Philo of Alexandria and Platonist Psychology

Abstract

Philo of Alexandria is, as we know, a remarkable literary and intellectual phenomenon. Imbued though he is with Greek culture, both literary and philosophical, Philo also seems to have experienced, at some time in his early manhood, a “conversion” to his ancestral Jewish religion and culture which leaves him determined not to reject the Greek philosophical tradition as something alien, but rather to “reclaim” it, by arguing that in fact Moses is the originator of philosophy, as can be demonst...