Syrianos

Syrianos ( Greek  Συριανός Syrianós ; † around 437 in Athens ) was a late ancient Greek philosopher of the Neoplatonic direction. He headed the Neoplatonic school of philosophy in Athens for about five years.

Life

Little is known of the Syrianos' life. He was the son of an otherwise unknown Philoxenus and came from Alexandria . There he probably laid the foundations of his education. Then he went to Athens to study with Plutarch at the Neoplatonic school of philosophy there. Plutarch was the founder of this school, which renewed the tradition of the Platonic Academy , and its first director ( Scholarch ). When he largely withdrew from teaching because of his old age, Syrianos took over teaching. Eventually Syrianos became a Scholarch around 432 after Plutarch's death.

Syrianos lived in the house in Athens that was also the seat of the school. In class he first dealt with all of Aristotle's textbooks ( pragmatics ) for the purpose of introducing philosophical work and then, after this preparation, turned to Plato's dialogues . In addition, he drew on Orphic literature and the Chaldean oracles popular in Neoplatonic circles . He also taught rhetoric . His most prominent student and a close friend was Proclus , who succeeded him as a scholarch. Another student was Domninos von Larisa , who wrote an introduction to arithmetic. Syrianos died around 437.

Works

Very little of the writings of Syrianos has survived: commentaries on two treatises by the rhetorician Hermogenes von Tarsus and a possibly incomplete commentary on (at least) four books of Aristotle's metaphysics as well as fragments from other works. Syrianos did not comment on the entire metaphysics , only certain parts that were important from the Neoplatonic point of view. The Phaedrus commentary by his pupil Hermeias (Hermias) of Alexandria, based on his teaching, gives an impression of his treatment of Plato's dialogue Phaedrus .

A number of other works have been lost, including a comment on Homer in seven books, writings on the gods in Homer and on Orphic theology, a statement of the agreement of Orpheus , Pythagoras and Plato on the oracles in ten books, a comment on Plato's Politeia in four books as well as further commentaries on the works of Plato and Aristotle. A hymn to Achilles is also attested .

Teaching

Syrianos was strongly influenced by the Neo-Platonist Iamblichus , but occasionally deviated from his teachings. He shared the conviction of Iamblichus, which was widespread among the Neo-Platonists, that the philosophy of Plato and that of Pythagoras completely agree and contain pure truth. According to this interpretation , Platonism understood in this way is also completely in harmony with the teachings of Homer, Parmenides , Empedocles , Socrates and the early Neoplatonists. Aristotle, however, is accused of deviating from the truthful understanding of this tradition on certain issues. Therefore, in his commentary on the metaphysics of Aristotle, Syrianos endeavored to refute his criticism of the Pythagorean-Platonic metaphysics. In particular, he wanted to prevent philosophy students from turning away from Platonism. In his Phaedrus commentary, he emphasized that Socrates was a messenger from a divine world who wanted to redeem the sunken souls of men.

Following the example of Iamblichos, Syrianos hierarchically divides the reality that is accessible to humans into three main levels: the intuitively comprehensible world of the nous on top, including the area of ​​intellectual activity, discursive thinking, and at the bottom the world of sense objects and the error-prone opinions related to their perception. The souls who have sunk from the level of the nous and wander around in the world of impermanence are able, with the help of the independently existing mathematical objects to which all human beings by nature potentially have access, to understand the physical world and to provide scientific evidence because of the The cosmos produced by the demiurge was constructed according to mathematical principles. Syrianos argues: If the universal principles and especially the mathematical statements - as Aristotle said - were derived from the perception of the sense objects through abstraction, they would not have the rank of primary and certain facts. Such a rank, however, presupposes their use in scientific arguments (especially according to Aristotle's own understanding of science); science traces physical phenomena back to the universal principles on which they are based.

