Philo Farnsworth
Philo Farnsworth in 1939
Born	(1906-08-19)August 19, 1906 near Beaver, Utah, U.S.[1]
Died	March 11, 1971(1971-03-11) (aged 64) Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Resting place	Provo City Cemetery, Provo, Utah, U.S.
Nationality	American
Known for	Inventor of the first electronic television, over 300 United States and foreign patents
Religion	Latter-day Saint (Mormon)
Spouse	Elma "Pem" Gardner
Website
philotfarnsworth.com

Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) was an American inventor and television pioneer.^[2] Although he made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television, he is perhaps best known for inventing the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), the "image dissector", the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system, and for being the first person to demonstrate such a system to the public.^[3][4] Farnsworth developed a television system complete with receiver and camera, which he produced commercially in the form of the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation, from 1938 to 1951.^[5][6]

In later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor, or simply "fusor", employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). Although not a practical device for generating nuclear energy, the fusor serves as a viable source of neutrons.^[7] The design of this device has been the acknowledged inspiration for other fusion approaches including the Polywell reactor concept in terms of a general approach to fusion design.^[8] Farnsworth held 165 patents, mostly in radio and television.

Early life[link]

Farnsworth was born on August 19, 1906, to Lewis Edwin Farnsworth and Serena Amanda Bastian, a Mormon couple then living in a log cabin built by Lewis's father in a place called Indian Creek near Beaver, Utah. The family moved to a farm in Rigby, Idaho, in 1918, where Lewis supplemented his farming income by hauling freight with his horse-drawn wagon. Philo was excited to find his new home was wired for electricity, with a Delco generator providing power for lighting and farm machinery. He was a quick study in mechanical and electrical technology, repairing the troublesome generator, and upon finding a burned out electric motor among some items discarded by the previous tenants, proceeding to rewind the armature and convert his mother's hand-powered washing machine into an electric-powered one.^[9] Philo developed an early interest in electronics after his first telephone conversation with an out-of-state relative and the discovery of a large cache of technology magazines in the attic of the family’s new home.^[10]

Farnsworth excelled in chemistry and physics at Rigby High School. He asked his high school science teacher, Justin Tolman, for advice about an electronic television system he was contemplating. He provided the teacher with sketches and diagrams covering several blackboards to show how it might be accomplished electronically. He asked his teacher if he should go ahead with his ideas, and the latter encouraged him to do so.^[11] One of the drawings he did on a blackboard for his chemistry teacher was recalled and reproduced for a patent interference case between Farnsworth and Radio Corporation of America (RCA).^[12] Philo also took violin lessons from Reuben Wilkins in Ucon, Idaho.

In the fall of 1922 the Farnsworths moved to Provo, Utah. But Philo stayed behind to work for the railroad in Glenns Ferry, Idaho, saving enough money to begin classes at Brigham Young University (BYU) when he rejoined his family in the fall of 1923. The family had moved into the first floor of a large two-story house, renting the top floor to BYU students. In early January of the following year, Lewis Farnsworth died of pneumonia, leaving sixteen-year-old Philo to care for his mother, two sisters and two brothers.

Navy career[link]

In 1924 he applied to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was recruited after he earned the nation's second highest score on academy tests.^[10] However, he was already thinking ahead to his television projects and, upon learning the government would own his patents if he stayed in the military, he sought and received an honorable discharge, returning to Utah to continue to help support his mother. ^[10]

Family[link]

Philo worked while his sister Agnes, the older of the two, took charge of the family home and the second-floor boarding house (with the help of a cousin then living with the family). The Farnsworths later moved into half of a duplex, with family friends the Gardners moving into the other side when it became vacant.^[13] Philo developed a close friendship with Cliff Gardner, who shared Farnsworth's interest in electronics. The two moved to Salt Lake City to start a radio repair business.^[10]

The business failed and Gardner returned to Provo. But Farnsworth remained in Salt Lake City, and through enrollment in a University of Utah job-placement service became acquainted with Leslie Gorrell and George Everson, a pair of San Francisco philanthropists who were then conducting a Salt Lake City Community Chest fundraising campaign.^[14][15] They agreed to fund Farnsworth's early television research, and set up a laboratory in Los Angeles for Farnsworth to carry out his experiments.^[16] Before relocating to California, Farnsworth married Gardner's sister, Elma “Pem” Gardner Farnsworth (February 25, 1908 – April 27, 2006),^[17] and the two traveled to the West Coast in a Pullman coach.^[10]

Career[link]

Farnsworth in the National Statuary Hall Collection

A few months after arriving in California, Farnsworth was prepared to show his models and drawings to a patent attorney who was nationally recognized as an authority on electrophysics. Everson and Gorrell agreed that Farnsworth should apply for patents for his designs, a decision which proved crucial in later disputes with RCA.^[18] Most television systems in use at the time used image scanning devices ("rasterizers") employing rotating "Nipkow disks" comprising lenses arranged in spiral patterns such that they swept across an image in a succession of short arcs while focusing the light they captured on photosensitive elements, thus producing a varying electrical signal corresponding to the variations in light intensity. Farnsworth recognized the limitations of the mechanical systems, and that an all-electronic scanning system could produce a superior image for transmission to a receiving device.^[18][19]

On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth's image dissector camera tube transmitted its first image, a simple straight line, at his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco. The source of the image was a glass slide, backlit by an arc lamp. An extremely bright source was required because of the low light sensitivity of the design. By 1928, Farnsworth had developed the system sufficiently to hold a demonstration for the press.^[20] His backers had demanded to know when they would see dollars from the invention,^[21] so the first image shown was, appropriately, a dollar sign. In 1929, the design was further improved by elimination of a motor-generator, so the television system now had no mechanical parts. That year, Farnsworth transmitted the first live human images using his television system, including a three and a half-inch image of his wife Elma ("Pem"), with her eyes closed because of the blinding light required.

