The Middle Platonists 80 B.C. to A.D. 220.

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Back cover slightly rubbed, first four pages detached from adhesive binding, else good and very clean. - From the preface: The period in the history of Platonism which is the subject of this book has received hitherto comparatively little attention. It seems fated to remain in the position of those tedious tracts of the MidWestern United States through which one passes with all possible haste, in order to reach the excitements of one coast or the other. In Platonism, likewise, one tends to move all too hastily from Plato to Plotinus, with, at most, a perfunctory glance at those vast tracts of Academic scholasticism that lie between the two, and which were of such basic importance in the intellectual formation of the latter. It is the purpose of this book to fill, to some extent, that gap. I will try to deal with the figures of the period as far as possible on their own terms, not as dimly seen milestones on the way to Neoplatonism. It has not been an easy task, however, to present a survey that will be coherent and yet stay reasonably close to the frequently exiguous evidence. There really is no body of received opinion on which one can base oneself in what is after all intended to be a relatively �popular� book. In such a book one cannot be forever building up hypotheses step by laborious step; one must try to present conclusions. Inevitably, I have had to dwell upon details, since in many instances these details have not been dwelt upon before. I hope that the reader, appreciating the problems, will be patient. - Wikipedia: John Myles Dillon (born 15 September 1939) is an Irish classicist and philosopher who was Regius Professor of Greek in Trinity College, Dublin between 1980 and 2006. Prior to that he taught at the University of California, Berkeley. He was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens on 15 June 2010. Dillon's area of research lies in the history of Platonism from the Old Academy to the Renaissance, and also Early Christianity. ISBN 0801483166