Platonic Genealogies

Journal title RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA
Author/s Pierluigi Donini
Publishing Year 2013 Issue 2013/3
Language Italian Pages 19 P. 439-457 File size 512 KB
DOI 10.3280/SF2013-003001
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The essay attempts to discover the source (or sources) of the Platonic genealogy which was common to some middle Platonic philosophers, especially Plutarch, and to all the Neoplatonists from Plotinus onwards. In this philosophical genealogy Plato is the heir of Pythagoras and Aristotle the heir of Plato. The Pythagorean genealogy of Plato is clearly present in Cicero’s works and could have been suggested to him by more than one source: above all Posidonius rather than Antiochus, the peripatetic tradition or the Old Academy. Aristotle, however, is not mentioned. In order to explain his presence in the Platonic and Pythagorean genealogy recorded by Plutarch, we need to look to the influence of the pseudo-Pythagorean treatises and to the works of Eudorus. Through the Alexandrian milieu, this Platonic philosopher had some familiarity with Aristotle’s works and, most probably, also with some pseudo-Pythagorean treatises - possibly some of those that have come down to us and are a mix of Platonic, Pythagorean and Aristotelian tenets.

Keywords: Platonism, Platonic genealogies, Pythagoreanism, Plutarch, Antiochus, Posidonius, Eudorus

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  • The Figure of Socrates in Numenius of Apamea: Theology, Platonism, and Pythagoreanism (fr. 24 des Places) Enrico Volpe, in Peitho. Examina Antiqua /2022 pp.169
    DOI: 10.14746/PEA.2022.1.8

Pierluigi Donini, Genealogie platoniche in "RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA" 3/2013, pp 439-457, DOI: 10.3280/SF2013-003001