Pythagoras Revived: Mathematics And Philosophy In Late Antiquity Paperback

Dominic J. O'Meara

The Pythagorean idea that number is the key to understanding reality inspired Neoplatonist philosophers in the fourth and fifth centuries to develop theories in physics and metaphysics based on mathematical models. The theories produced by this revived interest in Pythagoreanism were to become influential in medieval and early modern philosophy, and this book makes use of some newly-discovered evidence to examine for the first time the development of those theories.

9780198239130

English

Oxford University Press

31-01-1991

264

exemplary study ... O'Meara's treatment of Proclus ... is commendable in its balance, clarity, and judiciousness, as is the whole book. The book is also admirably produced * Ancient Philosophy * This work adds significantly to our understanding of the Neoplatonic tradition and is required reading for scholars in the field of Late Antique philosophy. it is well written, and it will reward the effort of the more general reader as well * Religious Studies Review * Dominic O'Meara has produced a sholarly and sympathetic account of a most enigmatic subject ... Without this study few would recognize the paradigmatic role that mathematics played in Platonic thinkers throughout this period ...This volume provides a fascinating glimpse into an often neglected aspect of Greek philosophy and science. The technical production of the book is high, and the bibliography is thorough * Review of Metaphysics * a scholarly and sympathetic account of a most enigmatic subject ... This volume provides a fascinating glimpse into an often neglected aspect of Greek philosophy and science. The technical production of the book is high, and the bibliography is thorough. * Lawrence P. Schrenk, The Catholic University of America * Pythagoras Revived is ... an accessible and attractively written guide to some of the key developments which characterise the growth of Neoplatonism from Porphyry to Proclus ... It enjoyably purveys an enormous amount of clear and useful information about the output of a whole range of late antique thinkers and about the assessment of it in modern scholarship. * Phronesis * erudite and important * Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, Classical Review * concise and significant monograph ... besides its connoisseur value into some of the obscurer byways of ancient philosophy, this study may prove of great value even for students of early Aristotle, or the Old Academy, who often draw on Iamblichus to a great extent * International Studies in Philosophy, Vol XXXV/I 1993 *