L’« Anonyme » : un palimpseste démocritéen dans le Protreptique de Jamblique ?

Abstract

Iamblichus, in the Protrepticus, brings together many texts mainly borrowed from unnamed philosophers, first and foremost from Plato and Aristotle, into a broad synthesis, framing all of these quoted fragments with a syncretic exegetical commentary. With reference to the third unnamed thinker, as yet unidentified and referred to as Iamblichi Anonymus, there are several discrepancies between the text and its exegetical commentary. Moreover the discontinuous text of the Anonymus as quoted in the Protrepticus presents syntactical difficulties; one cannot however fail to notice the strength and originality of the thought it conveys. In spite of the unsolved problem of the dialect used by the author, many converging clues point to the tradition of Democritus.

Keywords

• quotation
• exegesis
• indirect speech
• arete
• eunomia
• anomia