Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editorIamblichus
Philosophy
Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editor
Iamblichus
Ethics, Ancient; Philosophers -- Greece -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient; Pythagoras; Pythagoras and Pythagorean school
“The fourth species of the virtues, is that of the paradigms subsisting
in intellect; which are more excellent than the psychical virtues, and
exist as the paradigms of these; the virtues of the soul being the
similitudes of them. And intellect indeed is that in which all things
subsist at once as paradigms. Here, therefore, prudence is science; but
intellect that knows [all things] is wisdom. Temperance is that which is
converted to itself. The proper work of intellect, is the performance of
its appropriate duty, [and this is justice[109]]. But fortitude is
sameness, and the abiding with purity in itself, through an abundance of
power. There are therefore four genera of virtues; of which, indeed,
some pertain to intellect, concur with the essence of it, and are
paradigmatic. Others pertain to soul now looking to intellect, and being
filled from it. Others belong to the soul of man, purifying itself, and
becoming purified from the body, and the irrational passions. And others
are the virtues of the soul of man, adorning the man, through giving
measure and bound to the irrational nature, and producing moderation in
the passions. And he, indeed, who has the greater virtues has also
necessarily the less; but the contrary is not true, that he who has the
less has also the greater virtues. Nor will he who possesses the
greater, energize precedaneously according to the less, but only so far
as the necessities of the mortal nature require. The scope also of the
virtues, is, as we have said, generically different in the different
virtues. For the scope of the political virtues, is to give measure to
the passions in their practical energies according to nature. But the
scope of the cathartic virtues, is entirely to obliterate the
remembrance of the passions. And the scope of the rest subsists
analogously to what has been before said. Hence, he who energizes
according to the practical virtues, is a _worthy_ man: but he who
energizes according to the cathartic virtues, is _a dæmoniacal man_, or
is also _a good dæmon_. He who energizes according to the intellectual
virtues alone, is _a God_. But he who energizes according to the
paradigmatic virtues, _is the father of the Gods_. We, therefore, ought
especially to pay attention to the cathartic virtues, since we may
obtain these in the present life. But through these, the ascent is to
the more honorable virtues. Hence it is requisite to survey to what
degree purification may be extended. For it is a separation from body,
and from the passive motion of the irrational part. But how this may so
effected, and to what extent, must now be said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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