Plotinus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Photinus.
Plotinus
The Enneads[1]
EraAncient philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolNeoplatonism[1][2][3][4]
Main interests
Platonism, metaphysics, mysticism[1][3][4][5]
Notable ideas
Emanation of all things from the One[5]
Three main hypostases: the One, Intellect, and Soul[3][5]
Henosis[5]
Part of a series on
Neoplatonism
Reconstructed bust believed to represent Plotinus
Reconstructed bust believed to represent Plotinus
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Plotinus (

The Enneads.[1] In his metaphysical writings, Plotinus described three fundamental principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul.[3][5][6] His works have inspired centuries of pagan, Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, and early Islamic metaphysicians and mystics
, including developing precepts that influence mainstream theological concepts within religions, such as his work on duality of the One in two metaphysical states.

Biography

Greek education".[11] Plotinus himself was said to have had little interest in his ancestry, birthplace, or that of anyone else for that matter.[12] His native language was Greek.[13][14]

Plotinus had an inherent distrust of materiality (an attitude common to Platonism), holding to the view that phenomena were a poor image or mimicry (mimesis) of something "higher and intelligible" (VI.I) which was the "truer part of genuine Being". This distrust extended to the body, including his own; it is reported by Porphyry that at one point he refused to have his portrait painted, presumably for much the same reasons of dislike. Likewise, Plotinus never discussed his ancestry, childhood, or his place or date of birth.[15] From all accounts his personal and social life exhibited the highest moral and spiritual standards.

Plotinus took up the study of

self-taught Platonist philosopher Ammonius Saccas.[2][3][4] Upon hearing Ammonius' lecture, Plotinus declared to his friend: "this is the man I was looking for",[2] began to study intently under his new instructor, and remained with him as his student for eleven years.[2][3][4] Besides Ammonius, Plotinus was also influenced by the philosophical works of Aristotle,[1] the pre-Socratic philosophers Empedocles and Heraclitus,[16] the Middle Platonist philosophers Alexander of Aphrodisias and Numenius of Apamea, along with various Stoics[1] and Neopythagoreans.[16]

Expedition to Persia and return to Rome

After having spent eleven years in Alexandria, he then decided, at the age of around thirty-eight, to investigate the philosophical teachings of the

Persia (242–243).[2][4] However, the campaign was a failure, and on Gordian's eventual death Plotinus found himself abandoned in a hostile land, and only with difficulty found his way back to safety in Antioch.[2][4]

At the age of forty, during the reign of Emperor

Cassius Longinus
.

Later life

his disciples on a Roman sarcophagus in the Museo Gregoriano Profano, Vatican Museums
, Rome

While in Rome, Plotinus also gained the respect of the Emperor Gallienus and his wife Salonina. At one point Plotinus attempted to interest Gallienus in rebuilding an abandoned settlement in Campania, known as the 'City of Philosophers', where the inhabitants would live under the constitution set out in Plato's Laws. An Imperial subsidy was never granted, for reasons unknown to Porphyry, who reports the incident.

Plotinus subsequently went to live in Sicily. He spent his final days in seclusion on an estate in Campania which his friend Zethos had bequeathed him. According to the account of Eustochius, who attended him at the end, Plotinus' final words were: "Try to raise the divine in yourselves to the divine in the all."[19] Eustochius records that a snake crept under the bed where Plotinus lay, and slipped away through a hole in the wall; at the same moment the philosopher died.

Plotinus wrote the essays that became the Enneads (from Greek ἐννέα (ennéa), or group of nine) over a period of several years from c. 253 until a few months before his death seventeen years later. Porphyry makes note that the Enneads, before being compiled and arranged by himself, were merely the enormous collection of notes and essays which Plotinus used in his lectures and debates, rather than a formal book. Plotinus was unable to revise his own work due to his poor eyesight, yet his writings required extensive editing, according to Porphyry: his master's handwriting was atrocious, he did not properly separate his words, and he cared little for niceties of spelling. Plotinus intensely disliked the editorial process, and turned the task to Porphyry, who polished and edited them into their modern form.

