Assortment of top titles. Discover top titles, podcasts, and more on Audible. Try 30 days free.
To share your reaction on this item, open the Amazon app from the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
$199.70 with 7 percent savings
List Price: $215.00
FREE delivery February 6 - 24. Details
Only 3 left in stock - order soon.
$$199.70 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$199.70
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
GrandEagleRetail
GrandEagleRetail
Ships from
GrandEagleRetail
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Damascius' Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles (AAR Religions in Translation) 1st Edition

4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

off. Enter code INSTAPAY10 at checkout. Discount by Amazon. Terms  off. Promo code INSTAPAY10 is saved to your account. Discount by Amazon. Terms  
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$199.70","priceAmount":199.70,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"199","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"70","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"9mNv2xqGEwUjQRk0Wl753FpogvzLSmbbFjtUOw07Z%2Fn5N9%2BnimPSliodeGsqEYnlsZsj4G1UxLNOsnGVN88BBP15EpjTgXblojywagrW3KW3LciFgl9jrCVDAmDMa6t2UBYVsTH2eF%2F%2B6GzyBw6ZWbPr3mWvsfD5nTfgNEsaMGeicHvBHbbd%2FO9O%2BRedvKNj","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Damascius was head of the Neoplatonist academy in Athens when the Emperor Justinian shut its doors forever in 529. His work, Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles, is the last surviving independent philosophical treatise from the Late Academy. Its survey of Neoplatonist metaphysics, discussion of transcendence, and compendium of late antique theologies, make it unique among all extant works of late antique philosophy. It has never before been translated into English.

The Problems and Solutions exhibits a thorough?going critique of Proclean metaphysics, starting with the principle that all that exists proceeds from a single cause, proceeding to critique the Proclean triadic view of procession and reversion, and severely undermining the status of intellectual reversion in establishing being as the intelligible object. Damascius investigates the internal contradictions lurking within the theory of descent as a whole, showing that similarity of cause and effect is vitiated in the case of processions where one order (e.g. intellect) gives rise to an entirely different order (e.g. soul).

Neoplatonism as a speculative metaphysics posits the One as the exotic or
extopic explanans for plurality, conceived as immediate, present to hand, and therefore requiring explanation. Damascius shifts the perspective of his metaphysics: he struggles to create a metaphysical discourse that accommodates, insofar as language is sufficient, the ultimate principle of reality. After all, how coherent is a metaphysical system that bases itself on the Ineffable as a first principle? Instead of creating an objective ontology, Damascius writes ever mindful of the limitations of dialectic, and of the pitfalls and snares inherent in the very structure of metaphysical discourse.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This superb translation of Damascius's Problems and Solutions Regarding First Principles, with introduction and extensive notes, brings a classic text to the English reading public for the first time. Sara Ahbel-Rappe provides an invaluable guide for anyone interested in ancient thought to Damascius's critique of Proclus and to his articulation of a system of thought based on the Ineffable as first principle and sensitive to the limitations of metaphysical language."

--Kevin Corrigan, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities, Emory University

"Professor Rappe brings Damascius' metaphysics closer to Greek-less readers than ever before, and Problems and Solutions will appeal to those tired of the over-confident tones of other Neoplatonists. After a sensitive introduction culminating with important material on Chaldaean and Orphic traditions, her labors have produced a translation with an effective balance of accuracy and readability, supported by scholarly notes as appropriate."

-- Harold Tarrant, Professor of Classics, University of Newcastle, Australia.

Book Description

A never before translated text from the 6th century philosopher Damsciusis available here for the first time.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (October 28, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195150295
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195150292
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.4 x 1.7 x 6.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
8 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2016
    The illustrious Damascius headed the Athenian Academy after his beloved teacher Isodore's term as scholarch. During Damascius' tenure as Successor of Plato, the Academy witnessed the closing of its doors by Justinian (ca. 529 AD). Justinian's zeal for one empire and one religion mirrored the policy of Constantine, of course, without the later's penchant for universal toleration. Consequently, the Emperor himself assumed the role of champion and defender of Byzantine Orthodoxy and would scare tolerate any rival theologies whether Christian or “pagan” in his domain. Hence, the ousting of Philosophy from her native seat in Athens was equivalent to the ousting of any newfangled Christian heresy: any and all doctrines in conflict with Orthodoxy were, by imperial policy, rendered equally illicit. So rather than languish away in the shadow of the once glorious Academy, Damascius and company (presumably 7 others), ostensibly headed East in exile to the realm of king Chosroes II, where they found at least some favor in the Persian court at Ctesiphon. From that point on, Philosophy underwent a metamorphosis whose first flowering is the works of Simplicius and Olympiodorus among the “pagans,” Dionysius the Areopagite, John Philoponus and St Maximus the Confessor among the Christians and also in the works of the Muslim philosophers of the late 7th and early 8th centuries AD.

