The French translation with commentary, the first in a modern language, allows historians of philosophy access to a fundamental work for the understanding of medieval and modern thought. They could also explore more easily the great variety of information contained in the commentary of Simplicius on the history of the exegis of the Categories of Aristotle, and more generally on the history of comparative philosophy of Simplicius. They will discover some important aspects in the actual thought of Simplicius, which so far has hardly been explored.

The French translation with commentary, the first in a modern language, allows historians of philosophy access to a fundamental work for the understanding of medieval and modern thought. They could also explore more easily the great variety of information contained in the commentary of Simplicius on the history of the exegis of the Categories of Aristotle, and more generally on the history of comparative philosophy of Simplicius. They will discover some important aspects in the actual thought of Simplicius, which so far has hardly been explored.

The study of the Elenchos (c. 225 CE) involves the whole range of ancient interpretative traditions concerned with Greek Philosophy, from Aristotle to the Late Neoplatonists. The present inquiry places Hippolytus' important reports about the Greek philosophers in the context of these traditions and so is able to illuminate not only what he has to offer but also to increase our knowledge of the traditions he depends on. For him the Pythagoreanizing current in Pre-Neoplatonism is of paramount importance. Accordingly, he constructs a succession (diadoche) starting with Pythagoras...

Plotinus' fiercely polemical treatise Against the Gnostics has proved peculiarly resistant to modern methods of criticism. So much so, that historians of philosophy frequently end up attributing to Plotinus himself the very beliefs which Plotinus attempts to demolish in his criticism of the Gnostics. Denis O'Brien attempts to unravel this paradox by showing that, in earlier treatises of the Enneads, Plotinus puts forward a theory of the generation of matter by soul, which he then takes for granted in his attack on the Gnostics. This leads to a wholly new understanding of...

The Stoicorum historia (PHerc. 1018) is one book in Philodemus' extensive History of Philosophy. The Epicurean philosopher Philodemus wrote this work during a stay in Italy ca. 70-60 B.C. with the aim of offering learned Romans an objective and unpolemical history of the Greek philosophical schools. Philodemus sketches the lives and times of the main representatives of Stoicism from Zeno of Citium to Panaetius of Rhodes. The Stoicorum historia hands down a mass of information on the lives and thought of the Stoics which is not found in Diogenes Laertius' Lives...

Ways into the Logic of Alexander of Aphrodisias is intended to give an overview of the logic of Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. early 3rd century A.D.). Since much of what might be called Alexander's logic is simply Aristotelian logic, instead of engaging in point-by-point analysis, it takes up three themes, one from each of the main areas of traditional logic: the assertoric syllogistic, the modal syllogistic, and the area of metalogical concerns. It provides insight not only into Aristotle's logical writings themselves but also into the tradition of scholarship which they spawned: the...

Aulus Gellius' accounts of his studies in Athens are a major source for the personality of Taurus the Platonic philosopher of the 2nd century A.D. and besides, give important insights into the history of Platonic school of that time. The present work puts together Gellius' reports on the Middle Platonist for the first time and -- by its detailed commentary -- offers a new understanding of contents, form and methods of his philosophical instructions, of the relationship between teacher and students, and of student life in the 2nd century A.D. in general. By this means numerous topics in...