For Syrianos, the intuitive perception of metaphysical facts stands higher than the intellectual activity of mathematicians. When it comes to numbers, he differentiates between the ordinary numbers, which shape the physical world, are composed of units and can therefore be added together ( monadikoí arithmoí ) and the intuitively perceptible numbers of the world of ideas ( eidētikoí arithmoí ). The latter represent the unchanging essence of duality, trinity, etc., and therefore do not consist of units by whose addition or subtraction they could be changed. Syrianos defends the real, separate existence of these numbers against Aristotle. He sees in them creative principles, working forces, whose images and effects are the ordinary numbers with which mathematicians calculate.

In the doctrine of the soul, Syrianos took the view that in each of the endlessly successive world periods every human soul must sink at least once into the physical world. Like the other late Neoplatonists, he rejected Plotinus' view that human souls can enter animal bodies in the course of the transmigration of souls; He considered this impossible because of a fundamental opposition between the rational and the unreasonable.

Aftermath

The Syrianos had a strong influence on his student Proclus, who himself pointed out what he owed his teacher. The later Neoplatonists in Athens regarded Syrianos as an authority; he was nicknamed "the great" by them. With only indirectly traditional Phaedrus -Kommentierung sat in the renaissance of humanist Marsilio Ficino apart.

Text output (partly with translation)

• Wilhelm Kroll (Ed.): Syriani in metaphysica commentaria (= Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca Vol. 6.1). Reimer, Berlin 1902 (critical edition)
• Hugo Rabe (ed.): Syriani in Hermogenem commentaria . 2 volumes, Teubner, Leipzig 1892–1893 (critical edition; volume 1 and volume 2 online)
• Paul Couvreur (ed.): Hermiae Alexandrini in Platonis Phaedrum scholia . Olms, Hildesheim 1971 (reprint of the critical edition Paris 1901), ISBN 3-487-04066-2
• Rosa Loredana Cardullo (Ed.): Siriano, esegeta di Aristotele (Greek texts, Italian translation and commentary)
  • Vol. 1: Frammenti e testimonianze dei commentari all'Organon , La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1995, ISBN 88-221-1665-8
  • Vol. 2: Frammenti e testimonianze del commentario alla Fisica , Catania 2000
• Sarah Klitenic Wear (Ed.): The Teachings of Syrianus on Plato's Timaeus and Parmenides . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-19290-4 (the fragments of Syrianos' commentaries on Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Parmenides ; critical edition with English translation and commentary)

Translations

• Dominic O'Meara, John Dillon (translator): Syrianus: On Aristotle, Metaphysics 3–4 . Duckworth, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7156-3665-7
• John Dillon, Dominic O'Meara (translator): Syrianus: On Aristotle, Metaphysics 13-14 . Bloomsbury, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7156-3574-2
• Hildegund Bernard (translator): Hermeias of Alexandria: Commentary on Plato's “Phaedrus” . Mohr, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-16-146803-1 .

literature

Overview representations

• Richard Goulet, Concetta Luna : Syrianus d'Alexandrie. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 678-707
• Angela Longo: Syrianos. 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 5/3). Schwabe, Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7965-3700-4 , pp. 1880–1891, 2129–2131
• Angela Longo: Syrianus. In: Lloyd P. Gerson (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity. Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-19484-6 , pp. 616-629, 1122-1124
• Karl Praechter : Syrianos. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV A, 2, Stuttgart 1932, Sp. 1728-1775.
• Elżbieta Szabat: Syrianos. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , p. 351

Investigations

• Angela Longo: Siriano ei principi della scienza . Bibliopolis, Napoli 2005, ISBN 88-7088-451-1 .
• Christina-Panagiota Manolea: The Homeric Tradition in Syrianus . Stamoulis, Thessaloniki 2004, ISBN 960-8353-39-4 (dissertation)
• Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived. Mathematics and Philosophy in Late Antiquity . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1989 (reprinted Oxford 1997), ISBN 0-19-823913-0

Research history

• Rosa Loredana Cardullo: Siriano nella storiografia filosofica moderna e contemporanea . In: Siculorum gymnasium 40, 1987, pp. 71-182 (detailed description of Syrianos research since the 18th century).

