Simplicius

by

Carlos Steel

• LAST MODIFIED: 20 March 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0426

Introduction

Simplicius of Cilicia (c. 480–550), one of philosophers banished from Athens at the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529, owes his reputation to the monumental commentaries on Aristotle he produced, which are of primary interest for our knowledge of the history of ancient philosophy. In these commentaries, he shows himself to be an original philosopher standing in a Neoplatonic tradition of reading Aristotle in concordance with Plato, influenced by both Damascius, the last head of the academy in Athens, and Ammonius, the head of the school in Alexandria, defending what he regards as the ancient Hellenic doctrine of an eternal cosmos against the (Christian) creationist views of John Philoponus, advocating in difficult times a philosophical life based on Stoic inspiration (Epictetus).

General Overviews

Research on Simplicius took a fresh start with the conference organized by Ilsetraut Hadot in 1985, published in 1987. Hadot’s own contribution is a biographical introduction, Hadot 1990. Sorabji’s project Ancient Commentators on Aristotle (cited under Commentaries (General)) produced annotated translations in English of all of Simplicius’s commentaries, which in turn sparked new research interest (see separate Oxford Bibliographies article “Ancient Commentators on Aristotle” by John Sellars). On Simplicius as commentator, see Baltussen 2008, Golitsis 2008 (under Commentary on the Physics), and Menn 2022. Several, sometimes overlapping, general overviews have been published in recent years—see Baltussen 2010, Baltussen 2018, Goulet and Coda 2016, and Helmig 2020. For a critical survey of recent research, see Hadot 2014 (English version: Hadot 2020), and the review Golitsis 2015.

• Baltussen, Han. 2008. Philosophy and exegesis in Simplicius: The methodology of a commentator. London: Duckworth.

  Focuses on Simplicius as commentator in his commentary on Physics and On the Heavens. Somewhat outdated by recent research.

• Baltussen, Han. 2010. Simplicius of Cilicia. In The Cambridge history of philosophy in Late Antiquity. Vol. 2. Edited by Lloyd P. Gerson, 711–732, 1137–1143. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

  General survey of life and works, with good bibliography.

• Baltussen, Han. 2018. Simplikios. In Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie: Die Philosophie der Antike. Vol. 5/3, Die Philosophie der Antike. Edited by Christoph Riedweg, Christoph Horn, and Dietmar Wyrwa, 2060–2084. Basel: Schwabe.

  Encyclopedic survey with extensive bibliography. In German.

• Golitsis, Pantelis. 2015. On Simplicius’ life and works: A response to Hadot. Aestimatio 12 (2015): 56–82.

  Critical review of Hadot 2014.

• Goulet, Richard, and Elisa Coda. 2016. Simplicius de Cilicie. In Dictionnaire des Philosophes Antiques. Vol. 6. Edited by Richard Goulet, 341–394. Paris: CNRS Éditions.

  An erudite bio-bibliographical survey (in French).

• Hadot, Ilsetraut, ed. 1987. Simplicius, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa survie. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

  A collection of essays (in French, English, and German) based on a conference held in 1985, the starting point for new research on Simplicius.

• Hadot, Ilsetraut. 1990. The life and work of Simplicius in Greek and Arabic sources. In Aristotle transformed: The ancient commentators and their influence. Edited by Richard Sorabji, 275–303. London: Duckworth.

  Introduction to Simplicius, primarily on his life and work, first published in French in Hadot 1987.

• Hadot, Ilsetraut. 2014. Le néoplatonicien Simplicius à la lumière des recherches contemporaines: Un bilan critique. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Academia Verlag.

  A critical, often polemical, survey of recent research on Simplicius related to issues of the author’s own research. The commentaries on Physics and On the Heavens are left aside. Should be read with Golitzis’s critical review.

• Hadot, Ilsetraut. 2020. Simplicius the Neoplatonist in light of contemporary research: A critical Review. Baden-Baden, Germany: Academia Verlag.

  DOI: 10.5771/9783896658951

  An English version of the French book Hadot 2014.

• Helmig, Christoph. Simplicius. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2020.

  Informative introduction to life and work of Simplicius, with excellent bibliography (see also the supplement attached to this file “commentaries”).

• Menn, Stephen. 2022. Simplicius: On Aristotle Physics 1–8. London: Bloomsbury.

  DOI: 10.5040/9781350286658

  This in an introduction to Simplicius’s monumental commentary on the Physics. It examines the philosophical aims of this commentary, Simplicius’s exegetical methods, his use of earlier sources, how he understands the “harmony” between Plato and Aristotle, how he reads the pre-Socratics, and how he engages with the now lost commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias. Because it deals with all important issues of Simplicius’s work, it may be recommended as a general introduction to Simplicius.