Many inventors had built electromechanical television systems prior to Farnsworth's seminal contribution, but Farnsworth designed and built the world's first working all-electronic television system, employing electronic scanning in both the pickup and display devices. He first demonstrated his system to the press on September 3, 1928,^[20][22] and to the public at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934.^[23]

In 1930, Vladimir Zworykin, who had been developing his own all-electronic television system at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh since 1923, but which he had never been able to make work or satisfactorily demonstrate to his superiors,^[24] was recruited by RCA to lead its television development department. Before leaving his old employer, Zworykin visited Farnsworth's laboratory and was sufficiently impressed with the performance of the Image Dissector that he reportedly had his team at Westinghouse make several copies of the device for experimentation.^[25] But Zworykin later abandoned research on the Image Dissector, which at the time required extremely bright illumination of its subjects to be effective, and turned his attention to what would become the Iconoscope.^[26]

In 1931, David Sarnoff of RCA offered to buy Farnsworth's patents for $100,000 (USD), with the stipulation that he become an employee of RCA, but Farnsworth refused.^[5] In June of that year, Farnsworth joined the Philco company and moved to Philadelphia along with his wife and two children.^[27] RCA would later file an interference suit against Farnsworth, claiming Zworykin's 1923 patent had priority over Farnsworth's design, despite the fact it could present no evidence that Zworykin had actually produced a functioning transmitter tube before 1931. Farnsworth had lost two interference claims to Zworykin in 1928, but this time he prevailed and the U.S. Patent Office rendered a decision in 1934 awarding priority of the invention of the image dissector to Farnsworth. RCA lost a subsequent appeal, but litigation over a variety of issues continued for several years with Sarnoff finally agreeing to pay Farnsworth royalties.^[28][29] Zworykin received a patent in 1928 for a color transmission version of his 1923 patent application,^[30] he also divided his original application in 1931, receiving a patent in 1935,^[31] while a second one was eventually issued in 1938^[32] by the Court of Appeals on a non-Farnsworth related interference case,^[33] and over the objection of the Patent Office.^[34]

In 1932, while in England to raise money for his legal battles with RCA, Farnsworth met with John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor who had given the world first public demonstration of a working television system in London in 1926, using mechanical imaging systems, and who was seeking to develop electronic television receivers. Baird demonstrated his mechanical system for Farnsworth, and explained "the superiority of his system". But after watching several minutes of Farnsworth's version, "He advanced slowly, as if hypnotized, until he was standing directly before it, He stood there for some time; he turned without a word and left"^[35] Baird's company directors pursued a merger with Farnsworth, paying $50,000 to supply electronic television equipment and provide access to Farnsworth patents. Baird and Farnsworth competed with EMI for the U.K. standard television system, but EMI merged with the Marconi Company in 1934, gaining access to the RCA Iconoscope patents. After trials of both systems, the BBC committee chose the Marconi-EMI system, which was by then virtually identical to RCA's system. The image dissector scanned well, but had poor light sensitivity compared to the Marconi-EMI Iconoscopes, dubbed "Emitrons".

After sailing to Europe in 1934, Farnsworth secured an agreement with Goerz-Bosch-Fernseh in Germany.^[18] Some image dissector cameras were used to broadcast the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.^[36]

In March 1932, Philco denied Farnsworth time to travel to Utah to bury his young son Kenny, placing a strain on Farnsworth's marriage, and possibly marking the beginning of his struggle with depression.^[1] In May 1933, the Philco Corporation severed their relationship with Farnsworth because, in George Everson's words, "it [had] become apparent that Philo's aim at establishing a broad patent structure through research [was] not identical with the production program of Philco."^[37] Many sources paint this breakup as Philco's idea, but Everson made it sound as though the decision was mutual and amicable.^[38]

Farnsworth returned to his lab, and by 1936 his company was regularly transmitting entertainment programs on an experimental basis.^[39] That same year, while working with University of Pennsylvania biologists, Farnsworth developed a process to sterilize milk using radio waves.^[1] He also invented a fog-penetrating beam for ships and airplanes.^[18]

In 1936 he attracted the attention of Collier's Weekly, which described his work in glowing terms. "One of those amazing facts of modern life that just don't seem possible – namely, electrically scanned television that seems destined to reach your home next year, was largely given to the world by a nineteen year old boy from Utah ... Today, barely thirty years old he is setting the specialized world of science on its ears."

In 1938, Farnsworth established the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with E. A. Nicholas as president and himself as director of research.^[5] In September 1939, after a more than decade long legal battle, RCA finally conceded to a multi-year licensing agreement concerning Farnsworth's 1927 patent for Television totaling $1 million. RCA was then free, after showcasing electronic television at The New York World's Fair on April 20, 1939, to sell electronic television cameras to the public.^[23][5]

Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation was purchased by International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) in 1951. During his time at ITT, Farnsworth worked in a basement lab known as “the cave” on Pontiac Street in Fort Wayne. From here he introduced a number of breakthrough concepts, including: a defense early warning signal, submarine detection devices, radar calibration equipment and an infrared telescope. “Philo was a very deep person – tough to engage in conversation because he was always thinking about what he could do next,” said Art Resler, an ITT photographer who documented Farnsworth’s work in pictures.^[40] One of Farnsworth's most significant contributions at ITT was the PPI Projector, an enhancement on the iconic "circular sweep" radar display, which allowed safe control of air traffic from the ground. This system developed in the 1950s was the forerunner of today’s air traffic control systems.^[1]

In July 1957, Farnsworth appeared on the CBS quiz show I've Got A Secret, hosted by Garry Moore. Moore identified Farnsworth as "Dr. X" and his secret ("I invented electronic television") flashed on television screens. The panel failed to guess his secret. Moore then spent a few minutes discussing with Farnsworth his research on such projects as high definition television, flat screen receivers, and fusion power.^[41]

In addition to his electronics research, ITT management agreed to nominally fund Farnsworth's nuclear fusion research. He and staff members invented and refined a series of fusion reaction tubes called "fusors". For scientific reasons unknown to Farnsworth and his staff, the necessary reactions lasted no longer than thirty seconds. In December 1965, ITT came under pressure from its board of directors to terminate the expensive project and sell the Farnsworth subsidiary. It was only due to the urging of President Harold Geneen that the 1966 budget was accepted, extending ITT's fusion research for an additional year. The stress associated with this managerial ultimatum, however, caused Farnsworth to suffer a relapse. A year later he was terminated and eventually allowed medical retirement.^[42]

In the spring of 1967, Farnsworth and his family moved back to Utah to continue his fusion research at Brigham Young University, which presented him with an honorary doctorate. The university also offered him office space and an underground concrete bunker for the project. Realizing the fusion lab was to be dismantled at ITT, Farnsworth invited staff members to accompany him to Salt Lake City, as team members in Philo T. Farnsworth Associates (PTFA). By late 1968, the associates began holding regular business meetings and PTFA was underway. Although a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was promptly secured, and more possibilities were within reach, financing stalled for the $24,000 in monthly expenses required to cover salaries and equipment rental.^[42]

