La lettura dei Dialoghi nelle scuole del Platonismo tardo-antico e la nascita del commentario

ABSTRACT: The essay presents the philosophical meaning and the didactic purpose of the late antique commentaries on Plato’s dialogues, duly considered within their own timeframe. The fundamental aim is to how they have implemented a new idea of philosophy, which is identified with the exegetical practice and is built on notions such as auctoritas, obscuritas, and symphonia. As second-degree texts, i.e. texts written on other texts to which they pose questions and provide answers, the commentaries approach the dialogues in the same manner as in Plato’s time humans approached philosophers. For the masters of late antique Platonism, the practice of reading and commenting upon the texts of the divine Plato is indeed conceived of as a path of ethical and intellectual purification, which leads the soul to an adequate understanding of itself and of the highest principles.