Major ideas

The One

See also: Substance theory

Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "

being and non-being. His "One" "cannot be any existing thing", nor is it merely the sum of all things (compare the Stoic
doctrine of disbelief in non-material existence), but "is prior to all existents". Plotinus identified his "One" with the concept of 'Good' and the principle of 'Beauty'. (I.6.9)

His "One" concept encompassed thinker and object. Even the self-contemplating intelligence (the

dynamis) without which nothing could exist. (III.8.10) As Plotinus explains in both places and elsewhere (e.g. V.6.3), it is impossible for the One to be Being or a self-aware Creator God. At (V.6.4), Plotinus compared the One to "light", the Divine Intellect/Nous (Νοῦς, Nous; first will towards Good) to the "Sun", and lastly the Soul (Ψυχή, Psyche
) to the "Moon" whose light is merely a "derivative conglomeration of light from the 'Sun'". The first light could exist without any celestial body.

The One, being beyond all attributes including being and non-being, is the source of the world—but not through any act of creation, since activity cannot be ascribed to the unchangeable, immutable One. Plotinus argues instead that the multiple cannot exist without the simple. The "less perfect" must, of necessity, "emanate", or issue forth, from the "perfect" or "more perfect". Thus, all of "creation" emanates from the One in succeeding stages of lesser and lesser perfection. These stages are not temporally isolated, but occur throughout time as a constant process.

The One is not just an intellectual concept but something that can be experienced, an experience where one goes beyond all multiplicity.[20] Plotinus writes, "We ought not even to say that he will see, but he will be that which he sees, if indeed it is possible any longer to distinguish between seer and seen, and not boldly to affirm that the two are one."[21]

Emanation by the One

Although Plotinus never mentions Christianity in any of his works, he seems to offer an alternative to the orthodox

ex nihilo (out of nothing), though this is disputed. The metaphysics of emanation (ἀπορροή aporrhoe (ΙΙ.3.2) or ἀπόρροια aporrhoia (II.3.11)) (literally, a flowing ροη forth απο), similar to the metaphysics of Creation, describes the absolute transcendence of the One or of the Divine, as the source of the Being of all things, but which remains transcendent of them in its own nature. The One, is in no way affected or diminished by these emanations, just as the Christian God in no way is augmented or diminished by the act of Creation. Plotinus, using a venerable analogy that would become crucial for the (largely neoplatonic) metaphysics of developed Christian thought, likens the One to the Sun which emanates light indiscriminately without thereby diminishing itself, or reflection in a mirror which in no way diminishes or otherwise alters the object being reflected.[22]

The first emanation is

being and thus the least perfected level of the cosmos. Plotinus asserted the ultimately divine nature of material creation since it ultimately derives from the One, through the mediums of Nous and the world soul. It is by the Good or through beauty that we recognize the One, in material things and then in the Forms
. (I.6.6 and I.6.9)

The essentially devotional nature of Plotinus' philosophy may be further illustrated by his concept of attaining ecstatic union with the One (henosis). Porphyry relates that Plotinus attained such a union four times during the years he knew him. This may be related to enlightenment, liberation, and other concepts of mysticism common to many Eastern traditions.[23]

The true human and happiness

The philosophy of Plotinus has always exerted a peculiar fascination upon those whose discontent with things as they are has led them to seek the realities behind what they took to be merely the appearances of the sense.

The philosophy of Plotinus: representative books from the Enneads, p. vii[24]

Authentic human happiness for Plotinus consists of the true human identifying with that which is the best in the universe. Because happiness is beyond anything physical, Plotinus stresses the point that worldly fortune does not control true human happiness, and thus “… there exists no single human being that does not either potentially or effectively possess this thing we hold to constitute happiness.” (Enneads I.4.4) The issue of happiness is one of Plotinus’ greatest imprints on Western thought, as he is one of the first to introduce the idea that eudaimonia (happiness) is attainable only within consciousness.

