Philo of Alexandria and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy

300 Pages·2008·1.55 MB·English

by  Francesca Alesse (ed.)

Philo of Alexandria
and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy
Studies in Philo
of Alexandria
Editedby
Francesca Calabi
and
Robert Berchman
EditorialBoard
Kevin Corrigan (Emory University)
Louis H. Feldman (Yeshiva University, New York)
Mireille Hadas-Lebel (La Sorbonne, Paris)
Carlos Lévy (La Sorbonne, Paris)
Maren Niehoff (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Tessa Rajak (University of Reading)
Roberto Radice (Università Cattolica, Milano)
Esther Starobinski-Safran (Université de Genève)
Lucio Troiani (Università di Pavia)
VOLUME5
Philo of Alexandria and
Post-Aristotelian Philosophy
Editedby
Francesca Alesse
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2008
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ..................................................... vii
Introduction............................................................ 1
Francesca Alesse
PhiloandHellenisticDoxography.................................... 13
DavidT.Runia
Philoandpost-AristotelianPeripatetics............................... 55
RobertW.Sharples
MosesAgainsttheEgyptian:theanti-Epicurean PolemicinPhilo.. 75
GrazianoRanocchia
LaconversionduscepticismechezPhilond’Alexandrie.............103
CarlosLévy
PhiloonStoicPhysics .................................................121
AnthonyA.Long
PhiloandStoicEthics.ReflectionsontheIdeaofFreedom.........141
RobertoRadice
PhiloofAlexandria onStoicandPlatonistPsycho-Physiology:
TheSocraticHigherGround ......................................169
GretchenReydams-Schils
PhiloofAlexandria andtheOriginsoftheStoicΠΡ(cid:4)ΠΑΘΕΙΑΙ...197
Margaret Graver
PhiloandHellenisticPlatonism.......................................223
JohnDillon
TowardsTranscendence:PhiloandtheRenewal ofPlatonismin
theEarlyImperial Age .............................................233
MauroBonazzi
Bibliography ...........................................................253
IndexLocorum ........................................................265
IndexofAncientNames ..............................................287
IndexofModernNames..............................................289

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The publication of this volume has benefited from a contribution from
the Goren-Goldstein Foundation, Switzerland, and the University of
Milan.ForthisIwishtoexpressmydeepestgratitude toProf.EnricoI.
RambaldiFeldman.
My thanks also go to Prof. Ronald Polansky, Editor of Ancient Phi-
losophy, who authorised the reprint of the article by Prof. Gretchen
Reydams-Schils; to Prof. Verity Harte, Editor of Phronesis, who autho-
risedthereprint ofthearticlebyProf.Margaret Graver.
My heart-felt gratitude goes naturally to all those who have sup-
ported and encouraged this project with their advice and suggestions,
such as Prof. Francesca Calabi, Prof. Michael Erler, Prof. Tullio Gre-
gory,Prof.CarlosLévy.
Finally, I am grateful to the friends and colleagues at the “Isti-
tuto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo”, Consiglio Nazionale delle
Ricerche, for their help in preparing this volume, and for the spirit of
collaboration which they have all demonstrated: Michele Alessandrelli,
M. Cristina Dalfino, Delfina Giovannozzi, Annarita Liburdi, Diana
Quarantotto,LucaSimeoni.

INTRODUCTION
Francesca Alesse
Preliminary remarks
This volume is the result of a project concerning the place held by
the philosophy of the Hellenistic age, or post-Aristotelian philosophy—
from Theophrastus to Eudorus of Alexandria—in Philo’s philosophi-
cal and exegetical works. This appears as part of a much broader and
extremely complex issue, that of the relationship between Philo’s cor-
pus and Greek philosophical traditions. It inevitably touches another
important area of Philonic studies, that of the role played by this out-
standingrepresentative oftheJewish intellectualcommunityin Alexan-
dria in favouring the encounter between Greek philosophy and Scrip-
tureandexploitingtheGreekphilosophicaltraditionsasinstrumentsof
Biblicalinterpretation.1
Interest in the relation of Philo to Hellenistic or post-Aristotelian
philosophicalschoolsandtraditionsisbynomeansrecent,asisdemon-
strated by the seminal works of, for instance, Hans von Arnim, Paul
Wendland, Emile Bréhier and Max Pohlenz;2 indeed, the presence of
1 Just to mention the most recent and comprehensive studies on Philo’s acquain-
tancewithGreekculturalandphilosophicaltraditionsandhisuseofthemasexegetical
instruments:V.Nikiprowetzky,LeCommentairedel’ÉcriturechezPhilond’Alexandrie:soncar-
actèreetsaportée.Observationsphilologiques (Leiden1977);R.Goulet,LaphilosophiedeMoïse:
essai de reconstruction d’un commentaire philosophique préphilonien du Pentateuque (Paris 1987);
R.Radice,PlatonismoecreazionismoinFilonediAlessandria(Milan1989);D.T.Runia,Philo
ofAlexandriaandtheTimaeusofPlato(Leiden1986);C.Lévy(ed.),Philond’Alexandrieetle
langagedelaphilosophie.ActesducolloqueinternationalorganiséparleCentred’études
surlaphilosophiehellénistiqueetromainedel’UniversitédeParisXII–ValdeMarne
(Créteil, Fontenay, Paris 26–28 octobre 1995), (Turnhout 1998). See also The Ancestral
Philosophy.HellenisticPhilosophyintheSecondTempleJudaism,essaysofDavidWinston,ed.
by G.E. Sterling (Providence 2001), chapter 4, and G.E. Sterling, “The Jewish Philos-
ophy:thePresenceofHellenisticPhilosophyinJewishExegesisintheSecondTemple
Period”,inC.Backos(ed.),AncientJudaisminitsHellenisticContext(Leiden–Boston2005),
131–153.
2 H. von Arnim, Quellenstudien zu Philo von Alexandreia, II: Philo und Aenesidem, Berlin
1888; P. Wendland, Philos Schrift über die Vorsehung (Berlin 1892); Philo und die kynisch-