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John M Dillon

Trinity College Dublin, Department of Classics, Emeritus

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John Dillon was born on Sept. 15, 1939 in Madison, Wisc. U.S.A., returning to Ireland at the age of 7. He attended school at St. Gerard's School, Bray (1948-53) and Downside School in Somerset (1953-7), before going on to university in Oxford (1957-61), graduating in Classics. After two years in Ethiopia, and some time teaching in Glenstal School, he went to the University of California at Berkeley to pursue a Ph.D. in Greek philosophy. Completing this in 1969, he was invited to join the faculty of the Department of Classics, and remained in Berkeley until 1980, serving as chairman of the department from 1977-80. He then returned to Ireland, to assume the position of Regius Professor of Greek in Trinity College Dublin, a post in which he remained until his retirement in 2006. Elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1983, he served as Senior Vice-President 2001/2, and in 2005 was awarded the Academy's Gold Medal in the Humanities. In 1997 he founded the Dublin Centre for the Study of the Platonic Tradition, based in Trinity College, of which he is still an active member. He is the author or editor of over 30 books in the area of ancient philosophy, and over 170 articles..

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Samford University

University College Cork

Dennis Clark 1953-2024

Hellenic Open University

José Manuel Redondo

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Sarah Iles Johnston

Ohio State University

Akindynos Kaniamos

Esteban Nóstico

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Papers by John M Dillon

Can Theurgy Save the World? Some Thoughts on the 'Divinisation' of Matter in the Philosophy of Iamblichus

Andrei Timotin, La démonologie platonicienne: histoire de la notion de daimon de Platon aux derniers Néoplatoniciens (Philosophia Antiqua, Vol. 128). Leiden: Brill, 2012. Pp. xi + 404. ISBN: 978-90-04-21810-9

The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2013

This book is a considerable achievement, being the first truly comprehensive synthesis of the Pla... more This book is a considerable achievement, being the first truly comprehensive synthesis of the Platonist concept of the daimon from Plato himself through to Late Antiquity-that is to say, at least to Proclus (Damascius is largely ignored, it must be said). It is a considerable work, consisting of an introduction, six chapters, covering in turn every aspect of the theory of daemons, and a conclusion. There is a most useful bibliography, and indices of passages quoted, topics covered, and key words employed. In his introduction, Timotin (hereafter T.) notes first the rather 'fuzzy' nature of the term daimon, until Plato took it up and gave it the more precise connotation of an intermediate and mediating divine being, especially in the famous passage of the Symposium (202e). He states his intention to approach the subject from both an historical and a thematic perspective, specifying the following topics: 1. The relation between daemonology and cosmology; 2. The role of daemonology in the interpretation of religious practice; and 3. The theory of the personal daemon, its nature and functions. He then goes on to give an historiographic survey of previous authorities in the field-such figures as Detienne, Robin, Soury, Heinze, Wilamowitz, and more recently Brenk, Donini, Moreschini, Rodriguez Moreno, and myself. It is interesting, though, that the last general synthesis on the theory of daemons there appears to have been is that of Joseph-Antoine Hild in 1881.1 In the second chapter, 'La notion de daimon dans la littérature grecque jusqu'à Platon', he surveys the various senses in which the term is used in pre-Platonic sources, beginning with its etymology from the root dai-, signifying 'distribute', 'apportion', presumably in the sense of 'apportioner of destinies'. As he notes, daimon can often signify an impersonal divine force, or a divinized destiny, and sometimes even a vengeful spirit. For Hesiod, certain souls, such as those of the Golden Race, can become daimones, and Empedocles and the Pythagoreans envisaged daimones that were powerful spirits inferior to gods, benign or otherwise. Making good use of such authorities as Gernet and Detienne, he sees the term as always signifying the apportionment of destiny, even in the case of minor or personal daemons. Hesiod may have made the former Golden Race, as daimones, 'guardians of mortal men', but T. wishes to identify Plato (particularly in Symp. 203c-e) as the

Plato's Ancient Sources

This is a deliberately provocative title, which may well earn a scolding from our honorand, but i... more This is a deliberately provocative title, which may well earn a scolding from our honorand, but it is one that I believe to possess a certain degree of justification, even though the precise ways in which Plato may have contrived to draw on the sources which I am imputing to him remain obscure to me. I would be prepared to accept, in all three cases which I propose to examine, that it is after all just a case of ‘great minds thinking alike’, but I nonetheless find the connections intriguing. The cases that I have selected comprise two rather basic and comprehensive features of political philosophy, and one particular striking image, relative to the structure of the human soul, but in all three cases, they are of significant importance to Plato’s thought.