By Christmas 1970, PTFA had failed to secure the necessary financing, and the Farnsworths had sold all their own ITT stock and cashed in Philo's life insurance policy to maintain organizational stability. The underwriter had failed to provide the financial backing that was to have supported the organization during its critical first year. The banks called in all outstanding loans, repossession notices were placed on anything not previously sold, and the Internal Revenue Service put a lock on the laboratory door until delinquent taxes were paid. In January 1970, PTFA disbanded. Farnsworth had begun abusing alcohol in his later years,^[43] and as a consequence he became seriously ill with pneumonia, and died on 11 March 1971.^[42]

Farnsworth's wife Elma Gardner "Pem" Farnsworth fought for decades after his death to assure his place in history. Farnsworth always gave her equal credit for creating television, saying, "my wife and I started this TV." She died on April 27, 2006, at age 98.^[44] The inventor and wife were survived by two sons, Russell (then living in New York), and Kent (then living in Fort Wayne, Indiana).^[44]

In 1999, TIME magazine included Farnsworth in "The TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century"'.^[28]

Inventions[link]

Electronic television[link]

Farnsworth worked out the principle of the image dissector in the summer of 1921, not long before his fifteenth birthday, and demonstrated the first working version on September 7, 1927, having turned 21 the previous August. A farm boy, his inspiration for scanning an image as series of lines came from the back-and-forth motion used to plow a field.^[45][46] In the course of a patent interference suit brought by RCA in 1934 and decided in February 1935, his high school chemistry teacher, Justin Tolman, produced a sketch he had made of a blackboard drawing Farnsworth had shown him in spring 1922. Farnsworth won the suit; RCA appealed the decision in 1936 and lost.^[47] Although Farnsworth was paid royalties by RCA, he never became wealthy. The video camera tube that evolved from the combined work of Farnsworth, Zworykin and many others was used in all television cameras until the late 20th century, when alternate technologies such as charge-coupled devices started to appear.^{[citation needed]}

Farnsworth also developed the "image oscillite", a cathode ray tube that displayed the images captured by the image dissector.^[48]

Farnsworth called his device an image dissector because it converted individual elements of the image into electricity one at a time. He replaced the spinning disks with cesium, an element that emits electrons when exposed to light.

Fusor[link]

The Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor is an apparatus designed by Farnsworth to create nuclear fusion. Unlike most controlled fusion systems, which slowly heat a magnetically confined plasma, the fusor injects high temperature ions directly into a reaction chamber, thereby avoiding a considerable amount of complexity.

When the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor was first introduced to the fusion research world in the late 1960s, the fusor was the first device that could clearly demonstrate it was producing fusion reactions at all. Hopes at the time were high that it could be quickly developed into a practical power source. However, as with other fusion experiments, development into a power source has proven difficult. Nevertheless, the fusor has since become a practical neutron source and is produced commercially for this role.^[7][49][50]

Other inventions[link]

At the time he died, Farnsworth held 300 U.S. and foreign patents. His inventions contributed to the development of radar, infra-red night vision devices, the electron microscope, the baby incubator, the gastroscope, and the astronomical telescope.^[42][51]

Appearances on television[link]

Although he was the man responsible for its technology, Farnsworth appeared only once on a television program. On July 3, 1957, he was a mystery guest ("Doctor X") on the TV quiz show I've Got A Secret. He fielded questions from the panel as they unsuccessfully tried to guess his secret ("I invented electronic television."). For stumping the panel, he received $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes.^[14]

In the interview with host Garry Moore, Dr. Farnsworth said: "There had been attempts to devise a television system using mechanical disks and rotating mirrors and vibrating mirrors--all mechanical. My contribution was to take out the moving parts and make the thing entirely electronic, and that was the concept that I had when I was just a freshman in high school [in the Spring of 1921 at age 14^[52]]." When Moore asked about others' contributions, Dr. Farnsworth agreed, "There are literally thousands of inventions important to television. I hold something in excess of 165 American patents." The host then asked about his current research, and the inventor replied, "In television, we're attempting first to make better utilization of the bandwidth, because we think we can eventually get in excess of 2000 lines instead of 525 ... and do it on an even narrower channel ... which will make for a much sharper picture. We believe in the picture-frame type of a picture, where the visual display will be just a screen. And we hope for a memory, so that the picture will be just as though it's pasted on there."

In a 1996 videotaped interview by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, available on YouTube,^[53] Elma Farnsworth recounts Philo's change of heart about the value of television, after seeing how it showed man walking on the moon, in real time, to millions of viewers:

Interviewer: The image dissector was used to send shots back from the moon to earth.

Elma Farnsworth: Right.

Interviewer: What did Phil think of that?

Elma Farnsworth: We were watching it, and, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Phil turned to me and said, "Pem, this has made it all worthwhile." Before then, he wasn't too sure.

A letter to the editor of the Idaho Falls Post Register disputed the single television appearance claim. Published in the December 10, 2007, edition (page A4, digital version requires subscription), Roy Southwick claimed "... I interviewed Mr. [Philo] Farnsworth back in 1953 - the first day KID-TV went on the air." KID-TV later became KIDK-TV, and was the first local broadcaster in southeast Idaho. The KID-TV affiliate is located a 15 minute drive from the Rigby area where Farnsworth worked in the potato fields and struck on his idea for electrons forming an image.

Misquote[link]

Farnsworth is sometimes quoted as telling his son Kent, with regard to television:

"There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet."

Yet, his family's website makes it clear that this is Kent's scientific summation of his father's view, rather than a direct quote.

