Posidonius on Immortal and Self-Moving Soul
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Plato at Phaedrus 245c uses the words yuch; pa`sa to introduce his argument for the immortality of soul. Hermias’ scholion reports that the Stoic Posidonius took the words and the ensuing argument to refer to ‘the world soul’. This crux has generated extensive debate among scholars seeking to determine the meaning of Posidonius’ interpretation. Edelstein infers that Posidonius adopted his interpretation on the strength of his belief in the immortality of the world soul only. In a competing attestation from Cicero, Div. 1.64, however, Cicero reports that, in discussing the possibility of human dreams representing means of divination, Posidonius speaks of ‘immortal souls’. In the light of this Ciceronian reference, the assumption that Posidonius held to a belief that the world soul alone is immortal and that his interpretation of Plato was influenced by such a belief seems unwarranted. This study thus investigates Posidonius’ actual view on the topic, and proceeds to characterise his interpretation of Plato’s argument, laying particular emphasis on two points: first, a conception of the immortality of individual souls is genuinely Stoic, so that in speaking of immortal souls Posidonius was not committing any heresy; and, second, in discussing the Platonic passage, Posidonius’ concern lay with integrating a Platonic conception of self-moving soul with his own, primarily to support his own philosophy.
Abstract
Plato at Phaedrus 245c uses the words yuch; pa`sa to introduce his argument for the immortality of soul. Hermias’ scholion reports that the Stoic Posidonius took the words and the ensuing argument to refer to ‘the world soul’. This crux has generated extensive debate among scholars seeking to determine the meaning of Posidonius’ interpretation. Edelstein infers that Posidonius adopted his interpretation on the strength of his belief in the immortality of the world soul only. In a competing attestation from Cicero, Div. 1.64, however, Cicero reports that, in discussing the possibility of human dreams representing means of divination, Posidonius speaks of ‘immortal souls’. In the light of this Ciceronian reference, the assumption that Posidonius held to a belief that the world soul alone is immortal and that his interpretation of Plato was influenced by such a belief seems unwarranted. This study thus investigates Posidonius’ actual view on the topic, and proceeds to characterise his interpretation of Plato’s argument, laying particular emphasis on two points: first, a conception of the immortality of individual souls is genuinely Stoic, so that in speaking of immortal souls Posidonius was not committing any heresy; and, second, in discussing the Platonic passage, Posidonius’ concern lay with integrating a Platonic conception of self-moving soul with his own, primarily to support his own philosophy.