Elisa Coda

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Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere Università di Pisa

Themistius on ‘Prime Matter’, Aristotle, and the ‘Unwritten Doctrines’ ascribed to Plato

Volume 7 – Byzantine Aristotle
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On close inspection, Themistius’ rephrasing of two passages in Physics IV 2, in which Aristotle compares Plato’s Timaeus and the ‘unwritten doctrines’, suggests that he was guided in his understanding by a loose association with the account of Plato’s Ideas in the Metaphysics. Themistius also interprets Aristotle’s remarks about ‘place’ in Timaeus as pointing to the main feature of ‘prime matter’, namely indetermination.

I

Themistius1 was a prominent figure in education and government in fourth century Constantinople, where he also ran his philosophical school.2 He authored both rhe- torical works (Orationes) and paraphrases of Aristotle’s treatises3 and was even in his lifetime considered a key personality in the philosophical education of the cultured

1.

General presentations of Themistius include, in chronological order: Robert B. Todd, ‘Themistius’, in Catalogus translationum et commentariorum, vol. VIII, eds Virginia Brown et al. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 57–102; Elisa Coda, ‘Themistius, Arabic’, in Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy, ed. Henrik Lagerlund, (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011), 1260–66; Jacques Schamp, Rob- ert B. Todd, and John Watt, ‘Thémistios’, in Dictionnaire des Philosophes Antiques VI, ed. R. Goulet (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2016), 850–900; Michael Schramm, ‘Themistios (§ 40)’, in Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Die Philosophie der Antike 5/1: Philosophie der Kaiserzeit und der Spätantike, eds Christoph Riedweg, Christoph Horn, and Dietmar Wyrwa, (Basel: Schwabe, 2018), 410–427, 451–455 (bibliography).

 

2.

From about 345 CE, Themistius taught at Nicomedia; later on, at Constantinople: cf., Or. 31 and Or. 24, 302C–303A.

 

3.

According to some, Themistius also authored commentaries properly speaking: cf., Carlos Steel, ‘Des commentaires d’Aristote par Thémistius?’, Revue philosophique de Louvain 71 (1973): 669–80; against this hypothesis, cf., Henry J. Blumenthal, ‘Photius on Themistius (Cod. 74): Did Themistius Write Commentaries on Aristotle?’, Hermes 107 (1979): 168–82; John Vanderspoel, ‘The Themistius’ Collection of Commentaries on Plato and Aristotle’, Phoenix 43 (1989): 162–4.