Simplicius: On Aristotle's Categories 1-4

and as one of the initiators of the long, gradually-formed school-tradition of the teaching of philosophy which would eventually solidify into the form we know as Scholasticism: a medieval method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics ("schoolmen") of medieval universities.

1. Life of Simplicius

Until about a generation ago, it would have been a brief and relatively simple task to describe the life and works of Simplicius: we knew very little about him, but what little we did know was agreed upon by those few scholars who paid any attention to him. Since then, the situation has changed. As scholars pay closer attention to his works, his thought, and the time in which he lived, established opinions fall by the wayside, new hypotheses emerge, and it is now difficult to think of many aspects of Simplicius’ life and work upon which all contemporary scholars agree. In what follows, I shall rely heavily on the findings of the Paris-based scholar Ilsetraut Hadot, who, together with her research team, has been instrumental in the current revival of Simplician studies. I find most of Mme Hadot’s findings convincing, but I would not like to give the impression that unanimous agreement reigns among contemporary scholars regarding all aspects of Simplicius’ life and works.

What is known with relative certainty about Simplicius is the following: born in Cilicia in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), Simplicius studied initially at Alexandria under the Neoplatonist Ammonius, son of Hermeias, sometime before the latter’s death in AD 517. This allows us to place Simplicius’ birth in the very last years of the fifth century AD. He appears not to have met his younger contemporary John Philoponus, who was also studying at Alexandria at the time. However, after Philoponus’ conversion to Christianity, Simplicius would heap scorn upon him as a philosophical parvenu: a person who has recently gained status and is considered an upstart in his Commentary on the De Caelo Original: "On the Heavens". We know also that Simplicius studied, probably at Athens, under the Syrian Neoplatonist Damascius (c. 462 – after 538). From this point on, verifiable facts about Simplicius’ life are in short supply.

In 529, the emperor Justinian forbade all those who were "sick with the madness of the impious Greeks" (a reference to pagan philosophers) to teach within his empire. This measure likely resulted in the closing of whatever philosophical—that is, Neoplatonic—schools were operating at that time. According to the historian Agathias, Damascius, his pupil Simplicius, and five other eminent Neoplatonists decided to flee the Byzantine Empire and seek refuge at the court of the Persian King Chosroes. Agathias tells us that our seven Neoplatonists were quickly disillusioned by the Great King’s lack of philosophical insight, as well as by the immorality of the people, and that they soon left the Persian Empire.

Agathias does not tell us where our seven renegades went after