Plato's Parmenides and its heritage. Volume 1, History and interpretation from the Old Academy to later Platonism and Gnosticism

Platos Parmenides and Its Heritage presents in two volumes ground-breaking results in the history of interpretation of Platos Parmenides, the culmination of six years of international collaboration by the SBL Annual Meeting seminar, Rethinking Platos Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic and Patristic Reception (20012007). The theme of volume 1 is the dissolution of firm boundaries for thinking about the tradition of Parmenides interpretation from the Old Academy through Middle Platonism and Gnosticism. The volume suggests a radically different interpretation of the history of thought from Plato to Proclus than is customary by arguing against Procluss generally accepted view that there was no metaphysical interpretation of the Parmenides before Plotinus in the third century C.E. Instead, this volume traces such metaphysical interpretations, first, to Speusippus and the early Platonic Academy; second, to the Platonism of the first and second centuries C.E. in figures like Moderatus and Numenius; third, to the emergence of an exegetical tradition that read Aristotles categories in relation to the Parmenides; and, fourth, to important Middle Platonic figures and texts. Contributors to volume 1 include Kevin Corrigan, Gerald Bechtle, Luc Brisson, John Dillon, Thomas Szlezk, Zlatko Plee, Noel Hubler, John D. Turner, Johanna Brankaer, Volker Henning Drecoll, Alain Lernould. Frontmatter Abbreviations (page vii) Introduction (page 1) SECTION 1: PLATO, FROM THE OLD ACADEMY TO MIDDLE PLATONISM 1. The Place of the Parmenides in Plato's Thought and in the Subsequent Tradition (Kevin Corrigan, page 23) 2. Speusippus's Neutral Conception of the One and Plato's Parmenides (Gerald Bechtle, page 37) 3. The Fragment of Speusippus in Column I of the Anonymous Commentary on the Parmenides (Luc Brisson, page 59) 4. Speusippus and the Ontological Interpretation of the Parmenides (John Dillon, page 67) 5. The Indefinite Dyad in Sextus Empiricus's Report (Adversus Mathethematicos 10.248-283) and Plato's Parmenides (Thomas Szlezák, page 79) 6. Plato and Parmenides in Agreement: Ammonius's Praise of God as One-Being in Plutarch's The E at Delphi (Zlatko Pleše, page 93) 7. Moderatus, E. R. Dodds, and the Development of Neoplatonist Emanation (J. Noel Hubler, page 115) SECTION 2: MIDDLE PLATONIC AND GNOSTIC TEXTS 8. The Platonizing Sethian Treatises, Marius Victorinus's Philosophical Sources, and Pre-Plotinian Parmenides Commentaries (John D. Turner, page 131) 9. Is There a Gnostic "Henological" Speculation? (Johanna Brankaer, page 173) 10. The Greek Text behind the Parallel Sections in Zostrianos and Marius Victorinus (Volker Henning Drecoll, page 195) 11. The Chaldaean Oracles and the Metaphysics of the Sethian Platonizing Treatises (John D. Turner, page 213) 12. A Criticism of the Chaldaean Oracles and of the Gnostics in Columns IX and X of the Anonymous Commentary on the Parmenides (Luc Brisson, page 233) 13. The Anonymous Commentary on Plato's Parmenides and Aristotle's Categories: Some Preliminary Remarks (Gerald Bechtle, page 243) 14. Negative Theology and Radical Conceptual Purification in the Anonymous Commentary on Plato's Parmenides (Alain Lernould, page 257) 15. A Criticism of Numenius in the Last Columns (XI-XIV) of the Anonymous Commentary on the Parmenides (Luc Brisson, page 275) References (page 283) Contributors (page 297) Subject-Name Index (page 301) Index Locorum (page 315) V. 1. From Plato And The Old Academy To Middle Platonism -- V. 2. Middle Platonic And Gnostic Texts. Edited By John D. Turner And Kevin Corrigan. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.