Eudorus of Alexandria (Greek:Εὔδωρος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; 1st century BC) was an ancientGreek philosopher, and a representative ofMiddle Platonism.^[1] He attempted to reconstructPlato's philosophy in terms ofPythagoreanism.^[2]

Little is known about Eudorus' life. Chronologically, he lived in the 1st century BC, and did his work prior toStrabo andArius Didymus, both of whom quote him.^[3] He was involved in a plagiarism controversy withAristo of Alexandria, one ofAntiochus of Ascalon's students, as they had both written a work on the Nile.^[4] but he is not mentioned by Antiochus' contemporaryCicero, implying he was not one of Antiochus' students.^[3] Eudorus also wrote a survey of philosophy, at least one portion of which dealt with ethics, of which a summary by Arius Didymus is preserved inStobaeus.^[5][3] He also wrote a commentary on Plato'sTimaeus which is referred to by Plutarch,^[3] and may also have written a commentary on theCategories ofAristotle.^[3]

Eudorus combinedPlatonist,Pythagorean andStoic ideas in his philosophy.^[6] He divided philosophy into ethics, physics, and logic, taking Ethics as prior to Physics, as opposed to the Stoics, who considered physics to come before ethics.^[3] In ethics, Eudorus formulated ateleological principle for Platonism, derived from theTheaetetus: "as much as we can, become like God."^[7] In this he believed that he had found an apt definition of the common goal ofPythagoras,Socrates, andPlato.^[6] In physics, Eudorus' account offirst principles,^[8] postulates the existence of a highest principle, called "The One," above the PythagoreanMonad andDyad, which Eudorus calledGod.^[9] Although Eudorus considers this to be a Pythagorean doctrine, modern scholars such asJohn M. Dillon consider this to have likely originated with Eudorus, based on the extant Pythagorean fragments recorded byAlexander Polyhistor, which show little or no trace of this doctrine.^[9] In logic, Eudorus appears to have rejected Aristotle's theory of categories, preferring to derive them from theOld Academy categories of "Absolute" and "Relative" which were developed byXenocrates.^[10]

Eudorus is mentioned byAlexander of Aphrodisias in his commentary onAristotle'sMetaphysics.^[11][12]Simplicius refers to him as aPeripatetic philosopher, and relates that he had written on the AristotelianCategories.

The way Aristotle's texts were available to Eudorus is now an open field for research.^[13]

• Bonazzi, Mauro, "Eudorus and early Imperial Platonism", in R.W. Sharples-R. Sorabji (eds.),Greek and Roman Philosophy 100 BC-200 AD, London, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 2007, Vol. II, pp. 365–378.
• Dillon, John M. (1996).The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Cornell University Press.ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5. Retrieved15 April 2023.
• Mazzarelli, Claudio.Raccolta e interpretazione delle testimonianze e dei frammenti del medioplatonico Eudoro di Alessandria, inRivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica, 77 (1985), pp. 197–209 e 535-555 (Greek text of the extant fragments with Italian translation).

• 1st-century BC Greek philosophers
• Greek-language commentators on Aristotle
• Middle Platonists
• Roman-era Alexandrians
• Philosophers in ancient Alexandria
• Greek-language commentators on Plato

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