/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8470179]

hey /lit/

reposting this thread: do you think i should read cynicism, pyrrhonic skepticism, and neoplatonism before dipping into christian philosophy? i plan on moving to the stoics and epicureanists after aristotle then augustine after the two (perhaps take a dip into confessions then see if he interests me enough to read city of god). for neoplatonism i'm extremely interested in it from what i've read but i read the lack of translations of the main texts.

thanks for any suggestions

[Anonymous No.8470401]

yes

also do research into bacchic/orphic mysteries and the greco-egyptian figure of hermes thrice great

[Anonymous No.8471152]

Algis Uzdavinys has an introductory compilation of Neoplatonic and Pythagorean thought entitled The Golden Chain: etc. I highly recommend it. From the authors mentioned there you can then look for translations of their main works if they catch your interest. You can probably skip the theurgists and >>8470401 unless you're inclined to actual mystical praxis though. If you are inclined, however, I would also suggest The Chaldean Oracles and The Greek Magical Papyri. Something like Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic by Stephen Skinner might prove helpful for decoding these as well. And all of Uzdavinys's other works are quite illuminating as well. There are a few minor misprints in some of these titles but no major translation errors as far as I can tell. I majored in Classics and Philosophy for three years before dropping out and might also suggest learning Latin and Greek. My skills are atrocious but there's really high quality printing of a lot of Greek and Latin titles if you know your stuff (Loeb and so on).

[Anonymous No.8471784]

>>8471152
i'm familiar with loeb and i just picked up latin: an intensive course. i hope to learn it for about a year then try reading some texts in that language before moving to greek (maybe some catullus poems).

i'm more inclined towards understanding the development of certain philosophical ideas over time (basically the history side of it all). do you reckon that i should dip into what you and >>8470401 said? i'll definitely pick up the cynics, pyrrhonics, and neoplatonist works but i was wondering about the others you guys mentioned. i'm mostly reading as a side hobby so time is really not much of an issue. thanks again for the suggestions lads. i'll be checking out the uzdavinys book for sure.

[Anonymous No.8472973]

>>8471784
If you're interested in the history and development of philosophical ideas over time then I think the mystical/magical side should not be overlooked. Lots of people just try to speedread their way through the ancient Greeks to get to modern philosophy and a common mistake is to read only the major authors without regard for cultural context and imagine them to be proto-rationalist and scientists even though there is a lot of evidence that these early philosophers are part of a rich religious background of mystery schools and pagan cults. This religious background is also highly influential on later Christian thinkers such as Augustine and Boethius and Islamic philosophers as well as Medieval occultists and alchemists.

[Anonymous No.8473188]

>>8472973
any specific works/authors you suggest i look at?

[Anonymous No.8473246]

>>8473188

Peter Kingsley is an absolute must for this kind of stuff, as well as properly contextualizing anything Pre-Socratic.

[Anonymous No.8473435]

>>8473246
how about for any of the classical texts?

[Anonymous No.8474112]

>>8473435

There's not a lot remaining. Read Heraclitus' Fragments and Kingsley's Reality, which covers Parmenides and Empedocles, and you'll have a decent framework for going into Plato.