Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 6, 2018

Byzantine Philosophy

«Ὁ διάλογος κόσμος ἐστὶν καὶ ὁ κόσμος διάλογος»
The early Byzantine theory of correspondence between the Platonic dialogues and the cosmic reality

In the late 6th century at the Neo-platonic School of Alexandria the anonymous Christian (uncertain) author of the Prolegomena to Platonic philosophy recorded a rather complete formulation of a theory about the mutual correspondence between the elements of the Platonic dialogues and the elements and causes of every cosmic reality. According to this theory, the commentator of each Platonic dialogue should pay attention to the correspondence of its elements (characters-dramatic date and place, style, way of conducting the conversation, demonstrations, problem being discussed and the good) both to the six elements of the universe (matter, form, nature, soul, intellect and divinity) and the six causes of every cosmic reality (material, formal, efficient, instrumental, paradigmatic and final). With respect to this theory the anonymous author of the Prolegomena depends to some extent on Proclus’ commentaries on Platonic dialogues. Thus, the theory is typically Neo-platonic, since it is based on analogy and hierarchy of being. It might also be seen as a pedagogical strategy which enabled the members of the School of Alexandria initially to comprehend the analogies of the elements of the Platonic dialogues to the elements and the causes of the material and the metaphysical worlds and, more importantly, to understand the Platonic doctrines.