
HoP 099 - Richard Sorabji on the Commentators
History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
00:00
The Neo-Platonists' Interpretation of Aristotle
Most commentators including Porphyry who you just mentioned are of course neo-Platonists. I suppose that might lead us to expect that their interpretations of Aristotle would in some ways be quite distorted or more interesting because they're reading him from a neo-Platonic point of view. One thing is that they wanted to make Aristotle agree with Plato eventually so he was 'Aristotleized' They interpreted him as believing in a creator god which I don't think is true in any straightforward way. And as believing in an immortal individual human soul you find the creator god idea in Ammonius and Thermistius at least as Thomas Aquinas interpreted the mistius.
Transcript
Play full episode