Iamblichus on the soul

Built on two previous studies, dedicated, respectively, to Iamblichus of Chalcis' (c. 240 - 325) Letters and his vision of the afterlife (ΣΧΟΛΗ 4.1 (2010) 166-193 and ΣΧΟΛΗ 4.2 (2010) 239-245), the author now turns to the De anima of the Syrian Neoplatonist, preserved only fragmentary in John of Stobi's Eclogae. Unfortunately, only a doxographic part of Iamblichus' original treatise On the Soul was preserved by Stobaeus. The fragments were collected and for the first time studied by Festugière (1953), are then comprehensively edited, translated and commented by J. Finamore and J.M. Dillon (2002). The text is interesting for many respects. It supplies us with a considerable amount of information concerning ancient opinions about the nature of the soul, its powers, activities and faculties, considers the questions related with the number of the souls, their descent, encounter with the body, life and death, and, finally, such eschatological matters as purification, judgment, punishment and reward. Besides, the fragments allow us to perceive Iamblichus' own concept of the soul as a mediator between the world and the higher reality, immersed in the context of his sharp criticism of his predecessors, such as Numenius, Plutarch, Atticus, Albinus, Plotinus, Amelius, and Porphyry. The fragments are translated into the Russian for the first time.