Ammonios Saqqas

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Ammonios Sakkas ( Greek  Ἀμμώνιος Σακκᾶς Ammṓnios Sakkás ; † 242 or 243 in Alexandria ) was an ancient philosopher who supported the Platonic tradition . He founded a school of philosophy in Alexandria , from whose ideas the direction now known as Neo-Platonism arose. Ammonios is known primarily as a teacher of Plotinus . His philosophy can only be partially reconstructed on the basis of indirect tradition.

Surname

The origin of Ammonios' alleged nickname Sakkas is unclear. The epithet does not appear in Neoplatonic literature, it is only occasionally attested in late antiquity and possibly not contemporary. In the 5th century, Theodoret , an opposing Christian author, claimed that the name of the philosopher went back to the fact that Ammonius carried sacks of grain (sákkous) in his youth . This interpretation probably served the purpose of denigration. If the epithet is contemporary, it is likely to refer to a coarse, baggy philosopher's garb ( σάκκος sákkos , cf. Latin saccus cilicinus ). According to another hypothesis, there is confusion with a Christian martyr named Apollonios Sakkeas.

The hypothesis discussed in the older research literature that Sakkas was originally not a Greek word but an Indian name has been refuted. An ethnic meaning is being considered: It could be a reference to the descent of Ammonios from the ethnic association of the Saks (Greek Sakai or Sakkai ).

Life

According to a quote from the church writer Eusebius of Caesarea from the lost pamphlet of the Neo-Platonist Porphyrios against the Christians, Ammonius came from a Christian family, but turned away from Christianity in his youth when he got to know (Platonic) philosophy. Eusebius emphatically rejects this claim; he assures that Ammonios remained a Christian until his death. This is probably due to the fact that Eusebius confused Ammonius, meant by Porphyrios, with a Christian writer of the same name. In research, however, the possibility is also taken into account that Ammonius did not give up Christianity entirely, but - albeit outside the church - held on to it and tried to bring it into harmony with Platonism.

Ammonios seems to have only taught in Alexandria. He died either shortly before or shortly after the departure of his most important disciple, Plotinus, who left Alexandria in 242 or 243 after having attended the lessons of Ammonius for eleven years.

Teaching

The main source for Ammonius' teaching is Porphyry, a student of Plotinus. From Porphyrios' statements it appears that Plotinus stuck to what he had learned from Ammonius. It can therefore be assumed that the philosophy of Ammonius essentially corresponded to that of Plotinus. However, it is unclear whether the Plotinian doctrine of the one as the highest principle above beings goes back to Ammonius. Details of his philosophy cannot be reliably reconstructed. Apparently its effect rested more on its philosophical-philological method than on certain doctrines; In his school, as Matthias Baltes says, “philosophy was not taught, but philosophized”.

His interpretation of the relationship between Plato and Aristotle was characterized by a striving for harmonization; he believed that the two philosophers agree on their main doctrines. Basically he did not want to accept the juxtaposition of the different school opinions, as he considered it incompatible with the scientific character of philosophy. He was striving for a philosophy “without inner discord”, that is, a coherent universal philosophy which, in his opinion, abolishes the differences between the schools that only exist on the surface. He thought he could advance to the level of community by following the questions and trains of thought of the individual philosophers to their roots. A deeper understanding of the peculiarities should lead to grasping the common truth.

reception

Ammonius did not leave any writings, but through his students had a lasting influence on the development of Platonism. His most famous student was Plotinus, who studied with him from 232 to 242 before moving to Rome where he founded his own school. Another student named Origen has long been identified with the famous Christian writer Origen , who was indeed Platonically influenced. In modern research, however, the majority hold the opinion that the Ammonios student Origen, who was one of the teacher's closest circle, was not a Christian, but a pagan Platonist of the same name . However, it is possible that the Christian Origen also took part in lectures by Ammonius without belonging to the inner circle of students. Another student, who evidently did not belong to the closest circle, was the philosopher and grammarian Longinos , who later founded a school in Athens and gained a high reputation. Longinos praised Ammonius and the pagan Origen as philosophers who were far superior to their contemporaries in terms of insight (sýnesis) . According to a research hypothesis , Heraclas , who later became Bishop of Alexandria, also attended the classes of the renowned philosophy teacher.

