Editing Simplicius of Cilicia (section)

===Modern===
For [[Hegel]], Simplicius was "the most learned and most astute of the Greek commentators on Aristotle".<ref>Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: ''Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie I'' (= ''Werke.'' Band 18). Frankfurt 1986, p 191.</ref>  In Hegel's time, however, several of the works of the Neoplatonist were still unprinted. The first modern critical edition of Simplicius' commentaries on Aristotle was only begun in 1882 by the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences|Berlin Academy of Sciences]]; The last volume appeared in 1907. The project was led by [[Hermann Diels]]. At that time, the commentaries were valued above all as sources for the history of philosophy of earlier epochs and for the ancient reception of Aristotle. From this point of view, [[Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff]] judged that the "excellent Simplicius" had been "a good man" and that the world could never thank him enough for the preservation of fragments from lost older works.<ref>Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff u.&nbsp;a.: ''Die griechische und lateinische Literatur und Sprache.'' 3., verbesserte Auflage, Leipzig/Berlin 1912,p 283.</ref> 

Simplicius' own philosophical achievement received less attention; the disdain that was widespread in the 19th and early 20th centuries for late antique Neoplatonism, which was then notorious for being too speculative, stood in the way of an unbiased assessment.<ref>Han Baltussen: ''Simplicius of Cilicia.'' In: Lloyd P. Gerson (Hrsg.): ''The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity.'' Band 2, Cambridge 2010, S.&nbsp;711–732, hier: 714, 731&nbsp;f.</ref> [[Eduard Zeller]]<ref>Eduard Zeller: ''Die Philosophie der Griechen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung.'' p 910–914.</ref>  (1903) found the commentaries to be "the work of great diligence and comprehensive erudition" and offer a "careful and mostly reasonable explanation" of the texts interpreted. However, Zeller considered Simplicius' denial of considerable contradictions between Aristotle and Plato to be completely wrong, characterizing as someone a thinker who hardly made an original philosophical achievement, but was only "the thinking editor of a given teaching that has come to its conclusion in all essential respects". [[Karl Praechter]] (1927) judged that the commentary tradition exemplified by Simplicius was one of the most attractive phenomena of late antiquity due to its “mutual complementation and tempering of Platonic and Aristotelian ways of thinking”, stressing Simplicius' "love of solid scholarship both in the philosophical and philological-literary areas as well as in the exact sciences".<ref>Karl Praechter: ''Simplicius (10)''. In: ''[[Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]].'' Band 3 A/1, Stuttgart 1927, Sp.&nbsp;204–213, hier: 205, 212.</ref>

In the second half of the 20th century, however, research into his teachings intensified. Since then, his comprehensive synthesis of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic ideas has been recognized as an important achievement.{{sfn|Sorabji|1987|pp=153-155}}<ref>Albrecht Dihle: ''Die griechische und lateinische Literatur der Kaiserzeit.'' München 1989, S.&nbsp;503.</ref><ref>[[Jens Halfwassen]]: ''Plotin und der Neuplatonismus.'' München 2004, S.&nbsp;163.</ref>