1. Adina Bezerita: What role has wisdom, Sophia, played in your life and chosen profession?
Prof. John Dillon: All I can say to that is that it has always pleased me to think that there is a female principle inherent in the divinity (represented by Philo of Alexandria’s Sophia), representing the Hebrew ruah, which has been systematically obscured in the Greco-Roman Christian tradition for both grammatical and chauvinistic reasons; viz. pneuma in Greek is neuter, and spiritus in Latin is masculine. The central, dynamic element in the Trinity should be feminine, as the spirit of God, or his Sophia.
2. Adina: Why are the Graces important for Platonic philosophy? We notice this in your book, The Heirs of Plato (2003, 6) where you observed that Plato and Speusippus, his nephew, added statues of the Graces in the Academy grove.
Prof. Dillon: That is an interesting question. We simply do not know why Speusippus added statues of the Graces to the already existing shrine of the Muses erected by Plato, but I would conjecture that it constituted a statement that literary excellence or grace should always be a factor in philosophical writing – as indeed it was in the case of his uncle Plato!
3. Can you tell us about Potone, Plato’s sister?
I really don’t think we know anything about her at all, sadly, except that she was married to a certain Eurymedon, and produced the philosopher Speusippus.
4. What is the etymology of the word ‘idea’, and could it be related to feminine wisdom? How does it compare to a 'concept'?
I don’t see that there is any significance in the feminine gender of idea, as an alternative to eidos, to signify the transcendent Form of a physical object, though I admit that it is interesting that there are these two cognate terms for the same thing.
5. Can you tell us more about how Plato sees matter as a 'receptacle' for the soul?
Matter (a term which Plato does not use) is the ‘receptacle’, which the World-Soul acts upon, by instilling into it images of the Forms.
6. The quest in Parmenides’ proem On Nature, curiously begins with the maiden daughters of the sun-god Helios, guiding a young Parmenides to the halls of night through the gates of Justice (also a goddess) to the abode of a goddess. Immediately upon his arrival, the goddess teaches Parmenides the “way of inquiry” and of “true reality”. What do you think that is all about and is it relevant today?
Well, it does seem to be quite a strong tradition in Greek thought that wisdom and revelations are conveyed by female figures, and that is a tradition that Plato follows with the figure of Diotima in the Symposium, but I hesitate to speculate as to why this is so.
7. Would you say that the esoteric aspects in Parmenides’ journey could and should be further contextualised in the wider outlook of philosophy?
I am not sure that I understand this question, but I would say that they should.
8. Could Parmenides be considered the founder of ‘ontology’ with his dialectical explorations of Being and non-Being? Why don’t contemporary thinkers make direct connections between Parmenides’ hypotheses in Plato’s dialogue with emerging theories across the fields of knowledge?
Yes, I do think that Parmenides can reasonably be regarded as the founder of ontology, by reason of his focus on the true nature of Being, and I think that he is generally regarded as such by contemporary historians of philosophy – but most modern philosophers may just be too ignorant to make such connections!
9. Plato’s dialogue, Parmenides has the reputation of being one of the most difficult works in the world that many still do not understand while there are a myriad of speculations about it; why do you think that is? How can someone ensure they have actually grasped the original meaning of Parmenides rather than an interpretation of its contents? What is the difference between understanding and opinion on this topic?
Well, Plato’s Parmenides is regarded as difficult, because we really do not know what his purpose was in the last section of the work, the succession of ‘hypotheses’. It was generally concluded in the later tradition, of course, that he was in fact setting out a comprehensive panorama of levels of Being, but he may only have been intending to tease out dialectically the implications of postulating a concept of Being in general. I think the latter alternative is the more probable one, but one just can’t be sure.
10. How does Parmenides’ teachings compare with those of Diotima of Mantinea, after all, in the Symposium, she seriously doubts that Socrates can understand her message, while she speaks about beauty itself, love as a daimōn-- an intermediary between the transcendent and the immanent, and virtue as a path to attain immortality of the soul?
I’m afraid that I don’t see any very close analogy between Parmenides, in his Poem, and Diotima, so I can’t really comment on this. Diotima, after all, is leading Socrates upwards, to a vision of the Beautiful Itself, whereas Parmenides is presenting us with the true nature of Being, all on One level – before descending to the analysis of Not-Being, or the opinions of mortals.