From the information provided by Porphyrios, it emerges that after the death of Ammonius three of his disciples, Plotinus, Herennios (Erennios) and Origen, agreed not to “reveal” his scientific legacy. This agreement was later broken by Herennios and then by Origen; therefore, in the end, Plotinus also considered the agreement to be invalid. The purpose of the agreement is unclear; possibly it was about the confidentiality of a core part of the teaching, which, following the example of Plato's “ unwritten teaching ”, was not found to be suitable for publication.

The late antique Neo-Platonist Hierocles expressed enthusiasm for the initiative of Ammonius, who with the harmonization of Platonism and Aristotelianism restored the torn philosophy and cleansed it of false views . He found that the doctrine of Ammonius was groundbreaking for later philosophy. All the well-known thinkers of the subsequent period would have adopted it.

In the 20th century, it was occasionally claimed that the surname Sakkas was of Indian origin, that it was originally a tribal name (Saker) or a family name (Shakya) and that it could be concluded that Ammonius was not Egyptian but Indian. Based on such considerations, Erich Seeberg turned Ammonios into an Aryan in 1942 and Ernst Benz suspected in 1951 that Plotin's teacher was an Indian philosopher or Buddhist monk; thereby an "explanation of the influx of Indian philosophy into the pagan and Christian world of Alexandria" can be given. These hypotheses were emphatically rejected by ancient scholars; today they are considered refuted and are no longer represented in specialist circles.

