Open AccessPhilo of Alexandria, the treatise On the Indestructibility of the World, and its relevance as a source of Ancient philosophy
Author(s) -
Marcelo D. Boeri
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
circe de clásicos y modernos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1851-1724
pISSN - 1514-3333
DOI - 10.19137/circe-2020-240201
Subject(s) - platonism , philosophy , relevance (law) , epistemology , new testament , focus (optics) , torah , ancient greek , literature , classics , history , theology , judaism , art , law , linguistics , physics , optics , political science
The treatise On the Indestructibility of the World is one of Philo of Alexandria’s key philosophical texts. The way the Alexandrian “does philosophy” is idiosyncratic as an essential part of his method is based on his view that the Old Testament matches with what the Greek philosophers argue. In this paper, I argue that, despite that, Philo’s relevance as a source for the study of ancient philosophy can hardly be overestimated. To show that, I briefly first explain the structure of the treatise; secondly, I focus on the more “philosophical” sections to clarify how Philo incorporates some aspects of Platonism into his project of interpreting the Pentateuch in the light of Greek philosophy, and how, even though he takes distance from and criticizes the Stoics, at the same time he assimilates some terminological and conceptual details of Stoa as they are functional to his own project.