Alcinous comes to grips with Plato

Plato on Natural Beauty

Does the philosopher Plato, despite his elevation to a supreme position in the intelligible world... more Does the philosopher Plato, despite his elevation to a supreme position in the intelligible world of the Beautiful itself, or the Idea of Beauty, really exhibit any appreciation of the beauties of nature, or Natural Beauty? The omission of any mention of the beauties of Nature in Diotima's ladder of ascent to the Beautiful Itself in the Symposium leads me to propose that Plato, in line with the sensibility of Greeks of the Classical period in general, does not possess what would later be termed an 'Arcadian' view of the beauties of the natural world; and even in the later Platonist tradition there is little evidence of such sensibility.

Some Passages in the Carmina of James Foullis of Edinburgh

Studies in Scottish literature, 1979

God as Monad in the Divine Names

Dionysius the Areopagite and the Neoplatonist Tradition, 2017

Singing Without an Instrument: Plotinus on Suicide

The Origins of Platonists' Dogmatism

The philosopher Plato, as all his friends would agree was a man of strong views on most subjects,... more The philosopher Plato, as all his friends would agree was a man of strong views on most subjects, but it is a notable fact that, in his published works, he chooses to present these views in a distinctly devious way. The Platonic dialogue, after all, is a literary form designed to advance philosophical positions aporetically and dialectically, not dogmatically. If we derive doctrines from them, it is, so to speak, at our own risk. Nonetheless there is indubitably a body of doctrine associated with the Platonic School. Even within Plato's own lifetime, we have the (admittedly tendentious) testimony of Aristotle as to the existence of certain philosophical principles of Plato which he on occasion 1 terms agrapha dogmata, and which have come to be known as the 'unwritten doctrines'. I have taken up a certain position on these myself, 2 seeking to strike a judicious balance between what I would regard as the extreme views of Harold Cherniss and his followers, such as Leonardo Tarán, on the one hand, and the 'Tübingen School' of Konrad Gaiser, Hans-Joachim Krämer, and their followers (such as Giovanni Reale), on the other. To summarize my position here, I see no problem about there being a body of doctrines, or at least working hypotheses, which do not find their way into the dialogues, except in devious and allusive forms, and that these doctrines, such as that of the derivation of all things from a pair of first principles, a One and an Indefinite Dyad, should be of basic importance to Plato's system; but I see no need, on the other hand, to hypothesise a full body of secret lore, present in the Academy from its inception, which is preserved as a sort of 'mystery' for the initiated. Short of this, however, it seems to me entirely probable that a great deal of philosophical speculation went on in the Academy which does not find its way into a dialogue. After all, Plato never promises to reveal his whole mind in writing-very much the opposite, indeed, if one bears in mind such a text as Phaedrus 275DE, or the following notable passage of the Seventh Letter (341C-E): 3 1 E.g. Met, A 6, 987b29ff. A useful collection both of Aristotelian passages and of Neoplatonic commentaries on them is to be found in H.-J. Krämer, Der Ursprung der Geistmetaphysik, Amsterdam, 1964. 2 The Heirs of Plato (Oxford, 2003), Ch. 1: 'The Riddle of the Academy'. 3 Which I would certainly regard as authoritative (that is to say, emanating from sources in the Old Academy who knew what they were talking about), even if its provenance from the hand of Plato himself is disputed.

