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This is a new edition of Professor Dillon's 1972 collection and translation of the fragments of Iamblichus' Commentaries on the Platonic Dialogues - it benefits from the translator's amendments to his original edition gathered over the ensuing thirty-seven years of scholarly work. Facing Greek and English text, with extensive commentary by the translator. With Indices, bibliography, etc. This perhaps more than any other English language publication shows how much Iamblichus as a writer deserves to be seen in the light of what might be called mainstream late Platonic philosophy, rather than as solely a "theurgic specialist." This is the first volume of a new Series entitled, "Platonic Texts and Translations"
Iamblichus was once considered one of the great philosophers. The Emperor Julian followed Iamblichus's teachings to guide the restoration of traditional pagan cults in his campaign against Christianity. Although Julian was unsuccessful, Iamblichus's ideas persisted well into the Middle Ages and beyond. His vision of a hierarchical cosmos united by divine ritual became the dominant worldview for the entire medieval world. Even Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that he expected a reading of Iamblichus to cause a "revival in the churches". But modern scholars have dismissed him, seeing theurgy as ritual magic or "manipulation of the gods". Shaw, however, shows that theurgy was a subtle and intellectually sophisticated attempt to apply Platonic and Pythagorean teachings to the full expression of human existence in the material world.
The present volume is a verbatim reproduction of Thomas Taylor's translation of Iamblichus's Egyptian Mysteries, originally published in 1821. The work is divided into two main parts: the "Epistle of Porphyry to Anebo" and the reply given him by the preceptor Abammon-the name assumed by Iamblichus, who was the real author of the reply. The latter is itself divided into ten sections, each treating of a series of related subjects raised by the questions posed in the epistle. Taylor provides an introduction and appends a collection of "additional notes" to the original text, both of which supply great insight into the nature and meaning of the mysteries discussed by Abammon. In the present edit...
Iamblichus (245-325), successor to Plotinus and Porphyry, brought a new religiosity to Neoplatonism. His theory of the soul is at the heart of his philosophical system. For Iamblichus, the human soul is so far inferior to the divine that its salvation depends not on philosophy alone (as it did for Plotinus) but on the aid of the gods and other divinities. This edition of the fragments of Iamblichus' major work on the soul, De Anima, is accompanied by the first English translation of the work and a commentary which explains the philosophical background and Iamblichus' doctrine of the soul. Included too are excerpts from the Pseudo-Simplicius and Priscianus (also translated with commentary) that shed further light on Iamblichus' treatise.
Iamblichus is the only Platonist philosopher whose philosophical letters have survived from the ancient world. These nineteen letters, which are translated into English here for the first time, address such topics as providence, fate, concord, marriage, bringing up children, ingratitude, music, and the cardinal virtues, with some letters addressed to students and others to prominent members of Syrian society and the imperial administration. The letters reflect the concerns of popular moral philosophy and illustrate the more public aspects of Iamblichus s philosophy. This volume provides a useful complement to Iamblichus: On the Mysteries, and On the Pythagorean Way of Life, both published by the Society of Biblical Literature, and will be of interest to students of late antiquity, of Neoplatonic philosophy, and of early Christianity.
A revision of the author's thesis, University of California at Berkeley.
Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus gives a complete canon of pagan religious thought and belief in Taylor's 1821 English translation.