Late Antique Philosophical Education, Miskawayh, and Paul the Persian: On the Division and the Ranks of Philosophy

Late antique philosophical education followed the curriculum of the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria, in which ethics played a role as propaedeuticum and as the practical part of philosophy informed by its theoretical part. Introductions to the study of philosophy, the so-called prolegomena, emerged in educational contexts and became extremely widespread and popular. Material from such late antique introductions heavily influenced the Arabic speaking Muslim scholar and philosopher Miskawayh and his predecessors and contemporaries, and shaped their perception of the contents and aims of philosophy. To illustrate this fact, we discuss the understanding of the knowledge of God and the intelligible in Miskawayh and his contemporary al-Isfizārī. Further, one particularly influential late antique introductory text ascribed to Paul the Persian and attested in al-Fārābī as well as in Miskawayh is re-examined. It is shown that late antique prolegomena material contributed to and influenced the philosophical and educational discourse at least as late as during Miskawayh’s lifetime.