Web links

• Christian Wildberg:  Entry in Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Remarks

1. ^ Henri Dominique Saffrey: Comment Syrianus, le maître de l'école neoplatonicienne d'Athènes, considérait-il Aristote? In: Jürgen Wiesner (Ed.): Aristoteles. Work and Effect , Vol. 2, Berlin 1987, pp. 205–214, here: 213.
2. ↑ Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived , Oxford 1989, pp. 143-145.
3. ↑ For the dating see Henry D. Saffrey, Leendert Gerrit Westerink (ed.): Proclus: Théologie platonicienne , Vol. 1, Paris 1968, pp. XVI f .; Alain Philippe Segonds (ed.): Proclus: Sur le Premier Alcibiade de Platon , Vol. 1, Paris 1985, p. VIII; John M. Dillon: General Introduction . In: Glenn R. Morrow, John M. Dillon (transl.): Proclus' Commentary on Plato's Parmenides , Princeton 1987, pp. XI – XLIV, here: XII f .; Lucas Siorvanes: Proclus: Neo-Platonic Philosophy and Science , Edinburgh 1996, p. 6.
4. ↑ On the question of the original scope of the metaphysics commentary, see Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived , Oxford 1989, pp. 119–122; John Dillon, Dominic O'Meara (translator): Syrianus: On Aristotle, Metaphysics 13–14 , London 2014, p. 3; Christina-Panagiota Manolea: The Homeric Tradition in Syrianus , Thessaloniki 2004, p. 58.
5. ↑ Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived , Oxford 1989, pp. 124-128; Karl Praechter: Hermeias from Alexandreia . In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE), Vol. VIII, 1, Stuttgart 1912, Sp. 732-735; Christina-Panagiota Manolea: The Homeric Tradition in Syrianus , Thessaloniki 2004, pp. 47–58.
6. ^ Karl Praechter: Syrianos. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE), Vol. IV A, 2, Stuttgart 1932, Sp. 1728–1775, here: 1731 f. On the question of possible confusion with works by Proclus, see Christina-Panagiota Manolea: The Homeric Tradition in Syrianus , Thessaloniki 2004, pp. 43–45.
7. ↑ Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived , Oxford 1989, pp. 138-141.
8. ↑ Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived , Oxford 1989, p. 122 f.
9. ↑ According to the preface to the metaphysics commentary, see John Dillon, Dominic O'Meara (translator): Syrianus: On Aristotle, Metaphysics 13-14 , London 2014, p. 31 f. On the argument with which Syrianos rejected Aristotle's criticism, Alain de Libera: Der Universalienstreit , Munich 2005, pp. 89–98 and Jan Opsomer: Syrianus on Homonymy and Forms . In: Gerd Van Riel, Caroline Macé (eds.): Platonic Ideas and Concept Formation in Ancient and Medieval Thought , Leuven 2004, pp. 31–50.
10. ↑ Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived , Oxford 1989, pp. 125 f.
11. ^ Dominic J. O'Meara: Pythagoras Revived , Oxford 1989, pp. 132 f .; John Dillon, Dominic O'Meara (translator): Syrianus: On Aristotle, Metaphysics 13–14 , London 2014, p. 4 f .; Karl Praechter: Syrianos. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE), Vol. IV A, 2, Stuttgart 1932, Sp. 1728–1775, here: 1751 f.
12. ^ John Dillon, Dominic O'Meara (translator): Syrianus: On Aristotle, Metaphysics 13–14 , London 2014, pp. 7 f .; Karl Praechter: Syrianos. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE), Vol. IV A, 2, Stuttgart 1932, Sp. 1728–1775, here: 1759 f.
13. ^ Karl Praechter: Syrianos. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE), Vol. IV A, 2, Stuttgart 1932, Sp. 1728–1775, here: 1747–1749.
14. ^ Anne Sheppard : The Influence of Hermias on Marsilio Ficino's Doctrine of Inspiration . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 43, 1980, pp. 97-109; Michael JB Allen: Two Commentaries on the Phaedrus: Ficino's Indebtedness to Hermias . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 43, 1980, pp. 110-129.