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1 results

  • 11 - Ptolemy

  • from I - Philosophy in the later Roman Empire
  • Edited by Lloyd P. Gerson, University of Toronto
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity
    Published online:
    28 May 2011
    Print publication:
    01 January 2000, pp 197-209

  • Summary

    Klaudios Ptolemaios, or Ptolemy, is known today mainly for his contributions to astronomy and astrology. According to Ptolemy, only the mathematician produces knowledge and attains a virtuous state. Ptolemy's extant corpus contains only one text that is devoid of mathematics: On the Kritērion and Hēgemonikon. In this short epistemological treatise, Ptolemy outlines his criterion of truth, examines the soul's relation to the body, and determines which parts of the body and soul are the commanding parts. Ptolemy gives his most detailed accounts of the human soul in On the Kritērion and Harmonics 3.5. In On the Kritērion, he describes three faculties of the soul: the faculty of thought, the faculty of sense perception and the faculty of impulse, which, in turn, consists of two parts: the appetitive and emotive. Ptolemy's ethical system is heavily influenced by Platonism, but it strays from the Platonic formulation of what knowledge is and how virtue is attained.