2014 Spring
In this lesson (the first of two parts) we look at samples of the ways that two great philosophical traditions affected the Abrahamic faiths. The first great philosophical tradition is Platonism (or Neo-Platonism.) The second is Aristotelianism (often also in Neo-Platonist form). The three great Abrahamic faiths are, of course, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Note: Recall Plato’s Cave where enlightenment is to be found in discovering the eternal forms that lie behind the shadows and ultimately in discovering the form of the good, “the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual” (Repub. VI).
PLATONISM IN JUDAISM
Philo of Alexandria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo
Allegorical Interpretation, I
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book2.html
On the Virtues
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book31.html
PAGAN NEOPLATONISM
Plotinus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus
Prof Notes
http://wpscape.info/mw/index.php?title=Plotinus
Enneads: On Virtue
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/plotinus/enneads.ii.ii.html
Civic, Contemplative, Purificatory, Exemplary
Porphyry’s Presentation of the Virtues
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/porphyry_sententiae_02_trans.htm
See: Section Two (Political, Cathartic, Eneergizing Intellectually, Paradigmatic) aka (Civic, Purificatory, Contemplative, Exemplary)
Enneads: The Good
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/plotinus/enneads.vi.v.html
(See: Zeus)
Enneads: Five Categories (VI.2.8)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/plotenn/enn545.htm
NEO-PLATONISM IN CHRISTIANITY
Augustine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo
Handbook on Faith, Hope, & Love
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1302.htm
cf Virtues Paradigmatic or Exemplary
On Christian Doctrine
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/doctrine.xxxix.html
Note: Purpose of scripture? To teach the exemplary virtues.
NEOPLATONISM IN ISLAM
al-Farabi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Farabi
The Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle (see pdf link)
http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/farabi/
Note: see pdf page 27 of 84, paragraph number 55, where philosophy is distinguished from religion
Brethren of Purity
Overview
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ikhwan-al-safa/
New Critical Edition (OUP)
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/category/academic/series/philosophy/epbp.do
The Case of the Animals vs Man . . .
https://archive.org/details/ikhwanussafa00ikhw
Note: see Chs. XX – XXI on the King of Bees
Database suggestion:
Holoduek Jr., John Charles1. “The Philosophy Of Neoplatonism And Its Effects On The Thought Of St. Augustine Of Hippo.” Dialogue (00122246) 55.2/3 (2013): 136-157. Humanities Source. Web. 6 Jan. 2014.
CourseLinks 