Plotinus and the Vehicle of the Soul

Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World, 2013

For a skeptical peripatetic : Festschrift in honour of John Glucker

by John M Dillon and Yosef Z. (Yossie) Liebersohn

Fragment: Plotinus on Voluntary Death, by Elias1

Plotinus: The Enneads

Syrianus polémiste : Métaphysique M et N

Laval théologique et philosophique, 2008

Résumé Contrairement à la plupart des écrits néoplatoniciens sur Aristote, le commentaire de Syri... more Résumé Contrairement à la plupart des écrits néoplatoniciens sur Aristote, le commentaire de Syrianus sur les Livres M et N de la Métaphysique revêt un ton particulièrement polémique. Certes, il s’agit là peut-être d’une réaction prévisible au contenu fortement antiplatonicien de M et N, mais il n’en demeure pas moins que Syrianus choisit délibérément de commenter ces textes-là. À cette fin, il a recours à divers procédés de polémique rhétorique, qu’il manie avec grande habilité. La première stratégie consiste à traiter Aristote avec condescendance, en lui exposant simplement, ainsi qu’à nous, la doctrine platonicienne véritable. Ailleurs, il l’affronte en échangeant sarcasme pour sarcasme. Cependant il lui arrive aussi de chercher à réfuter le Stagirite dans les termes mêmes de ce dernier, en citant Aristote contre Aristote. Je discute quelques exemples de ces trois procédés en les traitant l’un après l’autre puisque chacun présente un intérêt particulier. Je conclus toutefois que ...

Proclus’ Commentary on the Cratylus in Context: Ancient Theories of Language and Naming

The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2011

(J.) Opsomer In Search of the Truth: Academic Tendencies in Middle Platonism. (Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Letteren, Jaargang 60, Nr. 163.) Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1998. Pp. 332. 9065696660

The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 2000

The Early History of the Noetic Triad

Reading Proclus and the <i>Book of Causes</i>, Volume 3, 2022

Iamblichus' de Anima: Text, Translation, and Commentary

Intellect and the One in Porphyry’s Sententiae

The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2010

This article seeks to provide some support for the troublesome report of Damascius in the De Prin... more This article seeks to provide some support for the troublesome report of Damascius in the De Principiis that, for Porphyry, the first principle is the Father of the Noetic Triad—and thus more closely implicated with the realm of Intellect and Being than would seem proper for a Neoplatonist and faithful follower of Plotinus. And yet there is evidence from other sources that Porphyry did not abandon the concept of a One above Being. A clue to the complexity of the situation may be provided by a passage from Proclus (In Parm. 1070, 155ff. Cousin) which criticises him for making the One the subject also of the Second Hypothesis of the Parmenides. Here, I consider a series of passages from Porphyry’s Sententiae which seem to indicate a doctrine of the One essentially faithful to that of Plotinus, but modulated in the direction of closer linkage to the levels of reality below it.

Dillon, Cosmic Truth

I must confess to having a long-standing adversative relation with the concept of truth, particul... more I must confess to having a long-standing adversative relation with the concept of truth, particularly in philosophical and theological contexts, which I recognize as being unreasonable. It is partly due to problems with the etymology of the word in Greek, such as I discuss below. On the level of 'normal', non-philosophical, or nontheological, discourse, the enquiry after the truth of some verbal account, or physical manifestation (such as, perhaps, the cause of an explosion, or the breakdown of a computer) is an attempt to ascertain whether the account given, or the sense-datum received-it might be a sight, a sound, or even a smell-accords with what really is the case, or what really was the cause of the phenomenon. This, I suppose, would constitute a simple form of the 'correspondence theory of truth', but it is not at all what metaphysical or theological seekers after Truth would generally have in mind. What I want to enquire into on the present occasion, is the following: When the Greek philosopher Plato (or through him, Socrates) speaks of 'truth' (alêtheia, to alêthes), what are the connotations of that term, and what does he intimate to us concerning the preferred means of attaining it? My contention would be that the quest for Truth (at least in, so to speak, its capitalized form!) is always for Plato a quest for insight into the structure of reality-a systematic enquiry, which uncovers the way the world works, and the organizing principle or principles behind it. This indeed would not be unreasonable, if, as seems possible, the distinguished philosopher Martin Heidegger was right in his interpretation of the rather mysterious word alêtheia as a sort of negation of lêthê, thus signifying 'an undoing, or peeling away, of the forgetfulness of, or obliviousness to, the true nature of things' (in his case, of Being), with which we are afflicted by reason of the dominance of our normal, 'everyday' (alltäglich), consciousness-that is to say, Unverborgenheit. 1 Heidegger in fact sees Plato's Allegory of the Cave, in the Republic Book 7, as a particularly good representation of this 'forgetfulness', in virtue of which we-the prisoners, as Plato tells us-assume that the shadows being paraded for us on the cave wall are the whole of reality, a level of consciousness from which we have to be forcibly liberated, and dragged upwards out of the 'cave-like dwelling', to view the true state of affairs in the world above. 2 Now, Heidegger's etymology of alêtheia has never, I think, attained

