Georgios Gemistos plethon

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Presumed depiction of Georgios Gemistos on a painting by Benozzo Gozzoli , probably 1459/1460 , Palazzo Medici Riccardi , Florence

Georgios Gemistos (Γεώργιος Γεμιστός Geṓrgios Gemistós ; * around 1355/1360 in Constantinople ; † June 26, 1452 in Mystras near ancient Sparta ) was a Greek philosopher in the tradition of Platonism . He is primarily known by his pseudonym Plethon (Πλήθων Plḗthōn "the rich one"), which he chose as a more beautiful and ancient-sounding rendering of the meaning of his birth name Gemistos ("the filled one").

Life

There are only conjectures about Gemistos' origin, including the hypothesis that his father was Demetrios Gemistos , who was a high-ranking dignitary as protonotary of Hagia Sophia and later Grand Sakellarios . He spent most of his youth in Constantinople. For a time he stayed in the Ottoman Empire . In Adrianople (today Edirne ), where the court of the Ottoman Sultan was at that time, his teacher is said to have been an otherwise unknown, allegedly Averroistic Jewish scholar named Elisha (Elisha). After the turn of the century, he left Constantinople at the request of Emperor Manuel II , who valued him, but was urged by the high clergy to remove the philosopher, who was undesirable from the theological point of view, from the capital. He moved to Mystras , the economically and culturally prosperous capital of the despotate Morea (Peloponnese), which made up a large part of the shrunken Byzantine state. He kept this residence for the rest of his life. The ruling despots Theodor I (1383–1407), Theodor II (1407–1443) and Constantine (1428 / 1443–1449, later as Emperor Constantine XI. ) Belonged to the ruling imperial family of paleologists . Gemistus was the adviser not only to the despots, but also to the last Byzantine emperors, who gave him rich gifts. He also served as a senior judge. In 1427 he received the fortress and the area of ​​Phanarion from the despot Theodor II as Pronoia , with which he obtained an important source of income. In 1433 he gave the funeral oration for Theodor's Italian wife.

At that time the question of the church union between the Catholic and the Greek Orthodox Church was very controversial . Due to the desperate military situation of the Byzantine Empire, the union seemed politically necessary, but from a theological point of view it met bitter resistance. Gemistos took a stand against the project. 1438-39 he stayed in Italy as a prominent member of a Byzantine delegation personally led by Emperor John VIII and took part in the Council of Ferrara / Florence , where the union was decided. The delegation also included Gemistos' disciple Bessarion , an important humanist who later became a cardinal. Gemistus 'personality, education and eloquence made a strong impression on the Italian humanists and Cosimo de' Medici . For Marsilio Ficino he was, as it were, a second Plato. However, there were communication difficulties with Cosimo, because Gemistos understood neither Italian nor Latin. Among Gemistos' Italian interlocutors was the important cartographer Toscanelli , with whom he discussed geographic issues.

The tomb of Plethon at the Rimini Cathedral

In 1453, one year after Gemistus' death, Constantinople was conquered by the Turks, and Mistra surrendered in 1460. A few years later, the condottiere Sigismondo Malatesta , who was in the service of Venice, came to Mistra on a military campaign, took the philosopher's bones from the grave there and brought them to Rimini in 1466 , where the sarcophagus of the Gemistos has since been on an outer side wall of the Tempio Malatestiano .

Antichrist position

Outwardly, the life of the philosopher was shaped by the final phase of the fall of Byzantium. As an advisor to the emperors and despots, he took an active part in developments. But he understood the collapse of the Byzantine Empire and the victory of the Muslims differently than his orthodox fellow citizens, because he was not rooted in the Christian faith, as they were, but in Platonism. He was convinced that the Christian state, like the Islamic one, was a historical mistake and doomed to extinction, and the future belonged to a new Greek state, no longer Christian, but linked to classical antiquity. This future state should be based on Platonic, Pythagorean and Zoroastrian principles. An ancient polytheism understood in the sense of the Platonists with Zeus as supreme god should take the place of Christianity. For this purpose Gemistos designed a detailed liturgy . He assumed that the gods maintain complete harmony with one another, i.e. not resolve conflicts as with Homer, and that they voluntarily place themselves in a hierarchical system that serves as a model for people. Philosophically, he apparently viewed the gods as representatives of the principles assigned to them, such as unity (Zeus) and multiplicity ( Hera ). Like Plato, but in sharp contrast to Christianity, Gemistus considered the universe to be beginningless and immortal and only “created” by Zeus in a figurative, non-temporal sense. With regard to the soul, he represented the Platonic doctrine of the migration of souls. However, he did not understand the existence of the soul in the material world as a punishment or misfortune, but affirmed it as necessary, meaningful and unalterable. So he did not accept any hereafter accessible to the soul, no perspective of salvation.

