Bert van den Berg

My research focuses on the Platonic tradition, from Plato down to the Neoplatonists of late antiquity (Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus etc.). I am especially interested in such topics as Platonic mythology and its afterlife, Neoplatonic ethics, religious practice & theology, linguistic theories & literary criticism and their intersections.

My current project is The Neoplatonists on Moral Education. This project studies the theory and practice of moral education in the (Neo)Platonic tradition, i.e. the issue of how to render the young into virtuous people. I am especially interested in the way in which Neoplatonists appropriate existing moralizing literature (Hesiod’s Works and Days, Prodicus’ Choice of Hercules, the Pythagorean Golden Verses) and genres (history, rhetoric) and adapt it to fit their own psychological and ethical ideas.