Memorials and legacy[link]

Plaque at the location of Farnsworth's San Francisco laboratory on Green Street.^[20]

• In 2006, Farnsworth was posthumously presented the Eagle Scout award when it was discovered he had earned it but had never been presented with it. The award was presented to his wife, Pem, who died four months later.^[54]
• A bronze statue of Farnsworth represents Utah in the National Statuary Hall Collection, located in the U.S. Capitol building. Another statue sits inside the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City.^[55]
• The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker located at 1260 E. Mermaid Lane, Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania commemorating the "Farnsworth Television" shop established there in the summer of 1933. The Plaque reads "Inventor of electronic television, he led some of the first experiments in live local TV broadcasting in the late 1930s from his station W3XPF located on this site. A pioneer in electronics, Farnsworth held many patents and was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame."
• On September 15, 1981 a plaque honoring Farnsworth as The Genius of Green Street was placed on the 202 Green Street location (37.80037N, 122.40251W) of his research laboratory in San Francisco, California by the State Department of Parks and recreation.^[20]
• The scenic "Farnsworth Steps" in San Francisco lead from Willard Street (just above Parnassus) up to Edgewood Avenue, passing Farnsworth's former residence at the top.^[56][57]
  

  

  Statue of Philo T. Farnsworth at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco.
• In March 2008, the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco installed a statue of Farnsworth in front of its D building.
• A plaque honoring Farnsworth is located next to his former home in a historical district on the southwest corner of East State and St. Joseph boulevards in Fort Wayne, Indiana.^[58]
• Farnsworth's television-related work, including an original TV tube he developed, are on display at the Farnsworth TV & Pioneer Museum at 118 W. 1st S. Rigby, Idaho.
• A Farnsworth image dissector is on display at Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale, California, along with other artifacts of the history of electronics in Silicon Valley.
• The Philo Awards named after Philo Farnsworth is an annual public-access television cable TV competition where the winners receive notice for their efforts in various categories in producing Community Media.
• Several buildings and streets around rural Brownfield, Maine are named for Farnsworth as he lived there for some time.^[1]
• A 1983 United States postage stamp honored Farnsworth.
• The character Professor Hubert Farnsworth on Futurama is, in-universe, descended from him.
• The eccentric broadcast engineer in the 1989 film UHF is named Philo in tribute to Farnsworth.
• Since 2003, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) has awarded the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award on an irregular schedule, to companies who have significantly affected the state of television and broadcast engineering over a long period of time.
• The 2009 SyFy television series Warehouse 13 features a video communicator affectionately called "The Farnsworth." In the show's universe, Philo Farnsworth built at least five of these communicators after creating television (including a very personalised one used by him) though it's possible he made more than that. He also has a "Farnsworth aisle" in the Warehouse which includes not just some parts and items created by him, but some of his nuclear fusion experiments that one character claims to still be "kicking." Farnsworth also makes an appearance in an episode in a flashback set in 1944 during Season 2.
• On January 10, 2011, Farnsworth was inducted by Mayor Gavin Newsom into the newly established San Francisco Hall of Fame, in the science and technology category.
• In the video game Trenched, renamed as Iron Brigade, the main antagonist is a character named Vladamir Farnsworth, who created mechanical enemies known as "Tubes" which spread a deadly broadcast. This character name is alluding to Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir K. Zworykin, who invented the iconoscope.

Farnsworth television factory history[link]

In May and June 2010 the Farnsworth TV production factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was razed, eliminating the "cave" where many of Farnsworth's inventions were created, and mass produced for sale to the public. It was located in the International Harvester Industrial Park on Pontiac Street. The Philo T. Farnsworth Television Museum and his residence, while living in Fort Wayne, still stands on the corner of State and St. Joseph Boulevards, in Fort Wayne.

Patents[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Abramson, Albert. The History of Television, 1880 to 1941. (1987). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-284-9.
• Abramson, Albert. The History of Television, 1942 to 2000. (2003). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-1220-8.
• Everson, George, 1949. The Story of Television: The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-405-06042-4
• Farnsworth, Elma G. (1990), Distant Vision: Romance and Discovery of an Invisible Frontier. PemberlyKent Publishers. ISBN 978-0-9623276-0-5
• Farnsworth, Russell. (2002). Philo T. Farnsworth: The Life of Television's Forgotten Inventor. Hockessin, Delaware: Mitchell Lane Publishers. 10-ISBN 1-58415-176-5; ISBN 13-ISBN 978-1-58415-176-0 (cloth)
• Fisher, David E. and Marshall J., 1996. Tube, the Invention of Television. Washington D.C.: Counterpoint. ISBN 1-887178-17-1
• Godfrey, D. G., 2001. Philo T. Farnsworth: The Father of Television. University of Utah Press. ISBN 0-87480-675-5
• Schwartz, Evan I., 2002. The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit & the Birth of Television. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-093559-6
• Stashower, Daniel, 2002. The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-0759-0

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Philo Taylor Farnsworth

• PBS American Experience: Big Dreams Small Screen. Detailed website of a PBS documentary about the development of television that seems to give relatively more credit for the development of television to Farnsworth as opposed to the RCA team lead by Victor Zworykin but that seems fair
• Official Homepage: “Philo. T Farnsworth Archives” (managed by Farnsworth heirs)
• National Inventors Hall of Fame profile
• Philo Farnsworth photo archive
• Rigby, Idaho: Birthplace of Television (Jefferson County Historical Society and Museum)
• The Boy Who Invented Television; by Paul Schatzkin
• Television Timeline
• 1939 Farnsworth Article (from the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel)
• Philo Farnsworth's Gravesite
• The Farnsworth Invention on Broadway
• The Farnsworth Invention (Broadway Play) Fact -v- Fiction
• Archive of American Television oral history interview with Philo Farnsworth's widow, Elma "Pem" Farnsworth\
• YouTube video of Farnsworth on Television's "I've Got a Secret"
• Booknotes interview with Daniel Stashower on The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television, July 21, 2002.

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1584 European depiction of Philo

Philo (20 BCE – 50 CE), known also as Philo of Alexandria (Greek: Φίλων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς), Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew, was a Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher born in Alexandria.

Philo used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy. His method followed the practices of both Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy. His allegorical exegesis was important for several Christian Church Fathers, but he has barely any reception history within Judaism. "The sophists of literalness," as he calls the literalist Jews,^[1] "opened their eyes superciliously" when he explained to them the marvels of his exegesis. He believed that literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible would stifle mankind's view and perception of a God too complex and marvelous to be understood in literal human terms.

Some scholars hold that his concept of the Logos as God's creative principle influenced early Christology. Other scholars, however, deny direct influence but say both Philo and Early Christianity borrow from a common source.^[2] For Philo, the Logos was God's "blueprint for the world", a governing plan.

