The Philosophy of Gemistos Plethon

The Philosophy of Gemistos Plethon PDF Author: Vojtech Hladký
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317021487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
George Gemistos Plethon (c. 1360-1454) was a remarkable and influential thinker, active at the time of transition between the Byzantine Middle Ages and the Italian Renaissance. His works cover literary, historical, scientific, but most notably philosophical issues. Plethon is arguably the most important of the Byzantine Platonists and the earliest representative of Platonism in the Renaissance, the movement which generally exercised a huge influence on the development of early modern thought. Thus his treatise on the differences between Plato and Aristotle triggered the Plato-Aristotle controversy of the 15th century, and his ideas impacted on Italian Renaissance thinkers such as Ficino. This book provides a new study of Gemistos’ philosophy. The first part is dedicated to the discussion of his 'public philosophy'. As an important public figure, Gemistos wrote several public speeches concerning the political situation in the Peloponnese as well as funeral orations on deceased members of the ruling Palaiologos family. They contain remarkable Platonic ideas, adjusted to the contemporary late Byzantine situation. In the second, most extensive, part of the book the Platonism of Plethon is presented in a systematic way. It is identical with the so-called philosophia perennis, that is, the rational view of the world common to various places and ages. Throughout Plethon’s writings, it is remarkably coherent in its framework, possesses quite original features, and displays the influence of ancient Middle and Neo-Platonic discussions. Plethon thus turns out to be not just a commentator on an ancient tradition, but an original Platonic thinker in his own right. In the third part the notorious question of the paganism of Gemistos is reconsidered. He is usually taken for a Platonizing polytheist who gathered around himself a kind of heterodox circle. The whole issue is examined in depth again and all the major evidence discussed, with the result that Gemistos seems rat

The Philosophy of Gemistos Plethon

The Philosophy of Gemistos Plethon PDF Author: Vojtech Hladký
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317021487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book Here

Book Description
George Gemistos Plethon (c. 1360-1454) was a remarkable and influential thinker, active at the time of transition between the Byzantine Middle Ages and the Italian Renaissance. His works cover literary, historical, scientific, but most notably philosophical issues. Plethon is arguably the most important of the Byzantine Platonists and the earliest representative of Platonism in the Renaissance, the movement which generally exercised a huge influence on the development of early modern thought. Thus his treatise on the differences between Plato and Aristotle triggered the Plato-Aristotle controversy of the 15th century, and his ideas impacted on Italian Renaissance thinkers such as Ficino. This book provides a new study of Gemistos’ philosophy. The first part is dedicated to the discussion of his 'public philosophy'. As an important public figure, Gemistos wrote several public speeches concerning the political situation in the Peloponnese as well as funeral orations on deceased members of the ruling Palaiologos family. They contain remarkable Platonic ideas, adjusted to the contemporary late Byzantine situation. In the second, most extensive, part of the book the Platonism of Plethon is presented in a systematic way. It is identical with the so-called philosophia perennis, that is, the rational view of the world common to various places and ages. Throughout Plethon’s writings, it is remarkably coherent in its framework, possesses quite original features, and displays the influence of ancient Middle and Neo-Platonic discussions. Plethon thus turns out to be not just a commentator on an ancient tradition, but an original Platonic thinker in his own right. In the third part the notorious question of the paganism of Gemistos is reconsidered. He is usually taken for a Platonizing polytheist who gathered around himself a kind of heterodox circle. The whole issue is examined in depth again and all the major evidence discussed, with the result that Gemistos seems rat

Radical Platonism in Byzantium

Radical Platonism in Byzantium PDF Author: Niketas Siniossoglou
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107013038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
A groundbreaking approach to late Byzantine intellectual history and the philosophy of visionary reformer Gemistos Plethon.

George Gemistos Plethon

George Gemistos Plethon PDF Author: Christopher Montague Woodhouse
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This study of the Byzantine philosopher George Gemistos Plethon includes the first complete translation of his treatise, On the Differences of Aristotle from Plato, and summarizes all his other works. Woodhouse emphasizes Plethon's controversy with George Scholarios on the respective merits of Plato and Aristotle and his important impact on the Italian humanists during the Council of Union at Ferrara and Florence in 1438-9. Though Plethon's ambition to create a new religion based on Neoplatonism was never realized, his ideas had a significant influence on the western Renaissance.

The Secret Texts of Hellenic Polytheism

The Secret Texts of Hellenic Polytheism PDF Author: John Opsopaus
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 0738771066
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
A Complete Translation of the Surviving Contents of Plethon's Renaissance-Era Book of Laws George Gemistos (c. 1355–1452), who called himself "Plethon," helped trigger the Renaissance by reawakening an interest in Platonism, but his secret book on its Neopagan theology was burned after his death. Only sixteen chapters of Plethon's Book of Laws escaped the flames and, for the first time ever, they have been translated into English in their entirety. Through translations and commentary by John Opsopaus, PhD, you can immerse yourself in Plethon's complete system of theology and religious practice focused on the Hellenic pantheon and deeply rooted in ancient Greek Paganism. This impressive guide features rituals, prayers, invocations, and hymns for daily and holiday use along with Plethon's complete sacred calendar. Featuring instructions from the Book of Laws on conducting ceremonies, rites, and more, The Secret Texts of Hellenic Polytheism enhances your spiritual practice and understanding of Neoplatonic philosophy.

