Porphyry
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Porphyry: On Abstinence from Killing Animals (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
Porphyry
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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- A Pagan's Perspective on Christianity
- Masterful and Ancient, debunking of Christianity
- A unique ancient perspective
- the fraud exposed
- It's a shame the original work is lost
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Porphyry's Against the Christians: The Literary Remains
Porphyry
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
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ASIN: 0879758899 |
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A Pagan's Perspective on Christianity.......2006-11-25
This was an interesting look at Christianity from the perspectives of the Roman/Greek pagans. The only way to remove Porphyry's 15 book work refuting Christianity was to burn them as well as the 30 book reply by Apollnarius and other Christian works which referenced Porphyry directly.
Evidently, Porphyry's work included refutations based on geography referenced in the Gospels, as well as Babylonian law texts 'borrowed' to flesh out the five books of Moses during the Babylonian period, etc. The quotes that have survived have been paraphrased to hide their source and survived in lesser known works. This book is interesting from its historical perspective. I have to admit it was refreshing to hear a defense of Idolatry, the folly of worshiping a criminal and the hypocrasy of celibacy, as since Peter was married (1 Cor. 9:5). Porphyry's criticisms are unique because unlike Celsus, he had studied the gospel writings in significantly more depth (since he was a former convert?).
The Epilogue wasn't bad - it was carefully written and researched, though more footnoting would help.
The book gave me a new perspective on the debate. It is regrettable a form of Graeco-Roman polytheism did not survive to the modern era. Its debate adds new depth to religious thought. Its disappointing to hear from other reviewers that this book would only appeal to 'Christian haters'. This accessment is wrong. However, if you have a hard time reading opposing ideas about 'biblical difficulties', you probably should not read the book.
Because of the dilution of Porphyry's words, and the selection of words design to annoy rather than enlighten, the quotes are not as razor sharp as they should be. You get what survived the intellectual purge and the reason why to evaluate them afresh.
Masterful and Ancient, debunking of Christianity.......2006-03-09
A priceless refutation of both Christianity and Judaism by one of the most astute minds of the third century A.D. Mid-East. Given Christianity's indelible record of death and destruction, its refreshing to examine opposing views of the religion of Christ, from a period before the west completely succumbed to Christianity's barbarous hordes. The pagans have been so maligned in Christian literature and practice, most people are unaware of the depth of their philosophical insight and the logical clarity by which they dismantled the blind faith based Christian religion and its equally questionable parent, Judaism. Read this book and learn how an accomplished thinker of this era viewed these then revolutionary religions, as they bludgeoned and conspired their way to the dominant positions they occupy today.
A unique ancient perspective.......2005-01-26
This book presents a reconstruction of Porphyry's third century work "Against the Christians" taken from the (probably 4th century) text of Macarius Magnes. The excerpts by Porphyry are divided thematically and are accompanied by references to the biblical passages he was referring to. Because almost no anti-Christian works survive from antiquity, this reconstruction is particularly valuable as an insight into how 'pagan' or non-Christian philosophers may have viewed Christianity. Porphyry was obviously familiar with Christian teaching and scriptures, and composed a sophisticated refutation of its doctrine. There were clearly many who were deeply familiar with Christian doctrine and did not reject it out of ignorance. This book would primarily be important for studies on early Christianity, the persecutions and the religion's spread, as well as for philosophy. Because this is one of the only extant philosophical sources that was directed against Christianity. the work is essential reading for Christian-'pagan' relations in the empire. The epilogue to the book may provide a useful background for someone unfamiliar with the context. The translation is good, and the book well-organized and easy to go through. Definitely recommended.
the fraud exposed.......2004-12-30
Porphyry is one of history's most astute minds. Our understanding of Aristotle (for instance his Categories) would be much poorer without Porphyry's commentaries. His employment of Alexandrian critical methodology utilised historical analysis to arrive at an understanding of mythical & pseudo historical texts. One such critique by Porphyry exposed a popular book on Persian religious practice, the "Zosimus", to be a recent book and therefore a fraud. He also analysed the Odyssey concluding that its stories were to be interpreted as allegories. Employing this very same technique, he demonstrated christian mythology to be a series of unhistorical myths. Where-as the god of Greek philosophy (as posited by Aristotle for instance), employed logic and argument to arrive at the "unmoved mover", the Christians demanded that their god be accepted solely on the basis of unquestioning and blind acceptance. In this world of Greek thought, the bible's myths had no chance of survival. (It is not without reason that the Christian's holy book states in 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 "Jews demand miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom, but we teach Christ crucified... the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom" and 1 Corinthians 3:19-20 "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight... 'The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.'")
