Plutarch and Platonist Orthodoxy

The question of the place of Plutarch within the Platonic School is still a live one, but it has changed its nature somewhat in recent years, especially in view of the successful demolition of the Platonic Academy as an institution in his day,1 and the inevitable fall-out from that in terms of positing a coherent doctrinal tradition within Platonism. The removal of the actual institution which might maintain (or propound) orthodoxy does not in itself, it would seem, dispose of the general concept of a Platonic orthodoxy, the alternatives to which are necessarily "heresy" or "eclecticism." Plutarch in his day has been accused of both of these deviations. The concept of orthodoxy itself, then, and the standing of Plutarch within the Platonic School, both still merit examination. Plutarch's position in the Platonist tradition cannot be properly evaluated, however, it seems to me, so long as the notion of an "orthodox" Platonism is maintained, whether propounded by an official Platonic Academy, or not. Heinrich Dorrie, in an article published in 1971,2 before Lynch and Glucker had published their books (with which, however, he would not necessarily have agreed),3 distorts the position of Plutarch by postulating something that he calls "Schulplatonismus," which he sees represented by such figures as Taurus in Athens, and Albinus in Smyrna (Plutarch's teacher Ammonius he is not too sure about, op. cit. p. 36, n. 1). But in fact we have no indication that there was in Athens at this time—let