Can Theurgy Save the World? Some Thoughts on the 'Divinisation' of Matter in the Philosophy of Iamblichus

Andrei Timotin, La démonologie platonicienne: histoire de la notion de daimon de Platon aux derniers Néoplatoniciens (Philosophia Antiqua, Vol. 128). Leiden: Brill, 2012. Pp. xi + 404. ISBN: 978-90-04-21810-9

The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2013

This book is a considerable achievement, being the first truly comprehensive synthesis of the Pla... more This book is a considerable achievement, being the first truly comprehensive synthesis of the Platonist concept of the daimon from Plato himself through to Late Antiquity-that is to say, at least to Proclus (Damascius is largely ignored, it must be said). It is a considerable work, consisting of an introduction, six chapters, covering in turn every aspect of the theory of daemons, and a conclusion. There is a most useful bibliography, and indices of passages quoted, topics covered, and key words employed. In his introduction, Timotin (hereafter T.) notes first the rather 'fuzzy' nature of the term daimon, until Plato took it up and gave it the more precise connotation of an intermediate and mediating divine being, especially in the famous passage of the Symposium (202e). He states his intention to approach the subject from both an historical and a thematic perspective, specifying the following topics: 1. The relation between daemonology and cosmology; 2. The role of daemonology in the interpretation of religious practice; and 3. The theory of the personal daemon, its nature and functions. He then goes on to give an historiographic survey of previous authorities in the field-such figures as Detienne, Robin, Soury, Heinze, Wilamowitz, and more recently Brenk, Donini, Moreschini, Rodriguez Moreno, and myself. It is interesting, though, that the last general synthesis on the theory of daemons there appears to have been is that of Joseph-Antoine Hild in 1881.1 In the second chapter, 'La notion de daimon dans la littérature grecque jusqu'à Platon', he surveys the various senses in which the term is used in pre-Platonic sources, beginning with its etymology from the root dai-, signifying 'distribute', 'apportion', presumably in the sense of 'apportioner of destinies'. As he notes, daimon can often signify an impersonal divine force, or a divinized destiny, and sometimes even a vengeful spirit. For Hesiod, certain souls, such as those of the Golden Race, can become daimones, and Empedocles and the Pythagoreans envisaged daimones that were powerful spirits inferior to gods, benign or otherwise. Making good use of such authorities as Gernet and Detienne, he sees the term as always signifying the apportionment of destiny, even in the case of minor or personal daemons. Hesiod may have made the former Golden Race, as daimones, 'guardians of mortal men', but T. wishes to identify Plato (particularly in Symp. 203c-e) as the

Plato's Ancient Sources

This is a deliberately provocative title, which may well earn a scolding from our honorand, but i... more This is a deliberately provocative title, which may well earn a scolding from our honorand, but it is one that I believe to possess a certain degree of justification, even though the precise ways in which Plato may have contrived to draw on the sources which I am imputing to him remain obscure to me. I would be prepared to accept, in all three cases which I propose to examine, that it is after all just a case of ‘great minds thinking alike’, but I nonetheless find the connections intriguing. The cases that I have selected comprise two rather basic and comprehensive features of political philosophy, and one particular striking image, relative to the structure of the human soul, but in all three cases, they are of significant importance to Plato’s thought.

Alcinous comes to grips with Plato

Plato on Natural Beauty

Does the philosopher Plato, despite his elevation to a supreme position in the intelligible world... more Does the philosopher Plato, despite his elevation to a supreme position in the intelligible world of the Beautiful itself, or the Idea of Beauty, really exhibit any appreciation of the beauties of nature, or Natural Beauty? The omission of any mention of the beauties of Nature in Diotima's ladder of ascent to the Beautiful Itself in the Symposium leads me to propose that Plato, in line with the sensibility of Greeks of the Classical period in general, does not possess what would later be termed an 'Arcadian' view of the beauties of the natural world; and even in the later Platonist tradition there is little evidence of such sensibility.

