Neoplatonist philosopher whose short Introduction (Eisagōgē) to Aristotle’s Categories gave the Īsāghūjī its name and its first subject, the five universals.
Life
Porphyry was born in Tyre in Phoenicia. His native name was Malkos, ‘king’, rendered in Greek as Basileus. He studied first in Athens with the Platonist Longinus and then, from 263 to 269, in Rome with Plotinus. In 268 Plotinus advised him to go to Sicily to recover from a depression, and he remained there beyond Plotinus’ death in 270.
Late in life, around 301, he edited Plotinus’ writings as the Enneads and prefaced them with a Life of Plotinus, the main source for both men’s lives. Some sixty works are attributed to him, most now lost or fragmentary, among them a large polemic Against the Christians. He married late in life and wrote a Letter to Marcella for his wife.
Porphyry was more willing than Plotinus to reconcile Aristotle with Plato. He was the first Platonist to write proper on Aristotle’s logical works, and through him the Categories became a basic introductory text in the Neoplatonic schools. His Isagoge became the standard introduction to in Byzantium, the Syriac and Arabic worlds and the Latin West.
Uncertain or disputed
- Birth and death years: SEP gives 234?–305?, GEDSH (Brock) ca. 232–ca. 305, TDV d. 304.
- The date and place of the Isagoge (Sicily, about 268–270) come from the report of the ancient commentators Ammonius, Elias and David as cited in modern reference works; SEP gives no date.
Works
- Isagoge (Eisagōgē, ‘Introduction’); Arabic Īsāghūjī or al-Madkhal إِيسَاغُوجِي — on AristotleIntroduction to Aristotle’s Categories on the five predicables, addressed to Chrysaorius; placed by ancient commentators in his Sicilian years (about 268–270). Translated into Latin (Marius Victorinus, Boethius), Syriac (anonymous early 6th century; Athanasius of Balad, 645) and Arabic (Abū ʿUthmān al-Dimashqī; earlier versions lost). Greek text ed. A. Busse (CAG IV.1, 1887); English translation and commentary by Jonathan Barnes (2003).work
- Commentaries on Aristotle’s Categories — on AristotleA shorter commentary survives; a longer one in seven books, To Gedalius, was known only from fragments until a palimpsest was reported to contain a substantial part of it (SEP).commentary
- Life of Plotinus and edition of the EnneadsAbout 301 CE.edition
Reception
The Isagoge is the only work of Porphyry whose Arabic translation survives (SEP), and the only one translated into Syriac (Brock, GEDSH).
TDV notes that became in the Islamic world the shared name for works written with the same purpose as his book.
Ibn Sīnā reworked the Isagoge in al-Madkhal of al-Shifāʾ and corrected Porphyry on several points, notably the of (Di Vincenzo).
Sources (10)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ‘Porphyry’
- Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, ‘Porphyry (ca. 232 – ca. 305)’ (Sebastian P. Brock)
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, ‘FURFÛRİYÛS’
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, ‘ÎSÂGŪCÎ’ (Abdulkuddüs Bingöl)
- Wikipedia, ‘Isagoge’
- The Logic Museum, ‘Porphyry, Isagoge’
- Porphyry, Introduction, translated with a commentary by Jonathan Barnes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), CiNii catalogue record
- Porphyry, Introduction (Isagoge) to the Categories of Aristotle, older English translation (tertullian.org)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ‘Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy’ (Cristina D’Ancona)
- Silvia Di Vincenzo, ‘Avicenna’s reworking of Porphyry’s “common accident” in the light of Aristotle’s Categories’, Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 27 (2016)