जॉर्ज जेमिस्टोस प्लेथोन

कृतियाँ

• 1439अरस्तू और प्लेटो के भेदों पर (De differentiis)

  चर्च परिषद के दौरान फ़्लोरेंस में लैटिन पाठकों के लिए लिखा ग्रंथ: अरस्तू प्लेटो से पिछड़ते हैं क्योंकि वे ईश्वर को रचयिता के बजाय प्रवर्तक बनाते हैं, रूपों को अस्वीकार करते हैं और व्यक्तिगत वस्तुओं को सामान्यों से पहले रखते हैं; इसने यूनानी और लैटिन विद्वानों में प्लेटो–अरस्तू विवाद छेड़ा।

• लगभग 1450विधियों की पुस्तक (नोमोई)

  उनकी अंतिम कृति, पैट्रिआर्क गेन्नाडियोस स्कोलारियोस के आदेश पर उनकी मृत्यु के बाद अधिकांशतः जला दी गई: यूनानी देवताओं के नामों में वह ज़ेउस से प्रथम सिद्धांत के रूप में निकलती शाश्वत व्यवस्था का एक धर्मशास्त्र, नीतिशास्त्र, पंचांग और स्तोत्रों सहित रखती है।

मत

Plethon is on the map as a Byzantine Platonist and as a link between Byzantium and the revival of Plato in the Italian Renaissance. In “On the Differences” he argued that Aristotle fell short of Plato: Aristotle made God the mover of the heavens rather than the creator of all things, rejected the Forms, ranked individual things above universals and left the immortality of the soul unclear. The treatise, written for Latin scholars who knew Aristotle well and Plato hardly at all, set off a controversy that lasted decades: Gennadios Scholarios defended Aristotle, George of Trebizond attacked Plato, and Bessarion defended him in “Against the Slanderer of Plato” (1469). The “Book of Laws” set out, under the names of Greek gods, a philosophical theology: Zeus as the first, uncreated principle, from whom proceeds an eternal order of gods that correspond to the Forms, then the world and the human soul; Plethon traced this wisdom back through Plato to Zoroaster and commented on the “Chaldean Oracles”, which he attributed to the Magi. Whether he meant it as a pagan religion or as a philosophy within Christianity is disputed (C. M. Woodhouse 1986; B. Tambrun 2006; V. Hladký 2014). Ficino wrote in 1492 that Cosimo de’ Medici had heard Plethon in Florence and had then conceived the plan of an academy; historians now treat this account with caution.

जीवन और संदर्भ

George Gemistos, who later called himself Plethon, was born in Constantinople around 1355–60. Little is known of his education; according to his later opponent Gennadios Scholarios he studied with a Jewish scholar, Elissaios, at the Ottoman court, where he learned of Zoroaster. Around 1409 he settled at Mistra in the Peloponnese, the capital of the Byzantine despotate of the Morea, where he taught, held public office and received estates from the emperor. In memoranda to Emperor Manuel II and the despot Theodore II (c. 1416–18) he proposed reforms of the army, taxation and landholding. In 1438–39 he accompanied Emperor John VIII to the Council of Ferrara–Florence on the union of the Churches, where in 1439 he wrote “On the Differences between Aristotle and Plato”. Among his students was Bessarion, later a cardinal. He died at Mistra in 1452; some scholars argue for 1454. Around 1460 Scholarios, now patriarch, had most of the manuscript of the “Book of Laws” burned; in the 1460s Sigismondo Malatesta brought his remains to Rimini.

अन्य प्रमुख कृतियाँ

• Memoranda to Manuel II and Theodore II on the Peloponnese (c. 1416–18)
• Reply to Scholarios’ defence of Aristotle
• Magical Oracles of the Magi, Disciples of Zoroaster, with commentary
• Book of Laws (Nomoi, before 1452; largely burned)