Members-only podcast episode

Michæl Griffin on the Higher Virtues in Late Platonism

Some divine mania, as depicted on an amphora [image courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET DT272)]

This is a special podcast episode for SHWEP members only

We know that the Late Platonists were interested in exploring what they viewed as the higher ‘realms’ of reality: the noetic reality, containing the archetypes of our lower world, and potentially a more unified ‘plane’ of ultimate unity beyond that noetic hyperkosmos. The podcast thus far has examined this quest in terms of self-transformation, in terms of epistemological theory, in terms of the deployment of apophatic strategies of unsaying. But we have not really considered the Platonist ascent from the perspective of the ‘scale of virtues’ as the Platonists understood it.

Not really, that is, until now.

Michæl Griffin has thought long and hard about the virtues (aretai) as theorised among Platonists. In this interview with him we examine the question ‘What’s esoteric about the virtues in later Platonism?’ and come up with some very interesting answers. We begin by running up the scale of virtues roughly as laid out by Iamblichus, whose seven-fold schema would be the master-model for later Platonists (and here interested listeners will want to consult the chart below, which lays it out schematically). We then have a look at the seemingly-different ways in which the post-Iamblichean Platonists like Hermeias, Marinus, Olympiodorus, and others describe (or pointedly fail to describe) the highest level(s) of virtue, the ones where the human self doesn’t mean what it normally does, and where words tend to fail us. Here we find theurgic ritual, but also self-divinisation, and a host of exotic states of consciousness/being, often ‘undescribed’ by means of apophatic language.

Interview Bio:

Michæl Griffin is Professor of Classics and Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, co-editor (with Richard Sorabji) of the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series, and generally a very busy man.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary:

Ammonius’ deal with the Christian authorities: Damascius Philosophical History/Life of Isidore fr. 118B Athanassiadi = E179, F316 Zintzen= Photios 292 + 197.

Damascius on the different paths to wisdom, contemplative and hieratic: In Phd. 123, 113 ff; Philosophical History 4a-c Athanassiadi = fr. 3 Zintzen = Suda II 613, 14 and IV 267, 18 (s.v. ἱερατική and Πυθαγόρας).

Secondary:

Christoph Helmig and Antonio Vargas. Ascent of the Soul and Grades of Freedom: Neoplatonic Theurgy between Ritual and Philosophy. In Pieter d’Hoine and Gerd Van Riel, editors, Fate, Providence, and Moral Responsibility in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Thought: Studies in Honour of Carlos Steel, pages 253-66. Leuven University Press, Leuven, 2014.

Anne Sheppard. Proclus’ Attitude to Theurgy. Classical Quarterly, New Series 32(1):212-24, 1982.

Richard Sorabji. Divine Names and Sordid Deals in Ammonius’ Alexandria. In Andrew Smith, editor, The Philosopher and Society in Late Antiquity. Essays in Honour of Peter Brown, pages 20313. Swansea, 2005.

Essential Reading to Follow Along with the Interview:

Charts Illustrating the Virtues in Post-Iamblichean Platonism

Reading for SHWEP Special Episode Michæl Griffin on the Higher Virtues in Late Platonism