Porphyry's work it should be noted was written in the context of the philosophical debates of his times, like those of Stoics refuting Epicureans (& vice versa), even the debates between (pagan) Simplicius and (Christian) Philoponus (later) in the fifth & sixth centuries. That Christianity is a fraud was evidently already known in antiquity. Had Porphyry been heeded humanity may have been spared considerable suffering. One amazon reviewer suggests emotively that it is anti-semitic - one suspects solely on the grounds that it critiques what are essentially jewish myths. The same critic even goes so far as to claim that this book will only be appreciated by "Christian-haters". These claims need to be seriously addressed and corrected.
Criticism of Christianity cannot ever make Porphyry's text anti-semitic. Indeed it was on Christianity's exhortation that the greatest acts of anti-semitism have been perpetrated because the christian religion is founded on anti-semitism, refer: 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16.
(One can go further; Hitler's entire campaign to eliminate Jews was a Christian one. Hitler wrote in his Mein Kampf that it was his Christian duty not to tolerate Jews or breed with them; that it "is a sin against the will of the Eternal creator" (p.391 the Manheim translation of Mein Kampf); and that Christian intolerance has been Christianity's greatest strength - and begrudgingly acknowledges this intolerance to itself be Jewish (pp. 412-413, Manheim translation of Mein Kampf). Hitler's Mein Kampf does not name the actual biblical passages that demand intolerance, but they can be found in the Old Testament (especially Deuteronomy 20:16 - as well as other passages, eg, Numbers 33: 51-56, Deuteronomy 12:2-3, etc); and the passages on racial purity can be found in Ezra 9:1-2 & Ezra 10:1-4. In p. 598 (of the Manheim translation) Hitler stated that his aim was to re-start where the Germans left off 600 years earlier - that is, restart the Christian Crusades of the Teutonic Knights!)
It pays to remember that a translation of any writing carries with it certain conventions. One convention that was thankfully abandoned centuries ago is the "de verbo ad verbum" (word for word) translation which rendered texts unintelligible in translation. On this basis, for instance, a modern translation of Plato's use of the greek word "idea" instead now translates "idea" as "forms" to render its greek meaning unencumbered by modern english assumptions on the word. Similarly, the greek word "historia" although literally "history" (in english) would lose the greek meaning of the word: that the history itself has either been WITNESSED by the author (eg Herodotus/ Thucydides), or those the author is quoting from (eg Polibius).
That Porphyry successfully exposed Christian doctrine to be a fraud can possibly be best attested to by the scurrilous reactions to his doing so. It should be noted that Theodosius' edict to have the book burnt was an act emulated in the book-burnings by that other Christian embarrassment, Hitler, (over) one and a half millennia later.
It should be embarrassing to christians that most of Porphyry's other writings on logic were used without interruption by both christians and non-christians: thus Porphyry's logic was sound when used in non-Christian subjects, but the same logic applied to Christianity was flawed!
It's a shame the original work is lost.......2003-11-25
This is a fascinating look at early criticism of Christianity from the Roman perspective. Obviously, the material Hoffmann brought together in this volume represent mere fragments of the original 15 books Porphyry composed against the Christians (all copies of the original work were ordered burned by the Church in 448). It is nonetheless interesting to read Porphyry's extant criticisms of the inconsistencies, contradictions, and absurdities found in the Christian gospels.
The epilogue Hoffmann includes for context on Jewish, Christian, Pagan interaction in the 3rd century is worth the cover price.