Some Passages in the Carmina of James Foullis of Edinburgh

Studies in Scottish literature, 1979

God as Monad in the Divine Names

Dionysius the Areopagite and the Neoplatonist Tradition, 2017

Singing Without an Instrument: Plotinus on Suicide

The Origins of Platonists' Dogmatism

The philosopher Plato, as all his friends would agree was a man of strong views on most subjects,... more The philosopher Plato, as all his friends would agree was a man of strong views on most subjects, but it is a notable fact that, in his published works, he chooses to present these views in a distinctly devious way. The Platonic dialogue, after all, is a literary form designed to advance philosophical positions aporetically and dialectically, not dogmatically. If we derive doctrines from them, it is, so to speak, at our own risk. Nonetheless there is indubitably a body of doctrine associated with the Platonic School. Even within Plato's own lifetime, we have the (admittedly tendentious) testimony of Aristotle as to the existence of certain philosophical principles of Plato which he on occasion 1 terms agrapha dogmata, and which have come to be known as the 'unwritten doctrines'. I have taken up a certain position on these myself, 2 seeking to strike a judicious balance between what I would regard as the extreme views of Harold Cherniss and his followers, such as Leonardo Tarán, on the one hand, and the 'Tübingen School' of Konrad Gaiser, Hans-Joachim Krämer, and their followers (such as Giovanni Reale), on the other. To summarize my position here, I see no problem about there being a body of doctrines, or at least working hypotheses, which do not find their way into the dialogues, except in devious and allusive forms, and that these doctrines, such as that of the derivation of all things from a pair of first principles, a One and an Indefinite Dyad, should be of basic importance to Plato's system; but I see no need, on the other hand, to hypothesise a full body of secret lore, present in the Academy from its inception, which is preserved as a sort of 'mystery' for the initiated. Short of this, however, it seems to me entirely probable that a great deal of philosophical speculation went on in the Academy which does not find its way into a dialogue. After all, Plato never promises to reveal his whole mind in writing-very much the opposite, indeed, if one bears in mind such a text as Phaedrus 275DE, or the following notable passage of the Seventh Letter (341C-E): 3 1 E.g. Met, A 6, 987b29ff. A useful collection both of Aristotelian passages and of Neoplatonic commentaries on them is to be found in H.-J. Krämer, Der Ursprung der Geistmetaphysik, Amsterdam, 1964. 2 The Heirs of Plato (Oxford, 2003), Ch. 1: 'The Riddle of the Academy'. 3 Which I would certainly regard as authoritative (that is to say, emanating from sources in the Old Academy who knew what they were talking about), even if its provenance from the hand of Plato himself is disputed.

Plotinus and the Vehicle of the Soul

Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World, 2013

For a skeptical peripatetic : Festschrift in honour of John Glucker

by John M Dillon and Yosef Z. (Yossie) Liebersohn

Fragment: Plotinus on Voluntary Death, by Elias1

Plotinus: The Enneads

Syrianus polémiste : Métaphysique M et N

Laval théologique et philosophique, 2008

Résumé Contrairement à la plupart des écrits néoplatoniciens sur Aristote, le commentaire de Syri... more Résumé Contrairement à la plupart des écrits néoplatoniciens sur Aristote, le commentaire de Syrianus sur les Livres M et N de la Métaphysique revêt un ton particulièrement polémique. Certes, il s’agit là peut-être d’une réaction prévisible au contenu fortement antiplatonicien de M et N, mais il n’en demeure pas moins que Syrianus choisit délibérément de commenter ces textes-là. À cette fin, il a recours à divers procédés de polémique rhétorique, qu’il manie avec grande habilité. La première stratégie consiste à traiter Aristote avec condescendance, en lui exposant simplement, ainsi qu’à nous, la doctrine platonicienne véritable. Ailleurs, il l’affronte en échangeant sarcasme pour sarcasme. Cependant il lui arrive aussi de chercher à réfuter le Stagirite dans les termes mêmes de ce dernier, en citant Aristote contre Aristote. Je discute quelques exemples de ces trois procédés en les traitant l’un après l’autre puisque chacun présente un intérêt particulier. Je conclus toutefois que ...

