Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Middle Platonism and the Seventh Epistle

Middle Platonism and the Seventh Epistle 75 Middle Platonism and the Seventh Epistle HAROLD TARRANT There is little excuse for new discussions of the authenticity of the Seventh Epistle unless substantial new evidence or new arguments can be produced. Moreover such evidence must come from outside the Corpus Platonicum, as should be evident from the following considerations: (i) The interpretation of late Plato can differ so markedly from one scholar to the next that there is no chance of agreement as to the central features of late Platonic theory and attitude, with which the Epistle, if genuine, would have to conform. (ii) There is no shortage of 'inconsis- tencies' (on the surface at least) within the body of works acknowledged to be genuine; thus apparent inconsistencies between the Epistle and the Dialogues prove little. (iii) There would seem to be a certain community of feeling between ancient Platonists in general, such that, even if the Epistle were entirely compatible with the Dialogues, this would prove no more than that it was composed by a Platonist who understood Plato well. (iv) The Epistles belong to a different genre from the Dialogues, and thus may be expected to show some stylistic differences. (v) There is no http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Phronesis Brill

Middle Platonism and the Seventh Epistle

Tarrant, Harold
Phronesis , Volume 28 (1): 75 – Jan 1, 1983
Download PDF
29 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/middle-platonism-and-the-seventh-epistle-0syaes0qNM

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1983 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0031-8868
eISSN
1568-5284
DOI
10.1163/156852883X00059
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

75 Middle Platonism and the Seventh Epistle HAROLD TARRANT There is little excuse for new discussions of the authenticity of the Seventh Epistle unless substantial new evidence or new arguments can be produced. Moreover such evidence must come from outside the Corpus Platonicum, as should be evident from the following considerations: (i) The interpretation of late Plato can differ so markedly from one scholar to the next that there is no chance of agreement as to the central features of late Platonic theory and attitude, with which the Epistle, if genuine, would have to conform. (ii) There is no shortage of 'inconsis- tencies' (on the surface at least) within the body of works acknowledged to be genuine; thus apparent inconsistencies between the Epistle and the Dialogues prove little. (iii) There would seem to be a certain community of feeling between ancient Platonists in general, such that, even if the Epistle were entirely compatible with the Dialogues, this would prove no more than that it was composed by a Platonist who understood Plato well. (iv) The Epistles belong to a different genre from the Dialogues, and thus may be expected to show some stylistic differences. (v) There is no

Journal

Phronesis – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1983

There are no references for this article.