The Nine Steps of Philosophical Knowledge Attributed to Olympiodorus

In some of the manuscript copies of David’s Introduction to Philosophy, the following sentence is added after the discussion of the different kinds of knowledge: “We should know that Olympiodorus says that the ascent, that is to say the knowledge, of philosophy happens as follows: there is first sense perception, second imagination, third opinion, fourth knowledge from trial, fifth experience, sixth knowledge, seventh science, eighth memory, ninth wisdom, the desire for which is philosophy.” This list of the different steps of knowledge is interesting, particularly because it seems to combine two different classifications, both of which were often cited at the Neoplatonic school of Alexandria and already had a rich history back then. One classification had five main forms of knowledge: sense perception, imagination, opinion, discursive reason and intellect. The other classification included, in Olympiodorus’ cases, sense perception, memory, knowledge from trial, experience, craft and science. I try to explain how these two taxonomies were combined in the nine-step model attributed to Olympiodorus.