The few biographical details concerning Philo are found in his own works, especially in Legatio ad Gaium ("embassy to Gaius"), and in Josephus.^[3] The only event in his life that can be determined chronologically is his participation in the embassy in which the Alexandrian Jews were sent to the emperor Caligula at Rome as the result of civil strife between the Alexandrian Jewish and Greek communities. This occurred in the year 40 CE.

Ancestry, family and early life[link]

Philo was probably born with the name Julius Philo. Philo came from an aristocratic family which had lived in Alexandria for generations. His ancestors and family were contemporaries to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the rule of the Seleucid Empire. Although the names of his parents are unknown, Philo came from a family who were noble, honourable and wealthy. It was either his father or paternal grandfather who was granted Roman citizenship from Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. Philo had two brothers Alexander the Alabarch and Lysimachus.

His ancestors and family had social ties and connections to the Priesthood in Judea; Hasmonean Dynasty; Herodian Dynasty and Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome, though It is likely that Philo only visited the Temple in Jerusalem once in his lifetime.^[4] Philo would have been a contemporary to Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostles. Philo along with his brothers received a thorough education. They were educated in the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria and Roman culture, to a degree in Ancient Egyptian culture and particularly in the traditions of Judaism, in the study of Jewish traditional literature^[5] and in Greek philosophy.

Philo, through his brother Alexander, had two nephews Tiberius Julius Alexander and Marcus Julius Alexander. Marcus Julius Alexander was the first husband of the Herodian Princess Berenice. Marcus died in 43 or 44. (For the sources regarding this section see article Alexander the Alabarch).

Biography[link]

We find a brief reference to Philo by the 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus. In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus tells of Philo's selection by the Alexandrian Jewish community as their principal representative before the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula. He says that Philo agreed to represent the Alexandrian Jews in regard to civil disorder that had developed between the Jews and the Greeks in Alexandria (Egypt). Josephus also tells us that Philo was skilled in philosophy, and that he was brother to an official called Alexander the alabarch.^[6] According to Josephus, Philo and the larger Jewish community refused to treat the emperor as a god, to erect statues in honor of the emperor, and to build altars and temples to the emperor. Josephus says Philo believed that God actively supported this refusal.

Josephus' comments about Philo are so brief that we can quote them here in full:

"There was now a tumult arisen at Alexandria, between the Jewish inhabitants and the Greeks; and three ambassadors were chosen out of each party that were at variance, who came to Gaius. Now one of these ambassadors from the people of Alexandria was Apion, (29) who uttered many blasphemies against the Jews; and, among other things that he said, he charged them with neglecting the honors that belonged to Caesar; for that while all who were subject to the Roman empire built altars and temples to Gaius, and in other regards universally received him as they received the gods, these Jews alone thought it a dishonorable thing for them to erect statues in honor of him, as well as to swear by his name. Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Gaius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. But Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch, (30) and one not unskillful in philosophy, was ready to betake himself to make his defense against those accusations; but Gaius prohibited him, and bid him begone; he was also in such a rage, that it openly appeared he was about to do them some very great mischief. So Philo being thus affronted, went out, and said to those Jews who were about him, that they should be of good courage, since Gaius's words indeed showed anger at them, but in reality had already set God against himself." [Antiquities of the Jews, xviii.8, § 1, Whiston's translation (online)]

Our remaining information about Philo is based upon his own writings. Philo himself claims in his Embassy to Gaius to have been part of an embassy sent by the Alexandrian Jews to the Roman Emperor Caligula. Philo says he was carrying a petition which described the sufferings of the Alexandrian Jews, and which asked the emperor to secure their rights. Philo gives a detailed description of their sufferings, in a way that Josephus overlooks, to assert that the Alexandrian Jews were simply the victims of attacks by Alexandrian Greeks in the civil strife that had left many Jews and Greeks dead. Philo says he was regarded by his people as having unusual prudence, due to his age, education, and knowledge. This indicates that he was already an older man at this time (40 CE). Philo considers Caligula's plan to erect a statue of himself in the temple of Jerusalem to be a provocation, saying, "Are you making war upon us, because you anticipate that we will not endure such indignity, but that we will fight on behalf of our laws, and die in defence of our national customs? For you cannot possibly have been ignorant of what was likely to result from your attempt to introduce these innovations respecting our temple." In his entire presentation he implicitly supports the Jewish commitment to rebel against the emperor rather than allow such sacrilege to take place. This reveals Philo's identification with the Jewish community. [Embassy to Gaius, Chapter 28-31, Yonge's translation (online)].

In Flaccus, Philo tells indirectly of his own life in Alexandria by describing how the situation of Jews in Alexandria Egypt changed after Gaius Caligula became the emperor of Rome. Speaking of the large Jewish population in Egypt, Philo says that Alexandria "had two classes of inhabitants, our own nation and the people of the country, and that the whole of Egypt was inhabited in the same manner, and that Jews who inhabited Alexandria and the rest of the country from the Catabathmos on the side of Libya to the boundaries of Ethiopia were not less than a million of men." Regarding the large proportion of Jews in Alexandria, he writes, "There are five districts in the city, named after the first five letters of the written alphabet, of these two are called the quarters of the Jews, because the chief portion of the Jews lives in them." Other sources tell us that Caligula had been asking to receive the honors due to a god. Philo says Flaccus, the Roman governor over Alexandria, permitted a mob to erect statues of the Emperor Caius Caligula in Jewish synagogues of Alexandria, an unprecedented provocation. This invasion of the synagogues was perhaps resisted by force, since Philo then says that Flaccus "was destroying the synagogues, and not leaving even their name." In response, Philo says that Flaccus then "issued a notice in which he called us all foreigners and aliens... allowing any one who was inclined to proceed to exterminate the Jews as prisoners of war." Philo says that in response, the mobs "drove the Jews entirely out of four quarters, and crammed them all into a very small portion of one ... while the populace, overrunning their desolate houses, turned to plunder, and divided the booty among themselves as if they had obtained it in war." In addition, Philo says their enemies, "slew them and thousands of others with all kinds of agony and tortures, and newly invented cruelties, for wherever they met with or caught sight of a Jew, they stoned him, or beat him with sticks". Philo even says, "the most merciless of all their persecutors in some instances burnt whole families, husbands with their wives, and infant children with their parents, in the middle of the city, sparing neither age nor youth, nor the innocent helplessness of infants." Some men, he says, were dragged to death, while "those who did these things, mimicked the sufferers, like people employed in the representation of theatrical farces". Other Jews were crucified. Flaccus was eventually removed from office and exiled, ultimately suffering the punishment of death. [Flaccus, Chapters 6 - 9 (43, 53-56, 62, 66, 68, 71-72), Yonge's translation (online)].