Philosophy of Religion in the Renaissance

Philosophy of Religion in the Renaissance PDF Author: Mr Paul Richard Blum
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409480712
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
The Philosophy of Religion is one result of the Early Modern Reformation movements, as competing theologies purported truth claims which were equal in strength and different in contents. Renaissance thought, from Humanism through philosophy of nature, contributed to the origin of the modern concepts of God. This book explores the continuity of philosophy of religion from late medieval thinkers through humanists to late Renaissance philosophers, explaining the growth of the tensions between the philosophical and theological views. Covering the work of Renaissance authors, including Lull, Salutati, Raimundus Sabundus, Plethon, Cusanus, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Bruno, Suárez, and Campanella, this book offers an important understanding of the current philosophy/religion and faith/reason debates and fills the gap between medieval and early modern philosophy and theology.

Interpreting Proclus

Interpreting Proclus PDF Author: Stephen Gersh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521198496
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
Stephen Gersch charts the influence of the late Greek philosopher Proclus from his own lifetime down to the Renaissance (500-1600 CE).

Byzantine Philosophy and Its Ancient Sources

Byzantine Philosophy and Its Ancient Sources PDF Author: Katerina Ierodiakonou
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199269718
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Byzantine philosophy is an almost unexplored field. Being regarded either as mere scholars or as primarily religious thinkers, Byzantine philosophers, for the most part, have not been studied on their own philosophical merit, and their works have hardly been scrutinized as works of philosophy.Thus, although distinguished scholars in the past have tried to reconstruct the intellectual life of the Byzantine period, there is no question that we still lack even the beginnings of a systematic understanding of the philosophy of the Byzantines.Byzantine Philosophy and its Ancient Sources is conceived as a concerted attempt in this direction. It examines the attitude the Byzantines took towards the ancient philosophical tradition and the specific ancient sources which they relied upon to form their theories. But did the Byzantines merelycopy ancient philosophers or interpret them the way they already had been interpreted in late antiquity? Does Byzantine philosophy as a whole lack a distinctive character which differentiates it from the previous periods in the history of philosophy?Eleven scholars, representing different disciplines from philosophy and history to classics and medieval studies, approach these questions by thoroughly investigating particular topics which give us some insight as to the directions in which we should look for possible answers. These topics range,in modern terms, from philosophy of language, theory of knowledge, and logic, to political philosophy, ethics, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. The philosophers whose works our contributors study belong to all periods from the beginnings of Byzantine culture in the fourth century to the demiseof the Byzantine Empire in the fifteenth century.

Philosophers of the Renaissance

Philosophers of the Renaissance PDF Author: Paul Richard Blum
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813217261
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Philosophers of the Renaissance introduces readers to philosophical thinking from the end of the Middle Ages through the sixteenth century.

Pagans and Philosophers

Pagans and Philosophers PDF Author: John Marenbon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691176086
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
An ambitious history of how medieval writers came to terms with paganism From the turn of the fifth century to the beginning of the eighteenth, Christian writers were fascinated and troubled by the "Problem of Paganism," which this book identifies and examines for the first time. How could the wisdom and virtue of the great thinkers of antiquity be reconciled with the fact that they were pagans and, many thought, damned? Related questions were raised by encounters with contemporary pagans in northern Europe, Mongolia, and, later, America and China. Pagans and Philosophers explores how writers—philosophers and theologians, but also poets such as Dante, Chaucer, and Langland, and travelers such as Las Casas and Ricci—tackled the Problem of Paganism. Augustine and Boethius set its terms, while Peter Abelard and John of Salisbury were important early advocates of pagan wisdom and virtue. University theologians such as Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, and Bradwardine, and later thinkers such as Ficino, Valla, More, Bayle, and Leibniz, explored the difficulty in depth. Meanwhile, Albert the Great inspired Boethius of Dacia and others to create a relativist conception of scientific knowledge that allowed Christian teachers to remain faithful Aristotelians. At the same time, early anthropologists such as John of Piano Carpini, John Mandeville, and Montaigne developed other sorts of relativism in response to the issue. A sweeping and original account of an important but neglected chapter in Western intellectual history, Pagans and Philosophers provides a new perspective on nothing less than the entire period between the classical and the modern world.

Byzantine Philosophy

Byzantine Philosophy PDF Author: Basil Tatakis
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872205635
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
Western studies tend to view Byzantine philosophy either as a minor offshoot of western European thought, or a handy storehouse for documents and ideas until they are needed. A scholar of philosophy (Aristotle U. of Thessaloniki), Tatakis (1896-1996) finds the view limiting, pointing out that during the Roman period, few Greeks learned Latin but Romans were not considered educated without a founding in Greek, and that Byzantine Christianity has its own trajectory unconcerned with how it deviates from western orthodoxy.