literature

Overview representations

Investigations

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer: Ammonios Sakkas, the teacher of Plotinus , Opladen 1983, pp. 81–84; Frederic M. Schroeder: Ammonius Saccas . In: Rise and decline of the Roman world , Vol. II.36.1, Berlin 1987, pp. 493-526, here: 520 f .; Heinrich Dörrie: Ammonios, the teacher of Plotinus . In: Heinrich Dörrie: Platonica minora , Munich 1976, pp. 324–360, here: 350 f .; Richard Goulet: Ammonios dit Saccas . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 1, Paris 1989, pp. 165–168, here: 167 f.
  2. ^ Clifford Hindley: Ammonios Sakkas. His Name and Origin . In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 75, 1964, pp. 332–336; Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer: Ammonios Sakkas, the teacher of Plotinus , Opladen 1983, p. 84.
  3. ↑ Jean-Michel Charrue: Ammonius et Plotinus. In: Revue philosophique de Louvain 102, 2004, pp. 72–103, here: 73.
  4. ↑ Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer: Ammonios Sakkas, the teacher of Plotinus , Opladen 1983, pp. 19-21; Richard Goulet: Ammonios dit Saccas . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 1, Paris 1989, pp. 165–168, here: 166; Christoph Bruns: Was Origen, like Plotinus, a pupil of Ammonios Sakkas? A source-critical contribution to its location in the educational environment of Alexandria . In: Jahrbuch für Religionsphilosophie 7, 2008, pp. 191–208, here: 202–204. See, however, the differing view of Elizabeth DePalma Digeser: A Threat to Public Piety , Ithaca / London 2012, pp. 29–33.
  5. ^ Karl-Otto Weber: Origen the Neoplatonist , Munich 1962, pp. 36–39; Matthias Baltes: Ammonios Sakkas . In: Reallexikon für Antike und Christianentum , Supplementband 1, Stuttgart 2001, Sp. 323–332, here: 324; Elizabeth DePalma Digeser: A Threat to Public Piety , Ithaca / London 2012, pp. 42–48.
  6. ↑ For the chronology see Richard Goulet: Le système chronologique de la Vie de Plotin . In: Luc Brisson u. a. (Ed.): Porphyre, La Vie de Plotin , Volume 1: Travaux préliminaires et index grec complet , Paris 1982, pp. 187–227, here: 206 f .; Denis O'Brien: Plotin et le vœu de silence . In: Luc Brisson u. a. (Ed.): Porphyre, La Vie de Plotin , Volume 2, Paris 1992, pp. 419–459, here: 422–425.
  7. ^ Matthias Baltes: Ammonios Sakkas . In: Reallexikon für Antike und Christianentum , Supplementband 1, Stuttgart 2001, Sp. 323–332, here: 330.
  8. ^ Karl-Otto Weber: Origen the Neo-Platonist , Munich 1962, pp. 52–62; Matthias Baltes: Ammonios Sakkas . In: Reallexikon für Antike und Christianentum , Supplementband 1, Stuttgart 2001, Sp. 323–332, here: 327–329. George E. Karamanolis tries to reconstruct the content of Ammonios' harmonization efforts: Plato and Aristotle in Agreement? , Oxford 2006, pp. 191-215.
  9. ^ Heinrich Dörrie: Ammonios Sakkas . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 2, Berlin 1978, pp. 463–471, here: 469–471.
  10. ↑ To distinguish between this Origen and the Christian of the same name, see Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer: Ammonios Sakkas, the teacher of Plotinus , Opladen 1983, pp. 22–39; Heinrich Dörrie: Ammonios Sakkas . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 2, Berlin 1978, pp. 463–471, here: 465–467; Frederic M. Schroeder: Ammonius Saccas . In: Rise and decline of the Roman world , Vol. II.36.1, Berlin 1987, pp. 493-526, here: 494-509; Christoph Bruns: Was Origen, like Plotinus, a pupil of Ammonios Sakkas? A source-critical contribution to its location in the educational environment of Alexandria . In: Jahrbuch für Religionsphilosophie 7, 2008, pp. 191–208, here: 191–196. In the essay collection Origen the Christ and Origen the Platonist , Tübingen 2018, edited by Balbina Bäbler and Heinz-Günther Nesselrath , the question is taken up again and discussed in several contributions.
  11. ↑ Frederic M. Schroeder: Ammonius Saccas . In: Rise and Fall of the Roman World , Vol. II.36.1, Berlin 1987, pp. 493-526, here: 507 f. Overviews of the relevant hypotheses are provided by Gilles Dorival: Origène d'Alexandrie . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 807-842, here: 810-813 and Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler: Philosophy in Alexandria. The circle around Ammonios Sakkas. In: Biblical Notes. New series , No. 147, 2010, pp. 83-103, here: p. 84, note 6.
  12. ↑ Irmgard Männlein-Robert : Longin, philologist and philosopher , Munich 2001, pp. 182–186.
  13. ↑ Richard Goulet: Héraclas. In: Richard Goulet (Ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 3, Paris 2000, pp. 550 f .; Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler: Philosophy in Alexandria. The circle around Ammonios Sakkas. In: Biblical Notes. New series , No. 147, 2010, pp. 83-103, here: pp. 88 f.
  14. ↑ Porphyrios, Vita Plotini 3, 24-35.
  15. ↑ Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer: Ammonios Sakkas, the teacher of Plotinus , Opladen 1983, pp. 15-17; Heinrich Dörrie: Ammonios Sakkas . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 2, Berlin 1978, pp. 463-471, here: 463 f.
  16. ↑ See Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé: L'arrière-plan scolaire de la Vie de Plotin . In: Luc Brisson u. a. (Ed.): Porphyre, La vie de Plotin , Volume 1: Travaux préliminaires et index grec complet , Paris 1982, pp. 229–327, here: 257–261; Thomas A. Szlezák : Plotinus and the secret teachings of Ammonius . In: Helmut Holzhey , Walther Christoph Zimmerli (eds.): Esoterik und Exoterik der Philosophie , Basel 1977, pp. 52–69, here: 52–60.
  17. ^ Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler: Philosophy in Alexandria. The circle around Ammonios Sakkas. In: Biblical Notes. New series , No. 147, 2010, pp. 83-103, here: pp. 85 f. and note 9; Jean-Michel Charrue: Ammonius et Plotin. In: Revue philosophique de Louvain 102, 2004, pp. 72-103, here: 86-92.
  18. ↑ Erich Seeberg: Ammonius Sakas . In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 61, 1942, pp. 136–170.
  19. ↑ Ernst Benz: Indian Influences on Early Christian Theology , Wiesbaden 1951, pp. 197-202.
  20. ^ Heinrich Dörrie: Ammonios, the teacher of Plotinus . In: Heinrich Dörrie: Platonica minora , Munich 1976, pp. 324–360, here: 325: "The modern one is far more imaginative than the ancient formation of legends."
  21. ^ Clifford Hindley: Ammonios Sakkas. His Name and Origin . In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 75, 1964, pp. 332–336; Christoph Horn: Ammonios Sakkas 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 5/2), Basel 2018, pp. 1252–1255, here: 1252.
personal data
SURNAME Ammonios Saqqas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Neoplatonic philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 242 or 243
Place of death Alexandria , Egypt