is 100% variants of Platonism. With Jewish symbols added.
What I found the most interesting is following the debates in the Academy and between them and the Lyceum (Aristotle's school). Those debates are the same as we have today between Christians, and between Christians and skeptics. But of course, set in a 100% pagan world.
The lecture on Philo of Alexandria was the most educational for me. I previously thought Philo of Alexandria was the one who inserted Middle-Platonism into Judaism and created Christianity. The reality is that Philo of Alexandria is the only thinker from this time who's writings survived. Because he's the one who the most confirms what later Christians came to believe (via Clement of Alexandria). There's an entire world of philosophical debates, of which Philo was a part of, that is lost to us. Philo is the only surviving little window into this philosophical debating climate. That does not mean he invented this.
What Philo was, was a Jewish nationalist. His project wasn't to fuse Middle-Platonism with Judaism. He was an ethnically Jewish Middle-Platonist, and his project was to argue that the Jews had invented Middle-Platonism first. He re-interpretted Jewish texts to prove that they are really Platonic. But he picks and choses from a variety of Platonic thinkers, many of whom disagree. The result being that his writings has barely a coherrent thought behind it. He was simply happy enough to find a parallel anywhere in the Platonic world and just added it. It really isn't an attempt to create a coherrent philosophical system. His works was then lifted wholesale into Christianity, with all those contradictions left in. This explains a lot why Christianity is such a mess today.
I can't recommend this series highly enough.
He also explains why Platonism kept changing over time, even though the Platonic philosophers were all trying really hard to maintain Plato's original teachings. It wasn't easy to do in the ancient world.
Here's a simply guide on the different Platonisms.
Early Platonism/the old academy
Super weird mysticism. Later made its way into Christian gnosticism. The cosmos possesses a rational order; in the Timaeus, the Demiurge orders pre-existing disorder according to the Forms.
A lot of loose ends and contradictions. These are mystics. So not a problem.
Middle-platonism
Platonism is made into a metaphysical system. Also an ethical system. Now it needs to make sense. So a lot of work was put in, in order to make it make sense.
Neo-platonism.
The philosophy of one guy, Plotinus. He thought the other Platonists had lost the plot and wanted to get back to Plato's original teachings. He then creates a new system, nothing like original Plato.
Highly systematic and mystical. It's so vague and removed from anything concrete that it can fit perfectly with Christianity.
Arguably this is Philo of Alexandrias work, cleaned up and made into a coherrent system. But by doing that becomes far far removed from Plato.
I have the utmost respect for Justin Sledge. He's an excellent scholar. Right now he's my top favourite guy on the Bible. Nobody can explain the context within which Christianity was formed better than him. That's his speciality. All the historical stuff at the margins around Christianity.
He hasn't finished the series yet. He's only on part 9. I have only gotten to Philo of Alexandria (part 6). But everything so far is pure gold. That's why I am mentioning this now.
The elephant in the room throughout this series is Christianity and how much Middle-Platonism influenced it. It's a lot. Christianity is basically Neo-Platonism fused with Stoicism. Those two are arguably two different schools of Platonism. If we accept that then Christianity is 100% variants of Platonism. With Jewish symbols added.
What I found the most interesting is following the debates in the Academy and between them and the Lyceum (Aristotle's school). Those debates are the same as we have today between Christians, and between Christians and skeptics. But of course, set in a 100% pagan world.
The lecture on Philo of Alexandria was the most educational for me. I previously thought Philo of Alexandria was the one who inserted Middle-Platonism into Judaism and created Christianity. The reality is that Philo of Alexandria is the only thinker from this time who's writings survived. Because he's the one who the most confirms what later Christians came to believe (via Clement of Alexandria). There's an entire world of philosophical debates, of which Philo was a part of, that is lost to us. Philo is the only surviving little window into this philosophical debating climate. That does not mean he invented this.
What Philo was, was a Jewish nationalist. His project wasn't to fuse Middle-Platonism with Judaism. He was an ethnically Jewish Middle-Platonist, and his project was to argue that the Jews had invented Middle-Platonism first. He re-interpretted Jewish texts to prove that they are really Platonic. But he picks and choses from a variety of Platonic thinkers, many of whom disagree. The result being that his writings has barely a coherrent thought behind it. He was simply happy enough to find a parallel anywhere in the Platonic world and just added it. It really isn't an attempt to create a coherrent philosophical system. His works was then lifted wholesale into Christianity, with all those contradictions left in. This explains a lot why Christianity is such a mess today.
I can't recommend this series highly enough.
He also explains why Platonism kept changing over time, even though the Platonic philosophers were all trying really hard to maintain Plato's original teachings. It wasn't easy to do in the ancient world.
Here's a simply guide on the different Platonisms.
Early Platonism/the old academy
Super weird mysticism. Later made its way into Christian gnosticism. The cosmos possesses a rational order; in the Timaeus, the Demiurge orders pre-existing disorder according to the Forms.
A lot of loose ends and contradictions. These are mystics. So not a problem.
Middle-platonism
Platonism is made into a metaphysical system. Also an ethical system. Now it needs to make sense. So a lot of work was put in, in order to make it make sense.
Neo-platonism.
The philosophy of one guy, Plotinus. He thought the other Platonists had lost the plot and wanted to get back to Plato's original teachings. He then creates a new system, nothing like original Plato.
Highly systematic and mystical. It's so vague and removed from anything concrete that it can fit perfectly with Christianity.
Arguably this is Philo of Alexandrias work, cleaned up and made into a coherrent system. But by doing that becomes far far removed from Plato.
