John M. Rist – författare

Until the nineteenth century it was common to assume that philosophers said more or less the same things throughout their lives. Such an attitude led their successors to turn their thoughts into harmonious systems which, though often of great philosophical interest, failed to reflect the detailed richness of a philosopher’s thought at any specific period in his life. In more recent times the study of a philosopher’s growth has often provided a greater understanding of what puzzled him, what problems he was trying to solve, and why he attempted to solve them the way he did.

For Aristotle such an approach has led to many advances in our knowledge, but conflicting ‘readings’ have led to confusion and a tendency to revert to more systematic treatments. In an effort to confront this situation John Rist attempts to chart Aristotle’s philosophical progress, using the techniques of both philology and philosophical analysis. His aim is to see where Aristotle came from philosophically and what impelled him to develop his ideas in particular directions.

The first chapter is an overall account of Aristotle’s philosophical activities as his life progressed; the remaining sections discuss in detail the development of such key themes as the possibility of metaphysics, activity and potentiality, categories, mind, substance, God, human nature and happiness, and the nature of society, including the proper role for women and the phenomenon of slavery.

This study makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the development of ancient Platonism and of the influence of Greek philosophy on Christian thought. The author examines a number of themes such as Eros, Virtue, and Knowledge in the writings of Plato himself, and shows that, in our interpretation of them, we must recognize certain latent contradictions; his successors, however, attempted, not always successfully, to form a synthesis of Platonic theory based on the genuinely Platonic motif of the attaining of likeness to God.

The author skilfully demonstrates that Plato’s thought contained within itself unresolved, but philosophically fruitful divergences of opinion on the highest topics; the Good, the nature of love, the aim of the life of virtue. The author suggests that the unity of Plato’s thought consists only in certain general beliefs, such as that there are supra-sensible realities and that some aspect of the human soul is immortal. He protests, in passing, against those who look on Plato as the author of a series of tracts; one on the Theory of Forms, one on Aesthetics, another on Statesmanship, and so on.

Many of Plato’s successors, including Plotinus and Origen, assumed that they could “explain” or “correct” his “system” as though it were a compact and unified whole. Accordingly, they took parts of that supposed system out of context and welded them into their own theories. In doing so, by the very production of a system that was seldom self-contradictory and indistinct in detail, they were unplatonic even when expounding parts of the Platonic corpus. This study is thus an important contribution to Plotinian studies and it throws a fresh light on the works of Origen. To understand in particular instances the way Plotinus and Origen handled the Platonic originals and developed Platonic themes is a major object of this book.

Written with clarity, vigour, and considerable dialectical skill, the book will interest not only professional classicists and those theological thinkers who value and attempt to understand the effect of Platonism on Christianity, but also other readers who are aware of the continual importance of the Platonic tradition in Western modes of thought.