Women and the Female in Neoplatonism

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-90-04-51046-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 30, 314 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 8 g

Reihe: Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition

Sosipatra, Hypatia, Macrina: some of the most famous female philosophers of antiquity were connected to Neoplatonism. But what does it mean to be a woman philosopher in late antiquity? How is the inclusive nature of the Neoplatonic schools connected to their ethical, political, and metaphysical ideas? What role does the religious dimension of late Neoplatonism and the role of women as priestesses play in understanding Neoplatonic women philosophers?

This book offers thirteen essays that examine women and the female in Neoplatonism from a variety of perspectives, paying particular attention to the interactions between the metaphysics, psychology, and ethics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Schultz, Jana

Wilberding, James

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Antike Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Feminismus, Feministische Theorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

Jana Schultz and James Wilberding

Part 1 The Historical Presence of Women in Neoplatonic Schools

1 Diotima, Sosipatra and Hypatia: Methodological Reflections on the Study of Female Philosophers in the Platonic Tradition

Crystal Addey

Part 2 The Status of Women in Neoplatonic Socio-political Theory

2 Women in Plotinus

James Wilberding

3 Marcella and Porphyry

Luc Brisson

4 On the Equality of Women and Men in Late Antique Platonism: Proclus, Julian and Philip the Philosopher

Dominic O’Meara

5 Theodorus of Asine on the Equality of the Sexes: Traces of a Rhetorical Trope in the Fourth Century CE

John Dillon

6 The Myth of Er and Female Guardians in Proclus’ Republic Commentary

Dirk Baltzly

7 Damascius on the Virtue of Women and Their Relation to Men

Jana Schultz

Part 3 Female Principles in Neoplatonic Metaphysics and Science

8 Femininity in Porphyry’s On Abstinence

Miira Tuominen

9 A Match Made in Heaven: The Metaphysics of Aphrodite in Neoplatonic Thinkers

Marije Martijn

10 Neoplatonic Motives in Emperor Julian’s Hymn to the Mother of the Gods

Christoph Helmig

11 Otherwise Than the Father: Night and the Maternal Causes in Proclus’ Theological Metaphysics

Danielle Layne

Part 4 A Concluding Look at Two Christian Neoplatonists

12 Macrina’s Method: Reason and Reasoning in Gregory of Nyssa’s On Soul and Resurrection

Peter Adamson

13 What Did Michael Psellos Say about Women in the 11th Century AD?

Denis Walter

Index Locorum

Index of Names and Subjects

Über Autor(innen)

Jana Schultz, Ph.D. (2016), Ruhr-University Bochum, held a position as a researcher at the Ruhr-University in Bochum from 2016 until 2018, and at the Humboldt University in Berlin from 2018 until 2021. She published Formung und Umwendung der Seele. Eine Rechtfertigung ambivalenter Darstellungen in der Literatur im Rahmen von Platons Politeia (Lang 2017), and articles on Platonism and Neoplatonism.

James Wilberding, Ph.D. (2003), University of Chicago, is Professor of Ancient and Contemporary Philosophy at the Humboldt University Berlin. He is author of Plotinus’ Cosmology: A Study of Ennead 2.1 (2006) and Forms, Souls and Embryos: Neoplatonists on Human Reproduction (2017), and editor of World Soul: A History of the Concept (2021).