With these extraordinarily bold ideas, which seem utopian in view of the power relations at the time, Gemistos proved to be a unique figure among the educated of his time. There were humanists who were more or less alienated from the church's teachings and emulated ancient models among Latin-speaking scholars in the West, but none of them broke church dogmas as radically as Gemistos. His anti-church theses also include the doctrine of the ethical right to suicide , which he emphatically defended. He started from a primordial religion of mankind, from which, in his opinion, the different religions and creeds of his time had arisen through falsification of the original truth.

This attitude earned Gemistos the bitter hostility of the clergy. His main opponent was Gennadios II Scholarios , who became Patriarch of Constantinople in 1454. However , Gemistus did not threaten persecution for heresy ; apparently his ecclesiastical opponents were unable to take action against him because of his high standing at court. In addition, his radically anti-Christian late work Nómon syngraphé was only known after his death (it was then burned on the orders of Gennadios, so only fragments have survived ). So he was able to work and teach his students unhindered in Mistra and enjoyed a high reputation until his death. Most of his Greek students, like his admirers among Western scholars, were moderate humanists who did not adopt his anti-Christian theses. His students included Bessarion, the Metropolitan of Ephesus Markos Eugenikos , who was a leading opponent of the church union with the Catholics, and the historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles (Chalkondyles).

Constitutional theory

The constitutional theory of Gemistos is presented in his only partially preserved main work Nómōn syngraphḗ (" Explanation of the Laws", Nómoi for short "The Laws"). With the title he tied in with Plato's dialogue Nomoi , from whose ideas he was inspired. Gemistus also dealt with this topic in memoranda to the emperors Manuel II and John VIII and the despot Theodor II. Its concept was apparently later studied by Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More , likely it influenced More's utopia . Central elements are:

  • a monarchical system, whereby the ruler should listen to philosophical advice. These should not be particularly rich, otherwise they will follow their greed for money, but neither should they be poor, because otherwise they are bribable.
  • Division of the people into three classes (farmers, tradespeople and civil servants / state leaders)
  • no conscription of taxpayers and tax exemption for soldiers, pure professional army, rejection of mercenaries
  • Fixed tax rate: one third of the agricultural yield. No other burdens for farmers through taxes and service obligations
  • Monasticism is criticized as parasitic, it must not be promoted with tax money.
  • Abolition of the penalties for mutilation as they prevent the punished person from carrying out useful activities; Emphasis on rehabilitation in criminal law, but - similar to Plato's Nomoi - extensive use of the death penalty
  • Social commitment of the property, which should be connected with the obligation to agricultural use, because the land is the common property of all residents . If a landowner neglects this duty, everyone can grow something there; the income, minus taxes, then belongs to whoever earned it. With this demand, Gemistos aimed at the huge, partly fallow ecclesiastical lands.

The Nomoi were later partially translated into Arabic at the court of Sultan Mehmet II .

Critique of Aristotle

In 1439 Gemistus wrote the treatise In which Aristotle does not agree with Plato in Florence . The common title is On the Differences Between Aristotle and Plato . In this pamphlet he defended the teachings of Plato against the criticism of Aristotle . The work was written in a hurry on the sickbed, Gemistus quoting from memory; in doing so he made various mistakes. It was his lasting merit, however, to have permanently drawn attention to fundamental contradictions between Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy. At that time, too little attention was paid to these contradictions because of the harmonizing tendency of many humanists. In addition, Gemistos criticized the Arab commentators, especially Ibn Rušd (Averroes), who he accused of falsifying the doctrines commented on. He maintained that the ancient world always placed Plato above Aristotle; It was only through the fateful influence of Averroes that one began to prefer Aristotle.