Book Description
George Karamanolis breaks new ground in the study of later ancient philosophy by examining the interplay of the two main schools of thought, Platonism and Aristotelianism, from the first century BC to the third century AD. From the time of Antiochus and for the next four centuries Platonists were strongly preoccupied with the question of how Aristotle's philosophy compared with the Platonic model. Scholars have usually classified Platonists into two groups, the orthodox ones and the eclectics or syncretists, depending on whether Platonists rejected Aristotle's philosophy as a whole or accepted some Peripatetic doctrines. Karamanolis argues against this dichotomy. He argues that Platonists turned to Aristotle only in order to discover and elucidate Plato's doctrines and thus to reconstruct Plato's philosophy, and they did not hesitate to criticize Aristotle when judging him to be at odds with Plato. For them, Aristotle was merely auxlilary to their accessing and understanding Plato. Platonists were guided in their judgement about Aristotle's proximity to, or distance from, Plato by their own assumptions about what Plato's doctrines were. Also crucial for their judgement were their views about which philosophical issues particularly mattered. Given the diversity of views rehearsed in Plato's works, Platonists were flexible enough to decide which were Plato's own doctrines. The real reason behind the rejection of Aristotle's testimony was not to defend the purity of Plato's philosophy, as Platonists sometimes argued in a rhetorical fashion. Aristotle's testimony was rejected, rather, because Platonists assumed that Plato's doctrines were views found in Plato's work which Aristotle had discarded or criticized. The evaluation of Aristotle's testimony on the part of the Platonists also depends on their interpretation of Aristotle himself. This is particularly clear in the case of Porphyry, with whom the ancient discussion reaches a conclusion which most later Platonists accepted. While essentially in agreement with Plotinus's interpretation of Plato, Porphyry interpreted Aristotle in such a way that the latter appeared to agree essentially with Plato on all significant philosophical questions, a view which was dominant until the Renaissance. Karamanolis argues that Porphyry's view of Aristotle's philosophy guided him to become the first Platonist to write commentaries on Aristotle's works. Plato and Aristotle in Agreement? offers much food for thought to ancient philosophers and classicists.
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Advances in Geology of the Porphyry Copper Deposits
Spencer Titley
Manufacturer: Univ of Arizona Pr
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Porphyry Introduction (Clarendon Later Ancient Philosophers)
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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- On Aristotle's Categories (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
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ASIN: 0199288690 |
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The Introduction to philosophy written by Porphyry at the end of the second century AD is the most successful work of its kind ever to have been published. It was translated into most respectable languages, and for a millennium and a half every student of philosophy read it as his first text in the subject. Porphyry's aim was modest: he intended to explain the meaning of five terms, 'genus', 'species', 'difference', 'property', and 'accident' - terms which he took to be important to Aristotelian logic and metaphysics, and hence to philosophy in general. Thus in principle the Introduction is simple and elementary. In fact, there are sometimes difficulties and doubts on the surface of the text - and beneath the surface there are frequent depths or profundities. The work raises, directly or indirectly, a number of perennial philosophical questions. In addition, the Introduction became, in Boethius's Latin translation, the point of reference for one of the longest-lasting of philosophical disputes - the dispute over the status of 'universals'. This book contains a new English translation of the Introduction, preceded by a study of the life and works of Porphyry, the purpose and nature of the Introduction, and the history of the text. It is accompanied by a discursive commentary the primary aim of which is to analyse and assess the philosophical theses and arguments which the Introduction puts forward. (But there are also numerous notes of a more philological or historical turn.) The twentieth century turned away from Aristotelian logic, and the Introduction lost its position on the syllabus. Barnes does not argue that it should be put back in its old place; but his commentary - the first to be published in English, and the fullest to be published for a century - suggests that there is blood in the old man yet. CLARENDON LATER ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS General Editors: Jonathan Barnes and A. A. Long This series, which is modelled on the familiar Clarendon Aristotle and Clarendon Plato series, is designed to encourage philosophers and students of philosophy to explore the fertile terrain of later ancient philosophy. The texts range in date from the first century BC to the fifth century AD, and will cover all the parts and all the schools of philosophy. Each volume contains a substantial introduction, an English translation, and a critical commentary on the philosophical claims and arguments of the text. The translations aim primarily at accuracy and fidelity; but they are also readable and accompanied by notes on textual problems that affect the philosophical interpretation. No knowledge of Greek or Latin is assumed.
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Aristotle's Categories and Porphyry (Philosophia Antiqua 48)
Christos Evangeliou
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
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ASIN: 9004085386 |
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On Aristotle's Categories (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
Porphyry
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham
Manufacturer: Hackett Pub Co Inc
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ASIN: 0872202496 |
Book Description
1926. This edition contains both Volume I and II of this work. Plotinus is considered to be the founder of Neo-Platonism. Taking his lead from his reading of Plato, Plotinus developed a complex spiritual cosmology involving three hypostases: the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul. The philosophy of Plotinus is represented in the complete collection of his treatises, collected and edited by his student Porphyry into six books of nine treatises each. For this reason they have come down to us under the title of the Enneads. See other works available by this author from Kessinger Publishing. Other volumes in this set are ISBN(s): 1419185063.
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