Plutarch

Abstract

Abstract Plutarch sets out to do justice to Plato’s philosophy as a whole, its doctrines as well as its skeptical aspect, but also to defend it from its critics and rivals, Epicureans and Stoics. Plutarch’s Platonic exegesis relies mainly on the Timaeus, which he interprets literally, maintaining that the world has come about from two principles, the demiurge (accounting for order and unity) and the indefinite dyad (accounting for disorder and multiplicity). Plutarch extends principle dualism in psychology and in ethics, maintaining that both the world soul and the human soul have a rational and a nonrational aspect. Plutarch appreciates Plato’s dialectical and aporetic element, and this becomes evident not only in his epistemology but also in that he emulates Plato by writing dialogues and making frequent use of analogies, metaphors and myths. Plutarch anticipates several ideas that we find articulated later in Platonism, especially in Numenius and Plotinus.