In ethics, Gemistus criticizes that Aristotle assigned pleasure too high a rank instead of subordinating it, like Plato, to the pursuit of the good. It also combats the Aristotelian Mesotes -Teaching what virtue is a mean between two extremes (about bravery between foolhardiness and cowardice). On the other hand, he objects that such a definition determines virtue quantitatively and not according to its own quality (its essence). Gemistus is particularly emphatic against Aristotelian metaphysics, which assumes random, random events. He advocates determinism and believes that everything that happens has a cause and necessarily takes place.

The opposing position was also represented in this area by Gennadios II. Scholarios , who wrote a work in defense of Aristotle. Gemistos responded with a polemical reply.

In Italy, Gemistos' criticism of Aristotle found relatively little response after the end of the council. His combat script was not translated into Latin in the 15th century and was not printed in Venice until 1540.

Editions and translations

  • Wilhelm Blum (translator): Georgios Gemistos Plethon. Politics, philosophy and rhetoric in the late Byzantine Empire (1355–1452) (= Library of Greek Literature , Vol. 25). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-7772-8806-3 (German translations of works by Gemistos with introduction and explanations)
  • Enrico V. Maltese (Ed.): Georgii Gemisti Plethonis contra Scholarii per Aristotele obiectiones . Teubner, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-322-00460-0 (critical edition)
  • Enrico V. Maltese (Ed.): Georgii Gemisti Plethonis opuscula de historia Graeca . Teubner, Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-322-00674-3 (critical edition)
  • Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker (Ed.): Magika logia tōn apo Zōroastrou magōn. Geōrgiou Gemistou Plēthōnos exēgēsis eis ta auta logia. Oracle's Chaldaïques. Recension de Georges Gémiste Pléthon . Vrin, Paris et al. 1995, ISBN 2-7116-9832-7 (critical edition of Plethon's collection of the Chaldean oracles, as well as his commentary and his “brief explanation” with French translation and commentary; in addition, pp. 157–171 that published by Michel Tardieu Arabic version of the collection with French translation)

literature

Overview presentations and introductions

Overall presentations and investigations

  • Wilhelm Blum, Walter Seitter (Ed.): Georgios Gemistos Plethon (1355-1452). Reform politician, philosopher, admirer of the old gods (= tumult , vol. 29). Diaphanes, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-935300-98-0 (also contains German translations of texts by Gemistos)
  • Vojtěch Hladký: The Philosophy of Gemistos Plethon. Platonism in Late Byzantium, between Hellenism and Orthodoxy . Ashgate, Farnham 2014, ISBN 978-1-4094-5294-2 .
  • François Masai: Pléthon et le platonisme de Mistra , Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1956
  • Walter Seitter: Montesquieu, Pléthon. Politique et religion dans l'Empire Byzantin et dans un projet de réforme tardo-Byzantin . In: Jean Ehrard (ed.): Montesquieu, l'État et la Religion. Colloque de Sofia, 7 and 8 octobre 2005. Iztok-Zapad, Sofia 2007, ISBN 978-954-321-363-4 , pp. 125-139
  • Brigitte Tambrun: Plethon. Le retour de Plato . Vrin, Paris 2006, ISBN 978-2-7116-1859-0 .
  • Christopher Montague Woodhouse : George Gemistos Plethon. The Last of the Hellenes. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1986, ISBN 0-19-824767-2 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Brigitte Tambrun: Pléthon. Le retour de Platon , Paris 2006, p. 36f.
  2. ↑ Brigitte Tambrun: Plethon. Le retour de Platon , Paris 2006, p. 41f.
  3. ↑ See Brigitte Tambrun: Pléthon. Le retour de Platon , Paris 2006, p. 42.
  4. ↑ See Brigitte Tambrun: Pléthon. Le retour de Platon , Paris 2006, pp. 9, 29–31.
  5. ^ Ruth Webb: The Nomoi of Gemistos Plethon in the Light of Plato's Laws . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 52, 1989, pp. 214-219.
  6. ↑ Brigitte Tambrun: Plethon. Le retour de Platon , Paris 2006, pp. 16, 43f.
personal data
SURNAME Gemistos Plethon, Georgios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Georgios Gemistos; Plethon (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek scholar, state theorist, philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH around 1360
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1452
Place of death Mystras (Peloponnese)