“The Ascent of Nature from the Lower to the Perfect”
It is suggested that for building his hierarchy of beings Gregory of Nyssa followed two strategies: the strategy of dividing genera and species with the entire “existing” as the summit of' the hierarchy, and the strategy of taking the uncreated nature to be the summit of the hierarchy. The evol...
| Published in: | Scrinium |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2015
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| In: |
Scrinium
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| RelBib Classification: | HA Bible KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity VA Philosophy |
| Further subjects: | B
hierarchy
ontology
classification
genres and species
Porphyrian tree
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| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | It is suggested that for building his hierarchy of beings Gregory of Nyssa followed two strategies: the strategy of dividing genera and species with the entire “existing” as the summit of' the hierarchy, and the strategy of taking the uncreated nature to be the summit of the hierarchy. The evolutionary ascent of natural species and the related topic of the hierarchical taxonomy of being in Gregory of Nyssa’s De opificio hominis 8 are examined. It is argued, against K. Reinhardt, G. Ladner, and a number of other scholars, that the influence of Posidonius on this topic in Gregory is not sufficiently well-founded. A brief overview of the taxonomies elaborated by several philosophers of Antiquity is provided. The general conclusion is that the Tree of Porphyry had a direct impact on the classification of beings in Gregory. Alongside this, Gregory seems to manifest Aristotelian, Platonic, and, particularly, Stoic trends. In contrast to previous studies which have only pointed to the similarity between Gregory and Porphyry’s systems without sufficient reasoning on details of it, it is investigated in what sense the similarity is, and it is shown that there are also some significant differences between their ordering of different levels. A suggestion is made as to why Gregory altered the order of hierarchical levels in comparison to that of Porphyry.
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| ISSN: | 1817-7565 |
| Contains: | In: Scrinium
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/18177565-00111p18 |