Damascius 458 AD – 538 AD
Damascius was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher and the last head of the Platonic Academy at Athens before its closure under the emperor Justinian in 529. After fleeing briefly to the court of the Sasanian king Khosrow I in Persia, he and his colleagues returned to the Roman Empire under guarantees of religious toleration. His Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles develops a sustained meditation on the ineffable origin of all things, more austere even than Proclus's account, and his Life of Isidore preserves much of what we know of the last generation of pagan philosophers.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Syrian-Greek
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Platonism
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Damascius:
“All things proceed from the Ineffable, which is beyond all categories of being.”
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Attributed to Damascius:
“Knowledge of the divine is more like a wonder than a thought.”
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Attributed to Damascius:
“We do not so much know the One as touch upon it.”
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Attributed to Damascius:
“Even the affirmation of unity falls short of the truly One.”
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Attributed to Damascius:
“The soul that knows itself participates already in the divine.”