Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 31

17 June 2024

Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 31

1.  I watched a few videos on youtube recently about the ruins of Plato’s Academy.  I think some of them have been stimulated by the recent reading of a scroll from Herculaneum that tells us exactly where on the grounds of the Academy Plato was buried.

There is very little remaining.  Sulla’s destruction of the Academy, which was outside the walls of Athens and therefore vulnerable, was thorough.  And it doesn’t appear that the re-establishment of the Academy in later centuries was at the same place; at least no one suggested that.

One video maker spoke about how disappointed he was that there wasn’t more done in a public way to indicate what went on there since it was so significant for Western culture; he sounded a bit melancholy.

This started me thinking about how Platonism doesn’t seem to be interested in monumental architecture.  Many spiritual traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Greek and Roman Paganism, and so forth, are.  But I’m not aware of Platonism putting its energies into building a Platonic equivalent of some of the massive temple complexes of Buddhism or the famous Cathedrals of Christianity.

I think this reflects the emphasis on contemplation as an interior journey rather than an exterior presentation.  With such an emphasis it is the Dialogues and Enneads which are the equivalents of the exterior monuments of other spiritual traditions.

The teaching locations for Platonism seem to be ephemeral; the Academy at Athens, the house where Plotinus taught, Hypatia’s garden, and so forth.  I think this reflects the Platonist understanding that the material realm, and all things in that realm, are inherently unstable and that the foundation of Platonism is not to be found there.

2.  I finished my reading of the Enneads for this year this morning.  It felt very satisfying.  The last Ennead, Ennead VI.9, feels like the last chord of a great symphony followed by an awesome silence.

3.  The continuity of the Platonic tradition is the continuity of eternity. 

4.  I have toyed with the idea of writing an ‘Answer to Iamblichus’.  The idea is to imagine how Porphyry might have responded to Iamblichus’s critique of Porphyry’s ‘Letter to Anebo.’  Porphyry didn’t pen such a response; I suspect that Porphyry felt that his ‘Letter to Anebo’ was clear enough and he didn’t feel a need to add anything.  A second reason, I feel, is that the tone of Iamblichus’s critique is very sharp, dismissive, and at times agitated.  That’s not a good ground for further discussion.

Vegetarianism was of great importance to Porphyry; he considered this practice as foundational for a philosophical life, as did the Platonic tradition as a whole.  But Iamblichus vehemently opposed this perspective on the grounds that some theurgic practices require blood sacrifices, meaning the sacrifice of animals, in order for the theurgic ritual to be effective.  It is this kind of focus that I would like to deal with in an imagined response to Iamblichus.

I don’t know if I will have the time to bring such a project to fruition, but it’s been fun thinking about it.

5.  Haiku

Summer days – The way

The sun sets behind the hill

Is like a blessing.