Introducing Plato’s System through schemata: Isagogical Aspects of Platonism in Late Antiquity

The aim of this paper is to examine the interesting Neoplatonist tendency to adopt and lend fixed form to schemata isagogica before the systematic reading of Plato’s dialogues. By examining some of the preliminary questions investigated in lateantique schools and established at the beginning of the Platonist curriculum, an attempt will be made to show that the schemata, when employed by the Neoplatonists, do not simply follow extrinsic criteria, i.e. that they cannot be reduced to rhetorical devices used to read any text. As the divine creation of a divine literary craftsman, the Platonic text is not just any text; hence, the exegetical categories put forward in rhetorical treatises prove necessary yet not sufficient in themselves to justify the application of rhetorical reading schemata to the fully systematised corpus of Plato’s writings. An attempt will be made to ascertain how and on what basis these schemata were absorbed within the Platonic system, made compatible with the core theoretical tenets of Neoplatonism, and used to justify some of the doctrinal innovations introduced by the Neoplatonists.