Prager Walther Alexander

Postdoctoral fellow of “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca

Nemesius of Emesa, Human Nature: between Definition and Unique

Property

ABSTRACT

Nemesius of Emesa qualified as both a philosopher and a theologian during the end of the 5 th century AD. It is
clear that he can be placed in both categories from his treatise De Natura Hominis (“On the Nature of Man”), which is the
only book he wrote that has been preserved as well as nearly the only way to attest to his existence. The purpose of this
paper is to attempt to prove, based on a fragment taken from the first section of his book, that Nemesius justifies the
Christian view of man by exploring the significance of Aristotle’s concept of unique property (to idion). This way, the
Christian Platonizing speculation on the essence of man becomes secondary, speculation which has been looked into on the
highest level by Origen. Moreover, it shall be demonstrated that despite its doxographic style, the treatise On the Nature of
Man contributes to the explanation of human nature through incorporation inside a larger subject matter of Greek
philosophy: the problem of using general terms for explaining the individual life experience of man. For a better
understanding of the rise of this problem in Greek philosophy, the paper allots the first two sections to Homeric and
Heraclitus’ views of human nature.