Gaius the Platonist

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Gaius the Platonist (2nd century) was a Greek or Roman philosopher, and a representative of Middle Platonism. Very little is known about him except that he was the teacher of Albinus, who is known to have published a now lost nine-volume summary of Gaius' lectures on Plato.[1] He taught Platonism in the first half of the 2nd century,[2] but almost nothing is known about his philosophical opinions.[3] It has been speculated that the On Plato and His Doctrine written by Apuleius may have been taken from the lectures of Gaius, but this assertion is now seen as dubious.[4] It has also been thought that the anonymous commentary on the Theaetetus of Plato, which is partially extant, may have come from his school.[5] Porphyry mentions that his works were read in the school of Plotinus.[6]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Gerald Sandy, (1997), The Greek World of Apuleius, page 215. BRILL
  2. ^ Gerald Sandy, (1997), The Greek World of Apuleius, page 27. BRILL
  3. ^ Arthur Hilary Armstrong (ed.), 1970, The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, page 15
  4. ^ John M. Dillon, (1993), Alcinous: The Handbook of Platonism, page xi. Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Giovanni Reale, (1990), A History of Ancient Philosophy: The Schools of the Imperial Age, page 212. SUNY Press
  6. ^ Porphyry, Life of Plotinus, 14
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