Albinos (philosopher)

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Albinos ( Greek  Ἀλβῖνος Albínos ) was an ancient philosopher . The designation "Albinos of Smyrna" is inappropriate as it is not known whether Smyrna was his hometown. He was a Platonist and lived around the middle of the 2nd century, during the period of Middle Platonism , of which he was one of the leading representatives. His philosophy was still valued in late antiquity .

Life

That Albinos was a pupil of the middle platonist Gaios can be deduced from the fact that he compiled material from his courses. From a remark of the doctor Galenos it emerges that Albinos taught in Smyrna in Asia Minor around the middle of the 2nd century .

In older research, albinos was wrongly identified with another Middle Platonist, the author of Didaskalikos , an introductory exposition of the teachings of Plato . According to current research, it is certain that Didaskalikos comes from a philosopher named Alkinous , who is expressly referred to as the author in the manuscripts.

The table of contents of a medieval manuscript listing the albino's lost writings that were in a part of the manuscript that has not survived: Paris, National Library ,
gr. 1962, fol. 146 verso (9th century)

Works

Only one of the albino's works has survived, presumably in the form of a lecture postscript : the introduction to Plato's dialogues (Eisagōgḗ eis tous Plátōnos dialógous) , for which the title Prólogos is also handwritten. First, the term dialogue is explained, then the dialogues are divided into teaching and investigative, each of these two genres comprising four types. Thirdly, a sequence is recommended for reading: one should begin with Alcibiades I , which leads to self-knowledge, then read Phaedo, who paints the picture of the philosopher, and thirdly, the Politeia , in which the education is described which is necessary for the possession of the Virtue leads, and finally the Timaeus , whose themes are cosmology and deity. For students who want to become philosophers and therefore have to immerse themselves in Plato's oeuvre, Albinos provides a different order of reading than for a broader circle of beginners. He rejects the order of the tetralogy classification because it is didactically not helpful.

The titles of three lost works have survived:

  • From the lectures of Gaios , a collection of transcripts from the teaching of Gaios, of which a part consisting of eleven books was titled as the basics of the Platonic teachings .
  • About the teachings of Plato in at least three books
  • About the incorporeal , a treatise in which albinos took a critical look at the stoic ontology , which does not allow the immaterial to have an independent reality.

In addition there were probably comments on Plato's dialogues Phaedo and Timaeus , perhaps also on the Politeia .

Since albinos has long been mistakenly equated with the Middle Platonist Alcinous in modern research, his writing Didaskalikos was also included in his works earlier .

Teaching

Regarding the question of whether Plato's statements are literally meant as assertions of fact or as approximations to the truth, Albinos is of the opinion that Plato chose partly one, partly the other approach, depending on the nature of the subject. In the old controversy about whether the account of creation in Timaeus should be understood in the sense of the creation of the world in time, he strongly advocates the interpretation that the world is beginningless and Plato not in the literal sense, but only metaphorically of its creation wrote. For albinos, Plato's formulations are to be understood in such a way that the world only "came into being" in the sense that its existence has a cause that does not lie in itself.

As Iamblichos reports, Albinos assumed a wrong decision as the reason for the descent of the soul from the purely spiritual realm of the nous into the physical world, for which the free will of the soul is responsible. He related the Platonic doctrine of immortality only to the rational soul; he considered the part of the soul not endowed with reason to be transitory.

reception

One of the albino's listeners was the later famous doctor Galenus , who had moved from Pergamon to Smyrna because of him, among other things . From this it can be seen that albinos enjoyed great renown.

The satirist Lukian of Samosata , a contemporary of the albino, wrote a dialogue of Nigrino , which is about the conversion of a participant in the conversation to philosophy under the influence of the title figure - a Platonist. According to a hypothesis that has been discussed since the 19th century, the name Nigrinos is a pseudonym for albinos. However, this assumption is speculative.

The church father Tertullian mentions albinos twice in connection with the Platonic doctrine of the migration of souls and praises his exposition as astute, although he does not share his opinion. The Neo-Platonist Proklos counts albinos among the most important Platonists. An anonymously handed down late antique list (canons) of recommended authors names him among the "particularly useful" explanations of Plato's philosophy. In the 6th century, the Neo-Platonist Priskianos Lydos Albinos used the basics of the Platonic teachings .

In the Renaissance , the Eisagogue was well known - Marsilio Ficino copied it with his own hand - but it received very little attention from the humanists . It was not until 1707 that the first edition appeared , with a Latin translation , obtained by Johann Albert Fabricius . In modern times, research was severely hampered by the erroneous identification of the author of Didaskalikos with albinos. This equation, which Jacob Freudenthal made in 1879 and which remained the dominant doctrine for decades, led to the positions represented in Didaskalikos shaping the scholars' image of the philosophy of the albino.

swell

  • Adriano Gioè (Ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti. Bibliopolis, Naples 2002, ISBN 88-7088-430-9 , pp. 77–115 (source texts with Italian translation and commentary)

Text editions and translations

  • Burkhard Reis (Ed.): The Platonist Albinos and his so-called Prologos . Reichert, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-89500-128-7 (critical edition of the Eisagoge with translation)
  • Ada Neschke-Hentschke : The transformation of philosophy in Albinus' introduction to the platonic dialogues . In: Norbert Dubowy, Sören Meyer-Eller (Hrsg.): Festschrift Rudolf Bockholdt for the 60th birthday . Ludwig, Pfaffenhofen 1990, ISBN 3-926115-29-7 , pp. 13–31 (translation of the Eisagoge with commentary)

literature

  • Franco Ferrari: Gaios and his 'school' and Albinos from Smyrna. In: Christoph Riedweg et al. (Hrsg.): Philosophy of the imperial era and late antiquity (= outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 5/1). Schwabe, Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7965-3698-4 , pp. 604–606, 614–616, 690, 692
  • Tryggve Göransson: Albinus, Alcinous, Arius Didymus . Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, Göteborg 1995, ISBN 91-7346-282-9 , pp. 28-104
  • Olaf Nüsser: Albin's prologue and the dialogue theory of Platonism . Teubner, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-519-07461-3 ( outdated with regard to the Didaskalikos )

