Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

DAMASCIUS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 784 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

DAMASCIUS , the last of the Neoplatonists, was See also:

born in See also:Damascus about A.D. 480. In his See also:early youth he went to See also:Alexandria, where he spent twelve years partly as a See also:pupil of See also:Theon, a rhetorician, and partly as a See also:professor of See also:rhetoric. He then turned to See also:philosophy and See also:science, and studied under Hermeias and his sons, Ammonius and See also:Heliodorus. Later on in See also:life he migrated to See also:Athens and continued his studies under See also:Marinus, the mathematician, See also:Zenodotus, and Isidore, the dialectician. He became a See also:close friend of Isidore, succeeded him as See also:head of the school in Athens, and wrote his See also:biography, See also:part of which is preserved in the Bibliotheca of See also:Photius (see appendix to the See also:Didot edition of See also:Diogenes Laertius). In 529 Justinian closed the school, and Damascius with six of his colleagues sought an See also:asylum, probably in 532, at the See also:court of See also:Chosroes 1(., See also:king of See also:Persia. They found the conditions intolerable, and in 533, in a treaty between Justinian and Chosroes, it was provided that they should be allowed to return. It is believed that Damascius settled in Alexandria and there devoted himself to the See also:writing of his See also:works. The date of his See also:death is not known. His See also:chief See also:treatise is entitled Difficulties and Solutions of First Principles ('Aaopiac Kai xbvets aepi rwv apc'aTwv apxCev). It examines into the nature and attributes of See also:God and the human soul.

This examination is, in two respects, in striking contrast to that of certain other Neoplatonist writers. It is conspicuously See also:

free from that See also:Oriental See also:mysticism which stultifies so much of the later See also:pagan philosophy of See also:Europe. Secondly, it contains no polemic against See also:Christianity, to the doctrines of which, in fact, there is no allusion. Hence the See also:charge of impiety which Photius brings against him. His See also:main result is that God is See also:infinite, and as such, incomprehensible; that his attributes of goodness, knowledge and See also:power are credited to him only by inference from their effects; that this inference is logically valid and sufficient for human thought. He insists throughout on the unity and the indivisibility of God, whereas See also:Plotinus and See also:Porphyry had admitted not only a Trinity, but even an Ennead (nine-See also:fold See also:personality). Interesting as Damascius is in himself, heis stillmoreinteresting as the last in the See also:long See also:succession of See also:Greek philosophers.

End of Article: DAMASCIUS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
DAMASCENING, or DAMASKEENING 		[next]
DAMASCUS

Site © 2006 - Net Industries