Among several philosophers (e.g. Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Plato, Zeno), also Aristotle is condemned by Tatian in his Oratio ad Graecos.
The Stagirite is accused of "ignorantly setting a limit for providence
and defining happiness in terms of his own pleasures" (2:1; M.
Whittaker's translation). He is held responsible also for the opinion of
his disciples, who "exclude providence from any part in sublunary
affairs" (2:2). He is ridiculed also for the behaviour of his most
famous disciple, Alexander the Great. Aristotle is included in the group
of philosophers quarrelling among themselves: he "disparages the
immortality of the soul" (25:2). In his Ad Autolycum Theophilus
of Antioch criticizes even more philosophers, included most of those
rejected by Tatian. His criticism becomes especially fervent in Book
Three, which was written in the 180s, after Tatian's Oratio.
Theophilus condemns ten philosophers, but he keeps silent over
Aristotle. In my contribution I make an attempt to find the causes of
this silence. For several reasons it can hardly be denied that
Theophilus did know the main elements of the Stagirite's philosophy, and
even the literary genre of his Ad Autolycum shows a lot of resemblances to Aristotle's Protrepticus. One reason for not mentioning his name can be that some of his ideas were shared by the bishop. e.g.
the rejection of the unconditional immortality of the soul. Criticizing
him would have been counterproductive, so he was dropped from the group
of philosophers traditionally ridiculed by other apologists.
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