Apuleius and the Metamorphoses of Platonism

Apuleius and the Metamorphoses of Platonism
Author: Claudio Moreschini
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Philosophy in literature
ISBN: 9782503554709

Apuleius was a respected philosophus Platonicus in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Until the middle of last century, he attracted the attention of scholars as a so-called 'Middle Platonist' author. Then, with the rejection of the historical schema that he had been situated in (the so-called 'school of Gaius', which we will treat shortly), his 'brother' Alcinous was the object of studies and (even harsh) criticisms, while almost nothing more was written about Apuleius by anyone. Studies of Middle Platonism primarily accentuated the liberty of the philosophers of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, who interpreted the doctrines of Plato without constituting a specific school. Due to this new vision of Middle Platonism, Apuleius' role was difficult to define. It is not uncommon to find that Apuleius the philosopher is completely neglected . The literary character, and especially the 'rhetorical' nature of some of his works and of his personality have probably hurt his reputation in philosophy. These aspects of his personality have however been ever more accentuated in the last few decades within the development of studies on Second Sophistics. Consequently not only have there been few scholars to show interest for Apuleius' philosophical doctrines, but those few who have the opportunity to almost manage his philosophical doctrines usually disregard his literary works. In this way one cannot understand the most specific aspect of his philosophy, which consists in a sort of intermingling of philosophy and literature (a typical attitude of Greek and Latin culture of the 2nd century AD), and above all, of religion and Platonism. The dichotomy between philosophy and literature that was normal in the 19th and 20th centuries therefore still persists in the case of Apuleius. Claudio Moreschini attempted in some way to fill this gap in his 1978 study on Apuleio e il Platonismo. It was obviously in vain. Accordingly, in this book he would like to reflect on the possibility of a synthesis between these two aspects.

Apuleius' Debt to Plato in the Metamorphoses

Apuleius' Debt to Plato in the Metamorphoses
Author: Maeve C. O'Brien
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2002
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

In her very lively and eminently readable book Dr. O'Brien makes a solid case for her core in sight, namely, that the Metamorphoses in fact is a seamless garment, woven from creative imagination and Platonist concerns, and focusing on the abiding issue of discourse. This is an important perspective, and it will significantly enhance future discussion both of Apuleius and of the Platonist tradition. This book is a study of the Metamorphoses of Apuleius of Madaura which takes as its starting point the proposition that Apuleius, as a serious student of Platonism, adopts as a guiding theme in his narrative the distinction between two types of rhetoric, or discourse (logos), first set out by Plato in the Gorgias and the Phaedrus, but later becomes a basic assumption of the Platonic tradition, a 'higher' type, which is based upon a philosophical understanding of the world of Forms and true reality, and employs logos only in the service of a search for the truth, and a 'lower', sophistical, type, which employs every sort of trickery to secure an advantage based on appearance rather than reality. This insight is worked out with considerable ingenuity, and, 1 find, plausibility. After an in

Apuleius' Platonism

Apuleius' Platonism
Author: Richard Fletcher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2014-07-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107025478

Apuleius of Madauros (c.AD 120-180), known to us today for his Latin fiction, the Metamorphoses, was also a Platonic philosopher. This book is the first exploration of his idiosyncratic brand of Platonism across his multifarious literary corpus, contributing to the study of the dynamic between literature and philosophy in antiquity.

A New Work by Apuleius

A New Work by Apuleius
Author: Apuleius
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780198735748

Introduction. Manuscripts and transmission ; Genre, doctrine, and dating ; By Apuleius? ; The Expositio and the Apuleian corpus ; Audience and purpose ; Apuleius as translator ; Edition, translation, commentary -- Text and translation -- Commentary -- Appendix. New evidence for the source of al-Fārābī's Philosophy of Plato / by Coleman Connelly

Apuleius' Invisible Ass

Apuleius' Invisible Ass
Author: Geoffrey C. Benson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2019-05-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108475558

Argues that invisibility is a central motif in Apuleius' Metamorphoses, presenting a new interpretation of this Latin masterpiece.

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity
Author: Harold Tarrant
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 679
Release: 2018-04-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004355383

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity offers a comprehensive account of the ways in which ancient readers responded to Plato, as philosopher, as author, and more generally as a central figure in the intellectual heritage of Classical Greece, from his death in the fourth century BCE until the Platonist and Aristotelian commentators in the sixth century CE. The volume is divided into three sections: ‘Early Developments in Reception’ (four chapters); ‘Early Imperial Reception’ (nine chapters); and ‘Early Christianity and Late Antique Platonism’ (eighteen chapters). Sectional introductions cover matters of importance that could not easily be covered in dedicated chapters. The book demonstrates the great variety of approaches to and interpretations of Plato among even his most dedicated ancient readers, offering some salutary lessons for his modern readers too.

Apuleius

Apuleius
Author: S. J. Harrison
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2004
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0199271380

This book provides the first general account of the works of the Latin writer Apuleius, most famous for his great novel the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass. Living in second-century North Africa, Apuleius was more than an author; he was an orator and professional intellectual, Platonist philosopher, extraordinary stylist, relentless self-promoter, as well as a versatile author of a remarkably diverse body of other work, much of which is lost to us.

Plato's Symposium

Plato's Symposium
Author: Frisbee Sheffield
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2006-07-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191536822

Frisbee Sheffield argues that the Symposium has been unduly marginalized by philosophers. Although the topic - eros - and the setting at a symposium have seemed anomalous, she demonstrates that both are intimately related to Plato's preoccupation with the nature of the good life, with virtue, and how it is acquired and transmitted. For Plato, analysing our desires is a way of reflecting on the kind of people we will turn out to be and on our chances of leading a worthwhile and happy life. In its focus on the question why he considered desires to be amenable to this type of reflection, this book explores Plato's ethics of desire.

Paideia at Play

Paideia at Play
Author: Werner Riess
Publisher: Barkhuis
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2008
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9077922415

Paidea, the yearning for, and display of knowledge, reached its height as a cultural concept in the works of the Second Sophistic, an elite literary and philosophical movement seeking to ape the style and achievements of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. A crucial element in the display of paidea was an ability to mix the witty and playful with the serious and instructive. The Second Sophistic is known as a Greek phenomenon, but these essays ask how the Latin author Apuleius fitted into this framework, and created a distinctively latin expression of paidea, focusing on the elements of playfulness at its heart.