Ammonius Hermiae

Ammonius Hermiae (Greek: Ἀμμώνιος ὁ Ἑρμείου; c. 440-c. 520) was a Greek philosopher, and the son of the Neoplatonist philosophers Hermias and Aedesia. He was a pupil of Proclus in Athens, and taught at Alexandria for most of his life, writing commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers.

Life

Ammonius' father, Hermias, died when he was a child, and his mother, Aedesia, raised him and his brother, Heliodorus, in Alexandria. When they reached adulthood, Aedesia accompanied her sons to Athens where they studied under Proclus. Eventually, they returned to Alexandria, where Ammonius, as head of the Neoplatonist school in Alexandria, lectured on Plato and Aristotle for the rest of his life. According to Damascius, during the persecution of the pagans at Alexandria in the late 480's, Ammonius made concessions to the Christian authorities so that he could continue his lectures. Damascius, who scolds Ammonius for the agreement that he made, does not say what the concessions were, but it may have involved limitations on the doctrines he could teach or promote. He was still teaching in 515, since Olympiodorus heard him lecture on Plato's Gorgias in that year. He also taught Asclepius of Tralles, John Philoponus, Damascius and Simplicius.

Writings

Of his reputedly numerous writings, only his commentary on Aristotle's De Interpretatione survives intact. A commentary on Porphyry's Isagogue may also be his, but it is somewhat corrupt and contains later interpolations.

In De Interpretatione, Ammonius contends that divine foreknowledge makes void the contingent. Like Boethius in his second Commentary and The Consolation of Philosophy, this argument maintains the effectiveness of prayer. Ammonius cites Iamblichus who said knowledge is intermediate between the knower and the known, since it is the activity of the knower concerning the known.

In addition, there are some notes of Ammonius' lectures written by various students which also survive:

• On Aristotle's Categories (anonymous writer)
• On Aristotle's Prior Analytics I (anonymous writer)
• On Aristotle's Metaphysics 1-7 (written by Asclepius)
• On Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic (written by Asclepius)
• On Aristotle's Prior Analytics (written by John Philoponus)
• On Aristotle's Posterior Analytics (written by John Philoponus)
• On Aristotle's On Generation and Corruption (written by John Philoponus)
• On Aristotle's On the Soul (written by John Philoponus)

He was also an accomplished astronomer; he lectured on Ptolemy and is known to have written a treatise on the astrolabe.

References

• Jones, A., Martindale, J., Morris, J., (1992) The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, pages 71–72. Cambridge University Press.
• Sorabji, R., (2005), The Philosophy of the Commentators, 200-600 AD, Cornell University Press.
• Andron, Cosmin (2008), "Ammonios of Alexandria",The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists, eds. Georgia Irby-Massie and Paul Keyser, Routledge.
• Merlan, Phillip (1970). "Ammonius, Son of Hermias". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 137. ISBN 0684101149. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Further reading

• Ammonius: On Aristotle Categories, translated by S. M. Cohen and G. B. Matthews. London and Ithaca 1992.
• Ammonius: On Aristotle's On Interpretation 1-8, translated by D. Blank. London and Ithaca 1996.
• Ammonius: On Aristotle's On Interpretation 9, with Boethius: On Aristotle's On Interpretation 9, translated by D. Blank (Ammonius) and N. Kretzmann (Boethius). London and Ithaca 1998
• John Philoponus: On Aristotle On Coming-to-be and Perishing 1.1-5, translated by C. J. F. Williams. London and Ithaca 1999
• John Philoponus: On Aristotle On Coming-to-be and Perishing 1.6-2.4, translated by C. J. F. Williams. London and Ithaca 1999.
• John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Soul 2.1-6, translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 2005
• John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Soul 2.7-12, translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 2005
• John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Soul 3.1-8, translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 2000
• John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Intellect (de Anima 3.4-8), translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 1991.

External links

• Ammonius entry by David Blank in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2005-10-19
• Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, Vol. 4 parts 2-6, Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Edita consilio et auctoritate Academiae litterarum regiae borussicae (1882).