Dexippus: On Aristotle Categories

by John M. Dillon

Dexippus, a pupil or follower of lamblichus, preserves a crucial moment in the Neoplatonist interpretation of Aristotle. Aristotle's" Categories" has been attacked by Plotinus, but Porphyry's defence proved decisive, so that the "Categories" was acceptable as compatible with Platonism and an essential introduction to the Neoplatonist curriculum.
Porphyry's main commentary on the "Categories," however, containing the vital defence, is lost, as is that of his pupil lamblichus. The ideas of these two principal Neoplatonists can be reconstructed, in part, from Dexippus.

156 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1989

About the author

John Myles Dillon (/ˈdɪlən/; 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.