Nemesius

On the Nature of Man

Philip Van Der Eijk and R.W. Sharples

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Nemesius' treatise On the Nature of Man is an important text for historians of ancient thought, not only as a much-quarried source of evidence for earlier works now lost, but also as an indication of intellectual life in the late fourth century AD. The author was a Christian bishop; the subject is the nature of human beings and their place in the scheme of created things. The medical works of Galen and the philosophical writings of Plato, Aristotle and the Neoplatonist Porphyry are all major influences on Nemesius; so too the controversial Christian Origen. On the Nature of Man provides the first kown compendium of theological anthropology with a Christian orientation and considerably influenced later Byzantine and medieval Latin philosophical theology.

Nemesius

On the Nature of Man

Philip Van Der Eijk and R.W. Sharples

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Description

Nemesius' treatise On the Nature of Man is an important text for historians of ancient thought, not only as a much-quarried source of evidence for earlier works now lost, but also as an indication of intellectual life in the late fourth century AD. The author was a Christian bishop; the subject is the nature of human beings and their place in the scheme of created things. The medical works of Galen and the philosophical writings of Plato, Aristotle and the Neoplatonist Porphyry are all major influences on Nemesius; so too the controversial Christian Origen. On the Nature of Man provides the first kown compendium of theological anthropology with a Christian orientation and considerably influenced later Byzantine and medieval Latin philosophical theology.

Nemesius

On the Nature of Man

Philip Van Der Eijk and R.W. Sharples

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Preface Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The importance of Nemesius
2. Nemesius and the scope of his treatise
3. Nemesius' Christianity
4. Nemesius' views
5. Nemesius' sources
Nemesius, On the Nature of Man
1. On the nature of man
2. On the soul
3. On the union of soul and body
4. On the body
5. On the elements
6. On imagination
7. On sight
8. On touch
9. On taste
10. On hearing
11. On smell
12. On thought
13. On memory
14. On immanent and expressed reason
15. Another division of the soul
16. On the non-rational part or kind of the soul, which is also called the affective and appetitive
17. On the desirous part
18. On pleasures
19. On distress
20. On anger
21. On fear
22. On the non-rational element that is not capable of obeying reason
23. On the nutritive faculty
24. On pulsation
25. On the generative or seminal faculty
26. Another division of the powers controlling living beings
27. On movement according to impulse or choice, which belongs to the appetitive part
28. On respiration
29. On the intentional and unintentional
30. On the unintentional
31. On the unintentional through ignorance
32. On the intentional
33. On choice
34. About what things do we deliberate?
35. On fate
36. On what is fated through the stars
37. On those who say that choice of actions is up to us
38. On Plato's account of fate
39. On what is up to us, or on autonomy
40. Concerning what things are up to us
41. For what reason were we born autonomous?
42. On providence
43. About what matters there is providence
Bibliography
Index of passages cited
General index

Nemesius

On the Nature of Man

Philip Van Der Eijk and R.W. Sharples

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Author Information

Philip Van Der Eijk is Professor of Greek at Newcastle University. R.W. Sharples was Professor of Classics at University College London.

Nemesius

On the Nature of Man

Philip Van Der Eijk and R.W. Sharples

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Reviews and Awards

"Sharples and van der Eijk are to be thanked and congratulated for their production of this book which, by bringing together much of what is known about this important text, quite distinctly indicates also what still needs to be done for a full understanding of it."--Journal of Theological Studies

"Sharples and van der Eijk have made a significant contribution to students of patristics and the late antique world. I hope that this excellent translation will fuel greater study of Nemesius, not only as a witness of lost antique philosophical and medical sources, but as an apologist and theologian in his own right."--Sobornost

"... its clear presentation of the work in its late antique context will mightily assist any exploration of this influence. This is a very welcome addition to the already immensely distinguished series, Translated Texts for Historians."--Early Medieval Europe