The Middle Platonism

In some cases, middle platonists also agree with antiochus in presenting all the non sceptical classical philosophers as a unified tradition. Alcinous is an example, of course. He takes plato to be the greatest of philosophers, but his greatness includes his having supposedly thought of aristotle's and the stoics ideas before they had a chance to do so themselves. All in all, his strategy is to kill the rival schools with kindness. Their best insights are quietly incorporated into a platonist system while other features of their thought are just as quietly dropped.