Influence of Hellenism[link]

Philo quotes the epic poets with frequency, or alludes to passages in their works. He has a wide acquaintance with the works of the Greek philosophers. He holds that the highest perception of truth is possible only after an encyclopedic study of the sciences. The dualistic contrast between God and the world, between the finite and the infinite, appears in both Platonism and in Neo-Pythagorism. The influence of Stoicism is unmistakable in the doctrine of God as the only efficient cause, in that of divine reason immanent in the world, in that of the powers emanating from God and suffusing the world. In the doctrine of the Logos, various elements of Greek philosophy are united.

As Max Heinze shows,^[7] this doctrine touches upon the Platonic doctrine of ideas as well as the Stoic doctrine of the γενικώτατόν τι (literally: "general what" or "generic what"-- "that which cannot be categorized") and the Neo-Pythagorean doctrine of the type that served at the creation of the world; and in the shaping of the λόγος τομεύς ("dividing Logos") it touches upon the Heraclitean doctrine of strife as the moving principle. Philo's doctrine of dead, inert, non-existent matter harmonizes in its essentials with the Platonic and Stoic doctrine.

His account of the Creation is almost identical with that of Plato; he follows the latter's Timaeus closely. Like Plato, he places the creative activity as well as the act of creation outside of time, on the Platonic ground that time begins only with the world. The influence of Pythagorism appears in number-symbolism, to which Philo frequently refers.

The Aristotelian contrast between δύναμις ("power, might, strength") and ἐντελέχεια ("entelechy") (Metaphysics, iii.73) is found in Philo, De Allegoriis Legum, i.64 (on Aristotle see Freudenthal in "Monatsschrift," 1875, p. 233). In his psychology he adopts either the Stoic division of the soul into eight faculties, or the Platonic trichotomy of reason, courage, and desire, or the Aristotelian triad of the vegetative, emotive, and rational souls.

The doctrine of the body as the source of all evil corresponds entirely with the Neo-Pythagorean doctrine: the soul he conceives as a divine emanation, similar to Plato's νοῦς ("mind, understanding, reason") (see Siegfried, Philo, pp. 139ff). His ethics and allegories are based on Stoic ethics and allegories.

Philo made his philosophy the means of defending and justifying Jewish religious truths. These truths he regarded as fixed and determinate; and philosophy was used as an aid to truth, and as a means of arriving at it. With this end in view Philo chose from the philosophical tenets of the Greeks, refusing those that did not harmonize with the Jewish religion, as, e.g., the Aristotelian doctrine of the eternity and indestructibility of the world.

In turn, Philo may have influenced other faiths as well. Arguments were put forth in the 19th century that Philo was actually the founder of Christianity by virtue of his combination of Jewish theological ideas and those present in the Greek mystery religions, a combination of which would appear somewhat like Christianity. It is alleged that the followers of Jesus seized upon Philo's precepts and incorporated them into the letters that became the New Testament.^[8]

Knowledge of Hebrew[link]

Philo read the Jewish Scriptures chiefly in the Septuagint Greek translation. His knowledge of Hebrew has been a matter of scholarly dispute, with most scholars arguing that he did not read the language. One piece of evidence that supports that hypothesis is Philo's creative (often fanciful) use of etymologies. His knowledge of Jewish law and Midrash was extensive, but did not contribute significantly to later rabbinic tradition.

Exegesis[link]

Philo was influenced by Platonism to the extent that he is considered a Middle Platonist philosopher.^[9] He was also influenced by Stoicism, Neopythagoreanism, and Aristotle, as well as by Attic orators and historians. In his works one also finds Greek poetic phrases and allusions to the poets. Philo's works offer an anthology of Greek phraseology of the most different periods.

Philo's views derive from a combination of Hellenistic philosophy with the Jewish Bible, which he considers as the source and standard not only of religious truth but in general of all truth. Its pronouncements are for him divine pronouncements. They are the words of the ἱερὸς λόγος, ϑεῖος λόγος, ὀρϑὸς λόγος^[10] (holy word, godly word, upright word) uttered sometimes directly and sometimes through the mouth of a prophet, especially through Moses, whom Philo considers the real medium of revelation, while the other writers of the Old Testament appear as friends or pupils of Moses.

Although he distinguishes between the words uttered by God, as the Decalogue, and the edicts of Moses, as the special laws,^[11] he does not carry out this distinction, since he believes in general that everything in the Torah is of divine origin, even the letters and accents.^[12]

The Jewish Bible had not been canonized at the time of Philo, and the extent of his knowledge of Biblical books cannot be exactly determined. Philo does not quote Ezekiel, Daniel, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, or Esther. Philo regards the Bible as the source not only of religious revelation, but also of philosophic truth; for, according to him, the Greek philosophers also have borrowed from the Bible: Heraclitus, according to "Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit" § 43 [i.503]; Zeno, according to Quod Omnis Probus Liber, § 8 [ii.454].

Stoic influence[link]

Greek allegory had preceded Philo in this field. As the Stoic allegorists sought in Homer the basis for their philosophic teachings, so the Jewish allegorists, and especially Philo, went to the Old Testament. Following the methods of Stoic allegory, they interpreted the Bible philosophically (on Philo's Predecessors in the domain of the allegoristic Midrash among the Palestinian and Alexandrian Jews, see Siegfried, l.c. pp. 16–37).

Attitude toward literal meaning[link]

Philo bases his hermeneutics on the assumption of a twofold meaning in the Bible, the literal and the allegorical. He distinguishes the ῥητὴ καὶ φανερὰ ἀπόδοσις,^[13] "ad litteram" in contrast to "allegorice".^[14]

The two interpretations, however, are not of equal importance: the literal sense is adapted to human needs; but the allegorical sense is the real one, which only the initiated comprehend. Hence Philo addresses himself to the μύσται ("initiated") among his audience, by whom he expects to be really comprehended.^[15]

A special method is requisite for determining the real meaning of the words of Scripture;^[16] the correct application of this method determines the correct allegory, and is therefore called "the wise architect".^[17]

As a result of some of these rules of interpretation the literal sense of certain passages of the Bible must be excluded altogether; e.g., passages in which according to a literal interpretation something unworthy is said of God; or in which statements are made that are unworthy of the Bible, senseless, contradictory, or inadmissible; or in which allegorical expressions are used for the avowed purpose of drawing the reader's attention to the fact that the literal sense is to be disregarded.

He has special rules that direct the reader to recognize the passages which demand an allegorical interpretation, and which help the initiated to find the correct and intended meaning. These passages are such as contain:

1. The doubling of a phrase;
2. An apparently superfluous expression in the text;
3. The repetition of statements previously made;
4. A change of phraseology—all these phenomena point to something special that the reader must consider.
5. An entirely different meaning may also be found by a different combination of the words, disregarding the ordinarily accepted division of the sentence in question into phrases and clauses.
6. The synonyms must be carefully studied; e.g., why λαὸς ("people") is used in one passage and γένος ("genus") in another, etc.
7. A play upon words must be utilized for finding a deeper meaning; e.g., sheep (πρόβατa) stand for progress in knowledge, since they derive their name from the fact of their progressing (προβαίνειν), etc.
8. A definite allegorical sense may be gathered from certain particles, adverbs, prepositions, etc.;
9. and in certain cases it can be gathered even from the parts of a word; e.g., from διά in διάλευκος.
10. Every word must be explained in all its meanings, in order that different interpretations may be found.
11. The skillful interpreter may make slight changes in a word, following the rabbinical rule, "Read not this way, but that way." Philo, therefore, changed accents, breathings, etc., in Greek words.
12. Any peculiarity in a phrase justifies the assumption that some special meaning is intended: e.g., where μία ("one") is used instead of πρώτη ("first"; Gen. i.5), etc. Details regarding the form of words are very important:
13. The number of the word, if it shows any peculiarity in the singular or the plural: the tense of the verb, etc.;
14. The gender of the noun;
15. The presence or omission of the article;
16. The artificial interpretation of a single expression;
17. The position of the verses of a passage;
18. Peculiar verse-combinations;
19. Noteworthy omissions;
20. Striking statements;
21. Numeral symbolism. Philo found much material for this symbolism in the Hebrew Bible, and he developed it more thoroughly according to the methods of the Pythagoreans and Stoics. He could follow in many points the tradition handed down by his allegorizing predecessors.^[18]

Numbers[link]

Philo analyzed the usage of numbers of the Bible, and believed that certain numbers symbolized different ideas.

• Philo regards number one as God's number, and the basis for all numbers ("De Allegoriis Legum," ii.12 [i.66]).
• Philo regards number two as the number of schism, of that which has been created, of death ("De Opificio Mundi, § 9 [i.7]; "De Allegoriis Legum," i.2 [i.44]; "De Somaniis," ii.10 [i.688]).
• Three is the number of the body ("De Allegoriis Legum," i. 2 [i.44]) or of the Divine Being in connection with His fundamental powers ("De Sacrificiis Abelis et Caini," § 15 [i.173]).
• Four is potentially what the number ten actually is, the perfect number ("De Opificio Mundi," §§ 15, 16 [i.10, 11], etc.); but in an evil sense four is the number of the passions, πάθη ("De Congressu Quærendæ Eruditionis Gratia." § 17 [i.532]).
• Five is the number of the senses and of sensibility ("De Opificio Mundi," § 20 [i.14], etc.).
• Six, the product of the masculine and feminine numbers 3 × 2 and in its parts equal to 3+3, is the symbol of the movement of organic beings ("De Allegoriis Legum," i.2 [i.44]).
• Seven has the most various and marvelous attributes ("De Opiticio Mundi," §§ 30-43 [i.21 et seq.]).
• Eight, the number of the cube, has many of the attributes determined by the Pythagoreans ("Quæstiones in Genesin," iii.49 [i.223, Aucher]).
• Nine is the number of strife, according to Gen. xiv. ("De Congressu Qu. Eruditionis Gratia," § 17 [i.532]).
• Ten is the number of perfection ("De Plantatione Noë," § 29 [i.347]).

Philo determines also the values of the numbers 50, 70, and 100, 12, and 120.

Cosmology[link]

Philo's conception of the matter out of which the world was created is similar to that of the Stoics. According to him, God does not create the world-stuff, but finds it ready at hand.^{[citation needed]} God cannot create it, as in its nature it resists all contact with the divine. Sometimes, following the Stoics, he designates God as "the efficient cause,"and matter as "the affected cause." He seems to have found this conception in the Bible (Gen. i.2) in the image of the spirit of God hovering over the waters ("De Opificio Mundi," § 2 [i.12]).

Philo, again like Plato and the Stoics, conceives of matter as having no attributes or form. Philo conceives of matter as evil,^{[citation needed]} on the ground that no praise is meted out to it in Genesis ("Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit," § 160 [i.495]). God appears as demiurge (Greek: craftsman) and cosmoplast (Greek: universe molder).

Philo frequently compares God to an architect or gardener, who formed the present world (the κόσμος ἀισϑητός) according to a pattern, the ideal world (κόσμος νοητός). Philo takes the details of his story of the Creation entirely from Genesis 1, the Elohist account^{[clarification needed]}.^{[note 1]} He assigns an especially important position to the Logos, which executes the several acts of the Creation, as God cannot come into contact with matter, actually creating only the soul of the good. The philosophical term Logos (word, reason) parallels the Hebrew phrase "word of God" ("dabar Yahweh"), which the Hebrew Bible portrays as bearing God's message, especially to his prophets.

Anthropology[link]

Emil Schurer (The Literature of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus, pp. 329–331) characterized the allegorical program of Philo as follows: "Especially is it a fundamental thought, from which the exposition is everywhere deduced, that the history of mankind as related in Genesis is in reality nothing else than a system of psychology and ethic."

Philo regards the physical nature of man as something defective and as an obstacle to his development that can never be fully surmounted, but still as something indispensable in view of the nature of his being. With the body the necessity for food arises, as Philo explains in various allegories. The body, however, is also of advantage to the spirit, since the spirit arrives at its knowledge of the world by means of the five senses. But higher and more important is the spiritual nature of man. This nature has a twofold tendency: one toward the sensual and earthly, which Philo calls sensibility (αἴσϑησις), and one toward the spiritual, which he calls Intellect or Reason (νοῦς).

Sensibility has its seat in the body, and lives in the senses, as Philo elaborates in varying allegoric imagery. Connected with this corporeality of the sensibility are its limitations; but, like the body itself, it is a necessity of nature, the channel of all sense-perception. Sensibility, however, is still more in need of being guided by reason. Reason is that part of the spirit which looks toward heavenly things. It is the highest, the real divine gift that has been infused into man from without ("De Opiticio Mundi," i.15; "De Eo Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiatur," i.206); it is the masculine nature of the soul. The νοῦς ("mind") is originally at rest; and when it begins to move it produces the several phenomena of mind (ἔνϑυμήματα). The principal powers of the νοῦς are judgment, memory, and language.

More important in Philo's system is the doctrine of the moral development of man. Of this he distinguishes two conditions: (1) that before time was, and (2) that since the beginning of time. In the pretemporal condition the soul was without body, free from earthly matter. Without sex, in the condition of the generic (γενικός) man, morally perfect, i.e., without flaws, but still striving after a higher purity. On entering upon time the soul loses its purity and is confined in a body. The nous becomes earthly, but it retains a tendency toward something higher.

Philo is not entirely certain whether the body in itself or merely in its preponderance over the spirit is evil. But the body in any case is a source of danger, as it easily drags the spirit into the bonds of sensibility. In effect (as for St. Paul), the flesh and spirit are in conflict (Guthrie, The Message of Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, p. 38f) However Philo is undecided whether sensibility is in itself evil, or whether it may merely lead into temptation, and must itself be regarded as a mean (μέσον). Sensibility in any case is the source of the passions and desires. The passions attack the sensibility in order to destroy the whole soul. On their number and their symbols in Scripture see Siegfried, l.c. pp. 245 et seq. The "desire" is either the lustful enjoyment of sensual things, dwelling as such in the abdominal cavity (κοιλία), or it is the craving for this enjoyment, dwelling in the breast. It connects the nous and the sensibility, this being a psychological necessity, but an evil from an ethical point of view.

According to Philo, man passes through several steps in his ethical development. At first the several elements of the human being are in a state of latency, presenting a kind of moral neutrality which Philo designates by the terms "naked" or "medial." The nous is nude, or stands midway so long as it has not decided either for sin or for virtue. In this period of moral indecision God endeavors to prepare the earthly nous for virtue, presenting to him in the "earthly wisdom and virtue" an image of heavenly wisdom. But man (nous) quickly leaves this state of neutrality. As soon as he meets the woman (sensibility) he is filled with desire, and passion ensnares him in the bonds of sensibility. Here the moral duties of man arise; and according to his attitude there are two opposite tendencies in humanity.

Ethics[link]

Scan from Die Schedelsche Weltchronik

The soul is first aroused by the stimuli of sensual pleasures; it begins to turn toward them, and then becomes more and more involved. It becomes devoted to the body, and begins to lead an intolerable life (βίος ἄβίωτος). It is inflamed and excited by irrational impulses. Its condition is restless and painful. The sensibility endures, according to Gen. iii.16, great pain. A continual inner void produces a lasting desire which is never satisfied. All the higher aspirations are stilled. The end is complete moral turpitude, the annihilation of all sense of duty, the corruption of the entire soul: not a particle of the soul that might heal the rest remains whole.

The worst consequence of this moral death is, according to Philo, absolute ignorance and the loss of the power of judgment. Sensual things are placed above spiritual; and wealth is regarded as the highest good. Too great a value especially is placed upon the human nous; and things are wrongly judged. Man in his folly even opposes God, and thinks to scale heaven and subjugate the entire earth. In the field of politics, for example, he attempts to rise from the position of leader of the people to that of ruler (Philo cites Joseph as a type of this kind). Sensual man generally employs his intellectual powers for sophistry, perverting words and destroying truth.

The biblical patriarch Abraham is seen by Philo as the symbol of man leaving sensuality to turn to reason.^[19] Philo holds that there are three methods whereby one can rise toward the divine: through teaching, through practise (ἄσκησις), and through natural goodness (ὁσιότης).

Views on virtue[link]

Philo holds that good moral endowment takes precedence of teaching and practise. Virtue here is not the result of hard labor, but is the excellent fruit maturing of itself. The biblical character Noah represents the preliminary stage. Noah is praised, while no really good deeds are reported of him, whence it may be concluded that the Bible refers to his good disposition. But as Noah is praised only in comparison with his contemporaries, it follows that he is not yet a perfect man.

Philo holds that there are several types in the Bible representing the perfect stage. It appears in its purest form in the biblical patriarch Isaac. Isaac is perfect from the beginning: perfection is a part of his nature (φύσις); and he can never lose it (αὑτήκοος καὶ αὑτομάϑης). With such persons, therefore, the soul is in a state of rest and joy.

Philo's doctrine of virtue is Stoic, although he is undecided whether complete dispassionateness (άπάϑεια^[20]) or moderation (μετριοπαϑεῑν^[21]) designates the really virtuous condition. Philo identifies virtue in itself and in general with divine wisdom. Hence he uses the symbols interchangeably for both; and as he also frequently identifies the Logos with divine wisdom, the allegoric designations here too are easily interchanged.

The Garden of Eden is "the wisdom of God" and also "the Logos of God" and "virtue." The fundamental virtue is goodness; and from it proceed four cardinal virtues—prudence, courage, self-control, and justice (φρόνησις, ἀνδρία, σωφροσύνη, δικαιοσύνη)—as the four rivers proceeding from the river of Eden.

An essential difference between Philo and the Stoics is found in the fact that Philo seeks in religion the basis for all ethics. Religion helps man to attain to virtue, which he can not reach of himself, as the Stoics hold. God must implant virtue in man.^[22] Hence the goal of the ethical endeavor is a religious one: the ecstatic contemplation of God and the disembodiment of souls after death.

Notes[link]

1. ^ Scholarly consensus is that Genesis 1:1-2:4a was written by the Priestly Writer; there was no Elohist version of creation.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Elephantine papyri
• Aulus Avilius Flaccus
• Cairo Geniza
• Leopold Cohn
• Jewish temple at Elephantine
• Land of Onias
• Moses in rabbinic literature
• Philo's view of God
• Philo's Works
• Philosophy
• Pseudo-Philo
• Paul Wendland

References[link]

External links[link]