Plato in the Third Sophistic by Fowler Ryan C.;

Author:Fowler, Ryan C.; [Fowler, Ryan C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter, Inc.
Published: 2014-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

5. Conclusion

The discussion above has shown that Eusebius is not a Platonist whose drive was to interpret Plato alone, as was the case for contemporary pagan Platonists. His motivation rather was to interpret Plato for the sake of Christianity. But his motivation is due to a certain understanding of Plato’s philosophy, according to which the main doctrines of Plato’s philosophy are very similar to Christianity. To the extent that this is the case, he considers Plato’s philosophy as being essentially true as such. In this capacity Eusebius shows features of a brand of Platonist identity. There is a number of other features which point to this philosophical identity. He distinguishes between an intelligible and a sensible realm in ways similar to those of Platonist interpreters like Numenius and he endorses a hierarchical ontology that is again quite similar to that of Numenius and Plotinus. Besides, Eusebius favors a literal interpretation of the Timaeus, which he finds in Platonists like Atticus. Furthermore, he sides quite strongly with Plato against Aristotle, and by doing this he again takes sides in an ongoing debate among Platonists. On the last two issues he opposes Porphyry, the author of Against Christians and one of his main adversary. Porphyry’s position on these two issues may have provided additional reasons for Eusebius’ hostility to him.

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