Il posto dell'etica nel sistema del platonismo

Among ancient Platonists there appears to be two different classifications of the philosophical disciplines: one, probably first supported by Antiochus of Ascalon, according to the sequence ethics, physics and logic; the other, later endorsed by Proclus and Neoplatonists, following the order ethics, logic, physics, theology. In both cases, ethics occupies the first position. But for Antiochus this means that ethics is the most important part of philosophy and its culmination; in the case of the neoplatonists, on the other side, the first position implies a preliminary role: indeed, the theological interpretation of Platonism reduces the importance of ethics, whose main role is now to purificate and to prepare the pupils for the real teachings to follow. Remarkably, this latter classification does not depend only on Plato, but also on Aristotle, who first organized philosophy in a hierarchical structure culminating in what he called first philosophy and which was later regarded as his theology