Porphyry

Related Category: Philosophy: Biographies

(pôr´fĭrē), c.232–c.304, Greek scholar and Neoplatonic philosopher. He studied rhetoric under Cassius Longinus and philosophy under Plotinus. He later lectured in Rome on the philosophy of Plotinus and was the teacher of the Neoplatonist Iamblichus. He wrote lives of Pythagoras and of Plotinus and edited the Enneads of Plotinus. He wrote extensively against Christianity and on rhetorical and literary themes. His most influential work is the Isagoge, an introduction to the logic of Aristotle, which became a standard medieval text.