A Homeopathic Remedy for the Human Soul. The Ethical Import of the Experience of Music in Plutarch (and Other Middle Platonists

So-called Middle Platonism, that is the form Platonism took between the 1st century BCE and Plotinus, is a puzzling philosophical movement. Since its historiographical establishment, mainly due to Karl Prächter, scholars have been fluctuating between the attempt to discover a shared doctrinal core characterising (almost) all Middle Platonists and the awareness that such a core is very hard to discover, and maybe does not exist at all1 . Nonetheless, it is beyond doubt that some recurring features characterise these authors’ works. One of these features is a strong interest in transcendence and cosmological enquiry, which is undoubtedly the core of Middle Platonist thought. Another distinctive feature is the emphasis on mathematics: mathematical objects are a fundamental component of reality inasmuch as they shape the world, and in this very sense mathematics are a fundamental way of acquiring both knowledge of reality and a true acquaintance 1 Recent proposals of abolishment of the category of Middle Platonism have been advanced by Frede 1987, 1040, and Catana 2013. Against such attempts, Riccardo Chiaradonna (esp. 2014 and 2015) has recently emphasised that Plotinus indeed represents a turning point in the history of the Platonist tradition; however, Chiaradonna does not identify any positive hallmarks for Middle Platonism. 2 2 with God and the forms2 . On the other hand, it has been often assumed that ethics play a minor role in Middle Platonist thought, and chiefly in relation to the theory of action3 . Such a representation is well reflected by the ways in which Middle Platonists’ interest in music has been portrayed: music plays a fundamental role inasmuch as it coincides with the study of the harmoni