Alcinous (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ''Alkinoos'') was a

Middle Platonist Middle Platonism is the modern name given to a stage in the development of Platonic philosophy, lasting from about 90 BC – when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected the scepticism of the new Academy – until the development of neoplatoni ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He probably lived in the 2nd century AD,"Alcinous fits most comfortably into a period bounded by the writings of

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

on the one hand, and

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

and

Alexander of Aphrodisias Alexander of Aphrodisias (; AD) was a Peripatetic school, Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek Commentaries on Aristotle, commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria and liv ...

on the other, with

Apuleius Apuleius ( ), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidians, Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman Empire, Roman Numidia (Roman province), province ...

, Albinus, Atticus, Numenius, the Peripatetic Aspasius, ... and Maximus of Tyre as approximate contemporaries." John Dillon, 1993, ''Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism'', page xiii. Oxford. although nothing is known about his life. He is the author of ''The Handbook of Platonism'', an epitome of

Middle Platonism Middle Platonism is the modern name given to a stage in the development of Platonic philosophy, lasting from about 90 BC – when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected the scepticism of the new Academy – until the development of neoplatonis ...

intended as a manual for teachers. He has, at times, been identified by some scholars with the 2nd century Middle Platonist Albinus.

Writings

Alcinous is the author of work called ''The Handbook of Platonism'' (, also ; ), one of the few surviving works from the

period (c. 90 BC – 250 AD). The book contains 36 chapters which cover topics ranging from logic to physics to ethics. It is thought to have been intended as a manual, not for students of Platonism, but for its teachers. The treatise is written in the esoteric manner typical of the

Corpus Aristotelicum The works of Aristotle, sometimes referred to by modern scholars with the Latin phrase ''Corpus Aristotelicum'', is the collection of Aristotle's works that have survived from antiquity. According to a distinction that originates with Aristotle ...

, and it often appropriates popular concepts from other philosophical schools—in particular the Peripatetic and Stoic schools—which could be seen as having been prefigured in the works of Plato. Alcinous's handbook has been dated to the middle of the 2nd century AD. In 1879 the German scholar Jacob Freudenthal argued that Alcinous was really the philosopher Albinus, the teacher of

the physician. This theory remained largely unchallenged until 1974, when John Whittaker made a fresh case convincingly reaffirming Alcinous's authenticity. Alcinous held the world and its animating soul to be eternal.Alcinous, ''Handbook'', 14.3. This soul of the universe was not created by

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, but, to use the image of Alcinous, it was awakened by him as from a profound sleep, and turned towards himself, "that it might look out upon intellectual things and receive forms and ideas from the divine mind." It was the first of a succession of intermediate beings between God and man. The ''

idea In philosophy and in common usage, an idea (from the Greek word: ἰδέα (idea), meaning 'a form, or a pattern') is the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophe ...

'' proceeded immediately from the mind of God, and were the highest object of our intellect; the "form" of matter, the types of sensible things, having a real being in themselves. He differed from the earlier Platonists in confining the ''ideas'' to general laws: it seemed an unworthy notion that God could conceive an ''idea'' of things artificial or unnatural, or of individuals or particulars, or of any thing relative. He seems to have aimed at harmonizing the views of Plato and Aristotle on the ''ideas'', as he distinguished them from the ''eidos'', forms of things, which he allowed were inseparable: a view which seems necessarily connected with the doctrine of the eternity and self-existence of matter. God, the first fountain of the ''ideas'', could not be known as he is: it is but a faint notion of him we obtain from negations and analogies: his nature is equally beyond our power of expression or conception. Below him are a series of beings ('' daimones'') who superintend the production of all living things, and hold intercourse with men. The human soul passes through various transmigrations, thus connecting the series with the lower classes of being, until it is finally purified and rendered acceptable to God.Alcinous, ''Handbook'', 16.1–2. His system is understood as a synthesis of Plato and Aristotle, with some elements borrowed from the East, and perhaps derived from a study of the Pythagorean system, which experienced a revival of sorts concomitant to that which produced Middle Platonism.

References

Sources

John M. Dillon John Myles Dillon (; born 15 September 1939) is an Irish classicist and philosopher who was Regius Professor of Greek (Trinity), Regius Professor of Greek in Trinity College, Dublin between 1980 and 2006. Prior to that he taught at the Universit ...

, ''Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism'', 1993, Oxford. *Dirk Baltzly, "''The Virtues and 'Becoming Like God': Alcinous to Proclus''", in ''Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Volume XXVI'', David Sedley (ed), (Oxford: 2004). *John Whittaker, "''Numenius and Alcinous on the First Principle''", Phoenix 32: 144–154 (1978). *

External links

''The Introduction of Alcinous to the Doctrines of Plato''
translated by George Burges
Free public domain audiobook version of ''The Introduction of Alcinous to the Doctrines of Plato''
translated by George Burges * . Collection includes Alcinous.

George Burges George Burges (; 1786 – 11 January 1864) was an English classical scholar who published translations of the works of Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Plato. Biography Burges was born in Bengal, India, and was probably the son of Thomas Bu ...

, translator (1855). {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcinous 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century Greek philosophers Deist philosophers Middle Platonists Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown