intro
The work was probably written in Delphi (cf. 953 c-d and e) after A.D. 107-(949 e, note) and addressed to the young philosopher Favorinus,For the details see Ziegler’s article on Plutarch in Pauly-Wissowa, RE, col. 675. the great lover of Aristotle (Mor. 734 f), who is also a speaker in Symposiacs, viii. 10. Though Favorinus was in all likelihood some twenty years younger than Plutarch, the two men dedicated several works to each other.Lamprias cat. 132: Plutarch’s Letter to Favorinus on Friendship (or The Use of Friends); Galen, de Opt. Doctr. (i. 41 K): Favorinus’s Plutarch, or On the Academic Disposition. See also Suidas, s.v. Φαβωρῖνος. In the present essay it is, perhaps, odd that of the three quotations from Aristotle one is a rebuke (950 b), one is apparently a partial miscitation (948 a, note), while the third is of no importance. No doubt it is in virtue of Favorinus’ youth that his idol is treated so lightly, and that the sceptical note is sounded so firmly at the end. The young Peripatetic was also quoted by Plutarch (for partial refutation) in Mor. 271 c; but Plutarch (if TarnAlexander the Great, ii. 298 f. and others are right) became much more favourable to Peripatetics later in his life (e.g. in the Life of Alexander).
