Neoplatonic Pedagogy and the Alcibiades I

Bringing together both works to reveal a common vision of philosophy as it was understood in the lecture halls of late antiquity, this monograph is the only book-length study exclusively devoted to the reception of the Platonic dialogue Alcibiades I in the commentaries of Proclus (412–485 AD) and Olympiodorus (495–60 AD).

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Many philosophers in the ancient world shared a unitary vision of philosophy – meaning 'love of wisdom' – not just as a theoretical discipline, but as a way of life. Specifically, for the late Neoplatonic thinkers, philosophy began with self-knowledge, which led to a person's inner conversion or transformation into a lover, a human being erotically striving toward the totality of the real. This metamorphosis amounted to a complete existential conversion. It was initiated by learned guides who cultivated higher and higher levels of virtue in their students, leading, in the end, to their vision of the Good, or the One. In this book, James M. Ambury closely analyses two central texts in this tradition: the commentaries by Proclus (412–485 AD) and Olympiodorus (495–560 AD) on the Platonic Alcibiades I. Ambury's powerful study illuminates the way philosophy was conceived during a crucial period of its history, in the lecture halls of late antiquity.