De Anima

by Iamblichus, John F. Finamore (Translator), John M. Dillon (Translator)

This edition of the fragments of Iamblichus' major work on the soul, "De Anima," is accompanied by the first English translation of the work and a commentary which explains the philosophical background and Iamblichus' doctrine of the soul. Included too are excerpts from the Pseudo-Simplicius and Priscianus (also translated with commentary) that shed further light on Iamblichus' treatise.

Genres: Philosophy, Spirituality

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Iamblichus, also known as Iamblichus Chalcidensis, or Iamblichus of Apamea (Ancient Greek: Ιάμβλιχος, probably from Syriac or Aramaic ya-mlku, "He is king", c. 245–c. 325), was a Syrian Neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.
(wikipedia)

Reviews

[Erick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely an excellent presentation of a fragmentary text. It's mostly made up of commentary but even that was insightful and informative. The actual text of Iamblichus' De Anima is lost and only survives as extracts in Stobaeus.
Iamblichus' work was doxographical and Stobaeus used it for his own doxographical survey. One should keep in mind that Iamblichus' work here only amounts to about 25 pages; 25 pages of Greek text on the left page and 25 pages of English translation on the right. Even though the text is short, it does contain a lot of great information. The translators/commentators do add an additional 10 pages of 2 other works; one by Priscianus and the other by an unknown writer simply called Pseudo-Simplicius. Both those works provide further illumination on Iamblichus' views, so they were a great addition.
Iamblichus basically surveys preceding philosophical opinion on the subject of psuche and provides some of his own views as well. Most of the discussion revolves around the role of psuche as an intermediary between intellect and the world of sense. There is some great discussions regarding imagination and light as well though.
A good portion of the book is commentary, so the potential buyer should be aware of that. I have to say though that the commentary is excellent. It often confirmed how I've been reading the Neo-Platonists. I don't necessarily need that confirmation, but it's good to see that scholars have been catching the same things.
Since very little remains of Iamblichus' body of works, a book like this does help to fill the lacuna. That makes it recommended reading for those interested in Iamblichus and/or Neo-platonism.

[Christopher Plaisance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like every other book I've had the pleasure to read from the SBL, the edition of De Anima is the new standard. It has absolutely everything that a scholar could want: the original Greek text, a modern translation, and copious notes. No one interested in Iamblichus should be without this book. Next to De Mysteriis it is, hands down, the most important of his works.

[Mateusz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Human wisdom is like children’s toys compared to the essence it represents. It is disregarded by fools because of that, embraced by prudent souls for the purpose of opening a greater vista to the power it represents. To intellegize, the soul individuated and fixed in a mortal needs to reflect upon images (condensed experiences), mental formations contained in hermetic imagination that lead through notions into mathematical, or systematic precision that help discover laws that bind the soul to the intelligible whole. All philosophies are allegories of a deeply occulted machinery, that are useful inasmuch as they enable us to reflect and incorporate its laws by practice. The image, though, imagination and experience, and so on - they are conducive to realization, but they are as they are - children’s toys in the gargantuan vastness of phenomena and noumena. An interesting treatise on pneumatology.