Porphyre
A pupil of Plotinus, he argues in On Abstinence that justice extends to animals and that one should abstain from their flesh.
Life
Neoplatonist philosopher (c. 234 - c. 305), born in Tyre, a pupil of Plotinus in Rome whose Enneads he edited and whose life he wrote. In On Abstinence he argues that animals share in reason, that justice extends to them and that one should abstain from their flesh.
Main works
Animals are rational and fall under justice: one should abstain from their flesh.
The biography of his master and the edition of his Enneads.
An introduction to Aristotle's Categories, the source of the quarrel over universals.
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceThe soul is incorporeal and distinct from the body, and does not die with it.
Porphyre, Sentences (v. 270)
He ranks the virtues in degrees, from civic virtues to those that purify and free the soul.
Porphyre, Sentences 32 (v. 270)
Life's aim is to purify the soul from the body and its passions to return to the divine.
Porphyre, Lettre à Marcella (v. 300)