11. In The Middle Platonists (1996), you notice that Xenocrates, in the Old Academy, links each of “three realms of existence (ousia), the sensible, the intelligible, and that which is composite [of these two]” with “one of the three Fates, Atropos, to the intelligible realm, Clotho to the realm of sense, and Lachesis to the intermediate”, a curious adaptation from Plato’s Rep.x 617c, that exerts influence on Plutarch and others (p.30). Can you tell us a little more about the meaning in these connections with the Moirai and what is the role of analogy therein?
This is certainly an interesting example of Xenocrates’ liking for triadic formulations and systems, but I cannot clarify, I’m afraid, why he choses each of the Fates for their respective roles. The most interesting case, I think, is Lachesis, presiding over our cognisance of the heavenly realm, which is a mixture of vision (of the heavenly bodies) and opinion (doxa) as to their true size and nature.
12. How would you compare Platonic philosophy and Hermetic philosophy and how can they be improved and/or reconciled? Some consider modern Platonism “asphyxiatingly exclusive from the social point of view” (Fowden 1993, xxi) while others, like myself, see Hermeticism as alluring, yet incomplete.
I must say that I would view the Hermetic treatises as products of ‘popular Platonism’, but also as inspired by a concept of the ancient wisdom of Egypt, irrespective of how much the authors of the treatises knew about that! Garth Fowden (author of The Egyptian Hermes) would really be the authority on that subject.
13. You mention the attributes of Hecate as “the feminine of an epithet of Apollo” (1996, 358), “life-producing” with similar ambiguities as in the cases of Philo’s Sophia and Plutarch’s Isis (Ibid, 394). How are these qualities relevant from a cosmological perspective?
In that passage, I was identifying Hekate with a projection of the World-Soul (as Triad), so that she becomes something like the guiding principle of Nature (as Hexad). But I am really just trying to interpret Nicomachus of Gerasa here.
14. Can you tell us a few words about the (syncretistic) connections between Egyptian, Greek, Persian and Roman goddesses that may have fused in Hellenistic times? What would be the value in combining rather than (culturally) separating notions on goddesses?
Sorry, but I am really not an expert on goddesses, except to say that there were indeed strong syncretistic tendencies in Greco-Roman religious thought, trying to connect up the divinities worshipped by other races with their own – rather than trying to suppress them, as would be the tendency in the Abrahamic religious tradition!
15. Who do you think was a major feminine figure for the development of philosophy, in general, and who was your own feminine inspiration in this regard? Why?
Well, my favourite figure would be a mythological rather than a real one, viz. Diotima of Mantinea, who comes across in the Symposium as a suitable benign, motherly guide for Socrates; but I’m afraid that there are no real female figures to be inspired by in the history of ancient Platonism, more’s the pity. In the later period, however, I would pick out the Lady Gemina (probably the widow of the Emperor Trebonian) who was the patroness of Plotinus in Rome; then, the remarkable figure of Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, and herself a distinguished mathematician and philosopher, in 4th century Alexandria; and lastly, Asclepigeneia, daughter of Plutarch of Athens, who, as Marinus tells us, initiated Proclus into the mysteries of theurgy.
16. If feminine wisdom is so vital for the cosmic mind and for humanity, then why is it not (efficiently and consistently) supported to flourish in the world? What solutions would you recommend to address this problem?
Well, the female principle in Platonism is generally the emanatory aspect of the supreme principle, the One or the Good, which, without it, would be completely transcendent and unproductive of anything below it, and that should be duly recognised. It, in turn, produces the cosmic Intellect, which is regarded as male, but which could not have emerged without this female principle. As far as the Christian tradition is concerned, one thing it might profitably do is to recognise that the second person of the Trinity is in fact female, and celebrate it as such.
17. Lastly, would you kindly share an advice for women interested in pursuing a philosophical profession?
I would say that conditions have never been more favourable for women to engage in philosophical studies, not least in Platonism, despite its historical male bias. There is much correcting and re-balancing to be done-- to which indeed you, Adina Bezerita, are making a fine contribution yourself-- and there is an increasing number of good role models in the field.
John M. Dillon 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. He is the founder of the Plato Centre.
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