The true human is an incorporeal contemplative capacity of the soul, and superior to all things corporeal. It then follows that real human happiness is independent of the physical world. Real happiness is, instead, dependent on the metaphysical and authentic human being found in this highest capacity of Reason. “For man, and especially the Proficient, is not the Couplement of Soul and body: the proof is that man can be disengaged from the body and disdain its nominal goods.” (Enneads I.4.14) The human who has achieved happiness will not be bothered by sickness, discomfort, etc., as his focus is on the greatest things. Authentic human happiness is the utilization of the most authentically human capacity of contemplation. Even in daily, physical action, the flourishing human’s “… Act is determined by the higher phase of the Soul.” (Enneads III.4.6) Even in the most dramatic arguments Plotinus considers (if the Proficient is subject to extreme physical torture, for example), he concludes this only strengthens his claim of true happiness being metaphysical, as the truly happy human being would understand that which is being tortured is merely a body, not the conscious self, and happiness could persist.

Plotinus offers a comprehensive description of his conception of a person who has achieved eudaimonia. “The perfect life” involves a man who commands reason and contemplation. (Enneads I.4.4) A happy person will not sway between happy and sad, as many of Plotinus' contemporaries believed. Stoics, for example, question the ability of someone to be happy (presupposing happiness is contemplation) if they are mentally incapacitated or even asleep. Plotinus disregards this claim, as the soul and true human do not sleep or even exist in time, nor will a living human who has achieved eudaimonia suddenly stop using its greatest, most authentic capacity just because of the body’s discomfort in the physical realm. “… The Proficient’s will is set always and only inward.” (Enneads I.4.11)

Overall, happiness for Plotinus is "... a flight from this world's ways and things." (Theaet. 176) and a focus on the highest, i.e. Forms and the One.

Plotinus regarded happiness as living in an interior way (interiority or self-sufficiency), and this being the obverse of attachment to the objects of embodied desires.[25]

Henosis

Main article: Henosis

Henosis is the word for mystical "oneness", "union", or "unity" in classical Greek. In Platonism, and especially neoplatonism, the goal of henosis is union with what is fundamental in reality: the One (τὸ Ἕν), the Source, or Monad.[26]

As is specified in the writings of Plotinus on

dyad called the material world. Nous as being; being and perception (intellect) manifest what is called soul (World Soul).[27]

Henosis for Plotinus was defined in his works as a reversing of the ontological process of consciousness via

immanent, with matter as essential to its being, having no true or transcendential character or essence, substance or ousia (οὐσία). This approach is called philosophical Idealism.[29]

Relation with contemporary philosophy and religion

Plotinus's Relation to Plato

See also: Allegorical interpretations of Plato

For several centuries after the

Protestant Reformation, neoplatonism was condemned as a decadent and 'oriental' distortion of Platonism. In a 1929 essay, E. R. Dodds showed that key conceptions of neoplatonism could be traced from their origin in Plato's dialogues, through his immediate followers (e.g., Speusippus) and the neopythagoreans, to Plotinus and the neoplatonists. Thus Plotinus' philosophy was, he argued, 'not the starting-point of neoplatonism but its intellectual culmination.'[30] Further research reinforced this view and by 1954 Merlan could say 'The present tendency is toward bridging rather than widening the gap separating Platonism from neoplatonism.'[31]

Since the 1950s, the

Old Academy strongly resemble Plotinus's metaphysics. In this case, the neoplatonic reading of Plato would be, at least in this central area, historically justified. This implies that neoplatonism is less of an innovation than it appears without the recognition of Plato's unwritten doctrines. Advocates of the Tübingen School emphasize this advantage of their interpretation. They see Plotinus as advancing a tradition of thought begun by Plato himself. Plotinus's metaphysics, at least in broad outline, was therefore already familiar to the first generation of Plato's students. This confirms Plotinus' own view, for he considered himself not the inventor of a system but the faithful interpreter of Plato's doctrines.[32]

Plotinus and the Gnostics

See also: Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

At least two modern conferences within Hellenic philosophy fields of study have been held in order to address what Plotinus stated in his tract Against the Gnostics and to whom he was addressing it, in order to separate and clarify the events and persons involved in the origin of the term "Gnostic". From the dialogue, it appears that the word had an origin in the Platonic and Hellenistic tradition long before the group calling themselves "Gnostics"—or the group covered under the modern term "Gnosticism"—ever appeared. It would seem that this shift from Platonic to Gnostic usage has led many people to confusion. The strategy of sectarians taking

Alexander of Abonutichus
for an example).