Remarks

  1. ^ Adriano Gioè (Ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, p. 66f.
  2. ^ Adriano Gioè (ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, pp. 79, 87f.
  3. ↑ This erroneous view was represented by John Dillon : The Middle Platonists , London 1977, p. 268ff .; Dillon's statements there on the teaching of albinos are therefore largely out of date. He later changed his mind, see John Dillon: Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism , Oxford 1993, pp. IX-XI.
  4. ^ Franco Ferrari: Gaios and his 'school'. In: Christoph Riedweg et al. (Ed.): Philosophy of the Imperial Era and Late Antiquity (= Outline of the History of Philosophy. The Philosophy of Antiquity. Volume 5/1), Basel 2018, pp. 604–606, here: 604 f.
  5. ↑ John Dillon: The Middle Platonists , London 1977, p. 304 thinks of a postscript by a student of albinos, Burkhard Reis (Ed.): The Platoniker Albinos and his so-called Prologos , Wiesbaden 1999, pp. 145–155 suspects one of albinos Original transcript of a lecture by Gaios.
  6. ↑ See Jaap Mansfeld : Prolegomena , Leiden 1994, pp. 74–89; Ada Neschke-Hentschke: The transformation of philosophy in Albinus' introduction to the platonic dialogues . In: Norbert Dubowy, Sören Meyer-Eller (ed.): Festschrift Rudolf Bockholdt for his 60th birthday , Pfaffenhofen 1990, pp. 13–31, here: 22–24.
  7. ↑ Burkhard Reis (ed.): The Platonist Albinos and his so-called Prologos , Wiesbaden 1999, pp. 85–96.
  8. ↑ For the order, see Jaap Mansfeld: Prolegomena , Leiden 1994, pp. 86–95, 166f .; Ada B. Neschke-Hentschke: The transformation of philosophy in Albinus' introduction to the platonic dialogues . In: Norbert Dubowy, Sören Meyer-Eller (eds.): Festschrift Rudolf Bockholdt on the 60th birthday , Pfaffenhofen 1990, pp. 13–31, here: 19f., 24f., 27f .; Harold Tarrant: Thrasyllan Platonism , Ithaca 1993, p. 38ff.
  9. ↑ See also John Whittaker: Studies in Platonism and Patristic Thought , London 1984, No. XX pp. 329f .; Adriano Gioè (Ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, p. 67f.
  10. ^ Heinrich Dörrie , Matthias Baltes : The Platonism in the Antike , Vol. 3, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, pp. 28f., 182-184.
  11. ↑ Adriano Gioè (Ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, pp. 79f., 89 f.
  12. ^ Adriano Gioè (ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, pp. 80f., 90-93; Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Platonism in antiquity , vol. 3, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, p. 74 (and commentary p. 289); Tryggve Göransson: Albinus, Alcinous, Arius Didymus , Göteborg 1995, p. 53f.
  13. ^ Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: The Platonism in the Antike , Vol. 3, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, pp. 152, 188-190, 205, 213f .; Tryggve Göransson: Albinus, Alcinous, Arius Didymus , Göteborg 1995, pp. 68-76.
  14. ↑ To demonstrate the erroneous assumption, see John Whittaker: Studies in Platonism and Patristic Thought , London 1984, No. XXI pp. 450–456 and John Whittaker: Platonic Philosophy in the Early Centuries of the Empire . In: Rise and Fall of the Roman World , Vol. II 36.1, Berlin 1987, pp. 81–123, here: 83–98.
  15. ↑ See Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 4, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1996, pp. 98f., 357f.
  16. ↑ See also Adriano Gioè (ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, pp. 83–85, 108–114; Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Platonism in antiquity , Vol. 5, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1998, pp. 447-450.
  17. ^ Adriano Gioè (ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Neapel 2002, pp. 82f., 99-103.
  18. ^ Adriano Gioè (ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, pp. 83, 103-108.
  19. ↑ Burkhard Reis (ed.): The Platonist Albinos and his so-called Prologos , Wiesbaden 1999, pp. 22-26.
  20. ↑ Tertullian, De anima 28.1 and 29.4. See Adriano Gioè (ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Naples 2002, pp. 81f., 93-99; John Whittaker: Platonic Philosophy in the Early Centuries of the Empire . In: Rise and Decline of the Roman World , Vol. II 36.1, Berlin 1987, pp. 81–123, here: 85f.
  21. ^ Proklos, In Platonis rem publicam II, p. 96, line 11 Kroll; Greek text and German translation by Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 3, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, pp. 18-20 (and commentary on pp. 152f.).
  22. ^ Greek text and German translation by Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 3, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, pp. 20–21 (and commentary, pp. 153–155); see. Tryggve Göransson: Albinus, Alcinous, Arius Didymus , Göteborg 1995, pp. 60-68.
  23. ^ See on this John Whittaker: Studies in Platonism and Patristic Thought , London 1984, No. XX pp. 326f. and 328 note 50.
  24. ^ Johann Albert Fabricius: Bibliotheca Graeca , Vol. 2, Hamburg 1707, pp. 44-50.
  25. ^ On the textual criticism, cf. the essay by Alessandro Agus, which Reis disregarded: La nuova edizione commentata del prologo di Albino . In: Studi Classici e Orientali 45, 1995, pp. 235-248.
personal data
SURNAME Albinos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Albinos from Smyrna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century or 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century