Proclus’ Commentary on the Cratylus in Context: Ancient Theories of Language and Naming

The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2011

(J.) Opsomer In Search of the Truth: Academic Tendencies in Middle Platonism. (Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Letteren, Jaargang 60, Nr. 163.) Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1998. Pp. 332. 9065696660

The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 2000

The Early History of the Noetic Triad

Reading Proclus and the <i>Book of Causes</i>, Volume 3, 2022

Iamblichus' de Anima: Text, Translation, and Commentary

Intellect and the One in Porphyry’s Sententiae

The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2010

This article seeks to provide some support for the troublesome report of Damascius in the De Prin... more This article seeks to provide some support for the troublesome report of Damascius in the De Principiis that, for Porphyry, the first principle is the Father of the Noetic Triad—and thus more closely implicated with the realm of Intellect and Being than would seem proper for a Neoplatonist and faithful follower of Plotinus. And yet there is evidence from other sources that Porphyry did not abandon the concept of a One above Being. A clue to the complexity of the situation may be provided by a passage from Proclus (In Parm. 1070, 155ff. Cousin) which criticises him for making the One the subject also of the Second Hypothesis of the Parmenides. Here, I consider a series of passages from Porphyry’s Sententiae which seem to indicate a doctrine of the One essentially faithful to that of Plotinus, but modulated in the direction of closer linkage to the levels of reality below it.

Dillon, Cosmic Truth

I must confess to having a long-standing adversative relation with the concept of truth, particul... more I must confess to having a long-standing adversative relation with the concept of truth, particularly in philosophical and theological contexts, which I recognize as being unreasonable. It is partly due to problems with the etymology of the word in Greek, such as I discuss below. On the level of 'normal', non-philosophical, or nontheological, discourse, the enquiry after the truth of some verbal account, or physical manifestation (such as, perhaps, the cause of an explosion, or the breakdown of a computer) is an attempt to ascertain whether the account given, or the sense-datum received-it might be a sight, a sound, or even a smell-accords with what really is the case, or what really was the cause of the phenomenon. This, I suppose, would constitute a simple form of the 'correspondence theory of truth', but it is not at all what metaphysical or theological seekers after Truth would generally have in mind. What I want to enquire into on the present occasion, is the following: When the Greek philosopher Plato (or through him, Socrates) speaks of 'truth' (alêtheia, to alêthes), what are the connotations of that term, and what does he intimate to us concerning the preferred means of attaining it? My contention would be that the quest for Truth (at least in, so to speak, its capitalized form!) is always for Plato a quest for insight into the structure of reality-a systematic enquiry, which uncovers the way the world works, and the organizing principle or principles behind it. This indeed would not be unreasonable, if, as seems possible, the distinguished philosopher Martin Heidegger was right in his interpretation of the rather mysterious word alêtheia as a sort of negation of lêthê, thus signifying 'an undoing, or peeling away, of the forgetfulness of, or obliviousness to, the true nature of things' (in his case, of Being), with which we are afflicted by reason of the dominance of our normal, 'everyday' (alltäglich), consciousness-that is to say, Unverborgenheit. 1 Heidegger in fact sees Plato's Allegory of the Cave, in the Republic Book 7, as a particularly good representation of this 'forgetfulness', in virtue of which we-the prisoners, as Plato tells us-assume that the shadows being paraded for us on the cave wall are the whole of reality, a level of consciousness from which we have to be forcibly liberated, and dragged upwards out of the 'cave-like dwelling', to view the true state of affairs in the world above. 2 Now, Heidegger's etymology of alêtheia has never, I think, attained

The Philosopher as Tourist: an Identifiable Tradition

he returned to Ireland at the age of 7. He attended school at St. Gerard's School, Bray and Downs... more he returned to Ireland at the age of 7. He attended school at St. Gerard's School, Bray and Downside School in Somerset before going on to university in Oxford, where he graduated in Classics. After 2 years in Ethiopia, and some time teaching in Glenstal School, he went to the University of California at Berkeley to pursue a PhD in Greek Philosophy. Completing this in 1969, he was invited to join the faculty of the Department of Classics, remaining in Berkeley until 1980, and also serving as chairman of the department from 1977. In 1980, he returned to Ireland to assume the position of Regius

Intellect Sober and Intellect Drunk: Some Reflections on the Plotinian Ascent Narrative1

