The Ladder of the Sciences in Late Antique Platonism

Explores new conceptions of ethics, politics, mathematics and metaphysics developed in late antique Platonic philosophy.

Sciences and philosophy developed in new ways in late antiquity, influencing intellectual culture in the Latin West, the Greek East, and the Islamic world. This is the first comprehensive view of this development and of the importance it gave to sciences (ethics, politics, mathematics, metaphysics) for leading a good life.A range of sciences was taught in the Platonist schools of late antiquity (third to sixth centuries) with the purpose of leading the human soul up to a divine life. This curriculum constituted so to speak a ladder of the sciences. The ways in which these sciences were newly interpreted in this context have not, however, been fully appreciated. This volume brings together selected essays, some translated into English for the first time, which show how a new vision of these disciplines and sciences was reached as part of a Platonist philosophical education. They cover a wide range of topics, from rhetoric, ethics and politics to mathematics, music and metaphysics, and discuss the work of various philosophers. Dominic O'Meara is considered one of the foremost scholars of Platonism and this book provides readers with an indispensable tool for accessing his most important scholarship in this area.