ARISTOTELIAN AND NEOPLATONIC ETHICS IN MICHAEL PSELLOS AND JOHN ITALOS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbto.2021.1.06Keywords:
Psellos, Italos, Aristotle, ethics.Abstract
This paper examines the use made by Michael Psellos and John Italos of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics together with Neoplatonic sources (in particular Porphyry’s Sentences) on the subject of virtue. Examining chapters 66-81 of Psellos’ De omnifaria doctrina and Essays 81 and 63 of Italos’ Problems and Solutions, I argue that both philosophers have a coherent theory of virtue which integrates Aristotelian ethical virtue in the Neoplatonic hierarchy of the virtues.
References
Texts
Damascius
Commentaria in Platonis Phaedonem, ed. L. G. Westerink, Amsterdam 1977.
Italos
Ioannes Italos Quaestiones quodlibetales, ed. P. Joannou, Ettal 1956.
Ioannis Itali opera, ed. G. Ceretelli, Tbilisi 1966.
Porphyry
Porphyrius Sententiae ad intelligibilia ducentes, ed. E. Lamberz, Leipzig 1975.
Proclus
In Platonis Timaeum commentaria, ed. E. Diehl, Leipzig 1903.
Psellos
Michael Psellus, De omnifaria doctrina, ed. L. G. Westerink, Nijmegen 1948.
Michaelis Pselli oratoria minora, ed. A. Littlewood, Leipzig 1985.
Michaelis Pselli orationes panegyricae, ed. G. Dennis, Leipzig 1994.
Michaelis Pselli Philosophica minora, vol. II, ed. D. J. O’Meara, Leipzig 1989.
Michaelis Pselli theologica, vol. I, ed. P. Gautier, Leipzig 1989.
Studies
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Brisson, L., (ed.), Porphyre Sentences, Paris 2005.
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O’Meara, D., ‘Aspects du travail philosophique de Michel Psellus (Philosophica minora, vol. II)’, in: C. Collarz/C. Dummer (edd.), Dissertatiunculae criticae (Festschrift G. C. Hansen), Würzburg 1998, 431-439.
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Papamanolakis, A., ‘L’Échelle néoplatonicienne des vertus chez Psellus et chez Eustrate de Nicée’, in: C. D’Ancona (ed.), The Libraries of the Neoplatonists, Leiden 2007, 231-242.
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