    Now Damascius' 'On First Principles' mimics Plotinus' use of question and answer (aporia) and his formal, scholastic style of discourse. The work itself is a virtual summa of neo-Platonic metaphysics in the mould of such thinkers as Iamblichus and Proclus; this work aims, broadly speaking, to reach the logical conclusion of their work and even expand upon their system with great subtlety. For instance, Damascius' Ineffable transcends Iamblichus' One and thus introduces a principle above the Iamblichean One. Broadly speaking, 'On First Principles,' in this late-Platonic context, is considered to be the fullest expression of Plato's 'Parmenides.' Plato's classic Nine Hypotheses are, therefore, construed to demonstrate how the manifestation of all being emanates from the One, which is the hyparxis of Being to non-being, which is the One's and hence Being's lowest terminus. No less integral to this lengthy treatise is Damascius' ability to fit the Chaldean Oracles and the Orphic Hymns to harmonize with the principal doctrines of neo-Platonic metaphysics, psychology, epistemology and metaphysics. Ultimately, Damascius' synthesis of inspired sacred literature (oracular and poetic) with the main tenets of Platonism, gives this work a theological and mystic character and brings life to an otherwise droll and lifeless exercise in dialectic. The spirit of Philsophia was still yet alive in Damacius works.

    Applause must be handed to professor Rappe for her work in writing a brilliant, informative intro on the life and works of Damascius while also giving us a fine translation with exhaustive annotations. The book is highly recommended and is well worth the price tag.
    12 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2014
    Metaphysics from a time and a Sage when it reflected reality and was not just speculation.

    Here are the heads from the first chapters:
    PART ONE. ON THE INEFFABLE
    SECTION I. ON THE INEFFABLE, 65
    Chapter 1. On the Ineffable and Its Relationship to All Things, 65
    Chapter 2. The Transcendence of the Ineffable, 68
    Chapter 3. Our Affinity with the Ineffable, 70
    Chapter 4. Speculation Concerning the Ineffable, 71
    Chapter 5. On Plato and the Language of Metaphysics, 72
    Chapter 6. That the One Is Unknowable, 74
    Chapter 7. On the Complete Overturning of All Discourse Concerning the Ineffable, 76
    Chapter 8. Three Questions Concerning the Ineffable qua Its Status as First Principle, 81
    6 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2011
    An incredibly important text, that last of which was written before Justinian 1 closed the doors of the Academy around 529 A.D. We may well consider this book the last punch thrown by philosophical classicism before Christianity took over in Western Europe. Oddly enough, it is amazing how much neo-platonic thought actually survived by being integrated into Medieval Christian thought, considering the amazingly brilliant battle that took place for about for about 400+ years determining whether or not the west would be culturally ruled by Hellenistic philosophy or Christian theology. It is amazing to read the works of various authors, Christian or not, leading up to this critical time period. From Plotinus to Proclus to Damascius, and from Origen to Augustine to Pseudo-Dionysius; we see how conflicting thoughts developed and evolved by integrating with each other, even though, ultimately; Christianity emerged the victor in an ongoing cultural war that determined the entirety of Western culture up until present day.
    15 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • Stefano La Salvia
    5.0 out of 5 stars A new beginning
    Reviewed in Italy on April 18, 2015
    This book is fundamental for everyone whp is interested about Neoplatonic school, specifically to the last period before beeing closef from Emperor Justine. It is important for the deconstruction of most of prejudices about western philosophy, which is thought incapable of mystical approach and only to be analytical. The language and the argument are understable for non-native speakers also.