Trinity College Dublin This paper, which is necessarily highly speculative, and which may well se... more Trinity College Dublin This paper, which is necessarily highly speculative, and which may well seem outrageous to many of Plotinus' admirers-of whom I would certainly count myself as one, even as our honorand is anotheris provoked on the one hand by discussions with colleagues in the field of neurology in Trinity College,2 and on the other hand by the reading of two most stimulating books, the first A Smell of Burning, by Colin Grant, which is a lively and learned account of the treatment of epilepsy down the ages,3 serving as a background to his experiences with his younger brother Christopher, who was afflicted with the condition; the second a rather more controversial, but still most interesting, one, Proof of Heaven, by the American neurologist Eben Alexander.4 My particular focus of interest in this paper is to explore the following question: might there be any excuse for postulating, not only in the case of Plotinus, but of any of those whom one might term 'natural mystics', that the visions they experience of another realm of

Dillon Cosmic Truth

A study of Plato's concept of aletheia in the Republic and elsewhere, and its relation to the anc... more

Intellect Sober and Intellect Drunk: Some Reflections on the Plotinian Ascent Narrative

Trinity College Dublin This paper, which is necessarily highly speculative, and which may well se... more Trinity College Dublin This paper, which is necessarily highly speculative, and which may well seem outrageous to many of Plotinus' admirers-of whom I would certainly count myself as one-is provoked on the one hand by discussions with colleagues in the field of neurology in Trinity College, and on the other hand by the reading of two most stimulating books, the first A Smell of Burning, by Colin Grant, which is a lively and learned account of the treatment of epilepsy down the ages, serving as a

Xenocrates on Plato, Pythagoras and the Poets

A salient feature of the main philosophical schools of Antiquity, in the decades and generations ... more A salient feature of the main philosophical schools of Antiquity, in the decades and generations after their foundation, is the (generally sympathetic) exegesis of the works and thought of their founder, and the (generally critical) exegesis of earlier figures, prior to the foundation of the school in question, whether philosophical or literary. We can see this in the case not only of the Platonic Academy, but of the Peripatetic, Stoic and Epicurean Schools – though the Epicureans are, notoriously, most faithful of all the Schools to their Founder, even as they are savagely critical of all previous thinkers, even the

The Early History of the Noetic Triad

It is argued here that, whatever about Gnosticising anticipations in the Middle Platonic era, the... more It is argued here that, whatever about Gnosticising anticipations in the Middle Platonic era, the theory of a noetic triad of Being-Life-Intellect receives its definitive formulation only in the works of Porphyry, and as such, provides a plausible origin for the fully-developed Christian doctrine of the Trinity

Proclus as Theios Aner

A study of how Proclus' biographer Marinus constructs his master as a divine man, loving the gods... more

Carneades the Socratic.doc

This paper argues that the philosophical position of the 'New Academic' Carneades is largely comp... more

Review of Aeneas of Gaza, Theophrastus, with Zacharias of Mytilene, Ammonius. Ancient Commentators on Aristotle , written by Sebastian Gertz, John Dillon, Donald Russell, IJPT 11.2 2017

by Dennis Clark 1953-2024 and John M Dillon

Book review

Carl O'Brien & John Dillon (eds.) Platonic Love from Antiquity to the Renaissance

by Carl O'Brien, John M Dillon, Max Rohstock, Kevin Flannery, and Paul Richard Blum

Platonic Love-Table of Contents, Aug 31, 2022

Platonic love is a concept that has profoundly shaped Western literature, philosophy and intellec... more Platonic love is a concept that has profoundly shaped Western literature, philosophy and intellectual history for centuries. First developed in the Symposium and the Phaedrus, it was taken up by subsequent thinkers in antiquity, entered the theological debates of the Middle Ages, and played a key role in the reception of Neoplatonism and the etiquette of romantic relationships during the Italian Renaissance. In this wide-ranging reference work, a leading team of international specialists examines the Platonic distinction between higher and lower forms of eros, the role of the higher form in the ascent of the soul and the concept of Beauty. They also treat the possibilities for friendship and interpersonal love in a Platonic framework, as well as the relationship between love, rhetoric and wisdom. Subsequent developments are explored in Plutarch, Plotinus, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Eriugena, Aquinas, Ficino, della Mirandola, Castiglione and the contra amorem tradition.