List: Byzantine philosophers

by likeorhate

•  Photios I of Constantinople

  Our father among the saints Photios I also spelled Photius or Fotios and known by the Eastern Orthodox churches as St. Photios the Great, was Patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 886. Photios is widely regarded as the most powerful and influential Patriarch of Constantinople since John Chrysostom, and as the most important intellectual of his time, "the leading light of the ninth-century renaissance".

  

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•  Simplicius of Cilicia

  Simplicius of Cilicia, was a disciple of Ammonius and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into the empire. He wrote extensively on the works of Aristotle.

  

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•  Theodore Metochites

  Theodore Metochites was a Byzantine statesman, author, gentleman philosopher, and patron of the arts. From c. 1305 to 1328 he held the position of personal adviser to emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos.

  

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•  Michael Psellos

  Michael Psellos or Psellus was a Byzantine writer, philosopher, politician, and historian. He was born in 1017 or 1018, and died some time after 1078.

  

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•  Patriarch Gennadios II of Constantinople

  Gennadius II (in Greek Γεννάδιος Β') (lay name Georgios Kourtesios Scholarios, in Greek Γεώργιος Κουρτέσιος Σχολάριος) (c. 1400 – c. 1473), Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1454 to 1464, philosopher and theologian, was one of the last representatives of Byzantine learning, and a strong advocate of Aristotelian philosophy in the Eastern Church.

  

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•  Gemistus Pletho

  Georgius Gemistus (c1355–1452/1454) was a Byzantine scholar of Neoplatonic philosophy. He was one of the chief pioneers of the revival of Greek learning in Western Europe. In the dying years of the Byzantine Empire, he advocated a return to the Olympian gods of the ancient world. He re-introduced Plato's thoughts to Western Europe during the 1438 - 1439 Council of Florence, a failed attempt to reconcile the East-West schism.

  

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•  George of Trebizond

  George of Trebizond (1395 – 1472 or 1473) was a Greek philosopher and scholar, one of the pioneers of the Renaissance.

  

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•  Damascius

  Damascius (Δαμάσκιος, born in Damascus ca. AD 458, died after AD 538), known as "the last of the Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the School of Athens. He was one of the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into the empire.

  

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•  Manuel Chrysoloras

  Manuel (or Emmanuel) Chrysoloras (c. 1355 – April 15, 1415) was a pioneer in the introduction of Greek literature to Western Europe during the late middle ages. He was born in Constantinople to a distinguished family. In 1390, he led an embassy sent to Venice by the emperor Manuel II Palaeologus to implore the aid of the Christian princes against the Muslim Turks.

  

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•  John Philoponus

  John Philoponus, also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Christian and Aristotelian commentator and the author of a considerable number of philosophical treatises and theological works. A rigorous, sometimes polemical writer and an original thinker who was controversial in his own time, John Philoponus broke from the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic tradition, questioning methodology and eventually leading to empiricism in the natural sciences.

  

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•  Olympiodorus the Younger

  Olympiodorus the Younger (c. 495-570) was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in the early years of the Byzantine Empire, after Justinian's Decree of 529 A.D. which closed Plato's Academy in Athens and other pagan schools. Olympiodorus was the last pagan to maintain the Platonist tradition in Alexandria; after his death the School passed into the hands of Christian Aristotelians, and was eventually moved to Constantinople.

  

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•  Nicephorus Blemmydes

  Nicephorus Blemmydes was 13th century Byzantine literary figure. He was born in 1197 in Constantinople as the second child of a physician. After the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, he migrated to Asia Minor. There, he received a liberal education in Prusa, Nicaea, Smyrna and Scamander. Blemmydes studied medicine, philosophy, theology, mathematics, astronomy, logic, and rhetoric.

  

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•  John Argyropoulos

  John Argyropoulos was a Greek lecturer, philosopher and humanist, one of the émigré scholars who pioneered the revival of Classical learning in Western Europe in the 15th century. He played a prominent role in the revival of Greek philosophy in Italy and translated Greek philosophical and theological works into Latin besides producing rhetorical and theological works in his own. He divided his time between Italy and Constantinople.

  

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•  Al-Khazini

  Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini (flourished 1115–1130) was a scientist, astronomer, physicist, biologist, alchemist, mathematician and philosopher from Merv, then in the Khorasan province of Persia but now in Turkmenistan, who made important contributions to physics and astronomy. He is considered the greatest scholar from Merv. Robert E. Hall wrote the following on al-Khazini:

  

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•  Asclepius of Tralles

  Asclepius of Tralles was a student of Ammonius Hermiae. Two works of his survive: Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics, books I-VII. Commentary on Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic Both works seem to be notes on the lectures conducted by Ammonius.

  

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•  John Italus

  John Italus, also Johannes Italos, Ioannis Italos, Ioánnes Italós was a Byzantine philosopher of the eleventh century. He was Calabrian in origin, his father being a soldier. He came to Constantinople, where he became a student of Michael Psellus in classical Greek philosophy. He succeeded Psellus in his position as head of the philosophical school. Subsequently he came into conflict with Diogenes, and he was condemned in 1082 for lack of orthodoxy.

  

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•  Heliodorus (philosopher)

  Heliodorus is cited as the author of a work entitled Commentary, which has been preserved, on the Introduction or Rudiments of Paulus Alexandrinus, the 4th century Alexandrian astrologer. The name "Heliodorus" appears only on the later of two groups of manuscripts, and so is somewhat doubtful. Leendert Westerink has argued that the commentary consists of notes of lectures, most likely given by the sixth-century philosopher and astrologer, Olympiodorus, in 564 AD.

  

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•  Priscian of Lydia

  Priscian (or Priscianus) of Lydia, who lived in the first half of the 6th century, was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. A contemporary of Simplicius of Cilicia, Priscian was born in Lydia, probably in the late 5th century. He was one of the last Neoplatonists to study at the Academy when Damascius was at its head.

  

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•  Eustratius of Nicaea

  Eustratius of Nicaea was Metropolitan bishop of Nicaea in the early 12th century. He wrote commentaries to Aristotle's second book of Analytica and the Ethica Nicomachea. Eustratius was a pupil of John Italus, although he had deliberately dissociated himself from John's supposed heretical views when John was condemned around 1082.

  

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•  Leo the Mathematician

  Leo the Mathematician or the Philosopher was a Byzantine philosopher and logician associated with the Macedonian Renaissance and the end of Iconoclasm. His only preserved writings are some notes contained in manuscripts of Plato's dialogues. He has been called a "true Renaissance man" and "the cleverest man in Byzantium in the 9th century". He was archbishop of Thessalonica and later became the head of the Magnaura School of philosophy in Constantinople, where He taught Aristotelian logic.

  

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•  Sophonias (commentator)

  Sophonias was a Byzantine monk who wrote commentaries or paraphrases of the works of Aristotle including De Anima, Sophistici Elenchi, Prior Analytics, and the Parva Naturalia, which are still extant. Little is known about Sophonias, except that he was probably the monk sent by Michael IX Palaiologos on an abortive mission to arrange a marriage between Michael and a western princess around 1295.

  

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•  Michael of Ephesus

  Michael of Ephesus or Michael Ephesius (fl. early or mid-12th century AD) wrote important commentaries on Aristotle, including the first full commentary on the Sophistical Refutations, which established the regular study of that text.

  

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