Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/3rd-century-romans

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Origen the Pagan

3rd century Alexandrian Platonist philosopher

Summary

3rd century Alexandrian Platonist philosopher

Origen the Pagan (; fl. early 3rd century) was a Platonist philosopher who lived in Alexandria. He was a student of Ammonius Saccas and a contemporary of Plotinus in Ammonius's philosophy school in Alexandria. Some researchers posit that this Origen is the very same famous Christian philosopher and theologian Origen of Alexandria, who was educated by Ammonius Saccas. The pagan philosopher is sometimes referred to as Origenes to distinguish him more easily from the Christian Origen.

Origen is mentioned three times in Porphyry's Life of Plotinus, where he is treated much more kindly than the Christian Origen, whom Porphyry disliked. He is also mentioned several times by Proclus, and it is clear that Origen's fellow students Plotinus and Longinus treated him with respect. According to Porphyry, Plotinus estimated him so far as to say that he has nothing to teach him.

The only aspect of his philosophical views which are known is that he did not make the first principle of reality the One beyond intellect and being as Plotinus did, but rather the first principle was the supreme intellect and primary being, which suggests that his views were that of traditional Middle Platonism, rather than the Neoplatonism of Plotinus.

Notes

References

  • A. H. Armstrong, (1967), The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, Pages 198–199. Cambridge University Press.
  • Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, "Origen and the Platonic Tradition," Religions 8, no. 21 (2017), doi:10.3390/rel802002

References

  1. Ramelli, "Origen and the Platonic Tradition"
  2. Edwards, Mark J.. (2022). "Origen". Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
  3. Ramelli, Ilaria L. E.. (February 2017). "Origen and the Platonic Tradition". Religions.
  4. (2018). "Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity". Koninklijke Brill.
  5. Porphyry, ''Life of Plotinus'', chapters iii, xiv, and xx.
  6. Armstrong 1967, p. 198
  7. Proclus, ''In Platonis Theologiam'', ii. 4
  8. Armstrong 1967, p. 199
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

3rd-century-romans 3rd-century-greek-philosophers middle-platonists philosophers-in-ancient-alexandria
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Origen the Pagan — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report