According to A. H. Armstrong, Plotinus and the

sectarianism to the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy of the Mediterranean and Middle East.[note 2] Also according to Armstrong, Plotinus accused them of using senseless jargon and being overly dramatic and insolent in their distortion of Plato's ontology."[note 3]
Armstrong argues that Plotinus attacks his opponents as untraditional, irrational and immoral[note 4][note 5] and arrogant.[note 6] Armstrong believed that Plotinus also attacks them as elitist and blasphemous to Plato for the Gnostics despising the material world and its maker.[note 7]

For decades, Armstrong's was the only translation available of Plotinus. For this reason, his claims were authoritative. However, a modern translation by Lloyd P. Gerson doesn't necessarily support all of Armstrong's views. Unlike Armstrong, Gerson didn't find Plotinus to be so vitriolic against the Gnostics.[33] According to Gerson:

As Plotinus himself tells us, at the time of this treatise’s composition some of his friends were ‘attached’ to Gnostic doctrine, and he believed that this attachment was harmful. So he sets out here a number of objections and corrections. Some of these are directed at very specific tenets of Gnosticism, e.g. the introduction of a ‘new earth’ or a principle of ‘Wisdom’, but the general thrust of this treatise has a much broader scope. The Gnostics are very critical of the sensible universe and its contents, and as a Platonist, Plotinus must share this critical attitude to some extent. But here he makes his case that the proper understanding of the highest principles and emanation forces us to respect the sensible world as the best possible imitation of the intelligible world.

Plotinus seems to direct his attacks at a very specific sect of Gnostics, most notably a sect of Gnostics that held anti-polytheistic and anti-daemon views, and that preached salvation was possible without struggle.[33] At one point, Plotinus makes clear that his major grudge is the way Gnostics 'misused' Plato's teachings, and not their own teachings themselves:

There are no hard feelings if they tell us in which respects they intend to disagree with Plato [...] Rather, whatever strikes them as their own distinct views in comparison with the Greeks’, these views – as well as the views that contradict them – should be forthrightly set out on their own in a considerate and philosophical manner.

The neoplatonic movement (though Plotinus would have simply referred to himself as a philosopher of Plato) seems to be motivated by the desire of Plotinus to revive the pagan philosophical tradition.

dystheism of the creator God as an answer to the problem of evil
) as the targets of his criticism.

Against causal astrology

Plotinus seems to be one of the first to have argued against the then popular notion of causal

ensouled, as witnessed by their movement
.

Film studies

Plotinian concepts have been discussed in a cinematic context and relate Plotinus' theory of time as a transitory intelligible movement of the soul to Bergson’s and Deleuze’s time-image.[36]

Influence

Ancient world

The emperor

Julian the Apostate was deeply influenced by neoplatonism,[37] as was Hypatia of Alexandria.[38] Neoplatonism influenced many Christians as well, including Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.[39][40] St. Augustine, though often referred to as a "Platonist", acquired his Platonist philosophy through the mediation of the Neoplatonist teachings of Plotinus.[41][42]

Christianity

Plotinus' philosophy had an influence on the development of Christian theology. In A History of Western Philosophy, philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote that:

To the Christian, the Other World was the Kingdom of Heaven, to be enjoyed after death; to the Platonist, it was the eternal world of ideas, the real world as opposed to that of illusory appearance. Christian theologians combined these points of view, and embodied much of the philosophy of Plotinus. [...] Plotinus, accordingly, is historically important as an influence in moulding the Christianity of the Middle Ages and of theology.[43]

The

Roman Catholic Church, and in part this is attributed to varying interpretations of Aristotle and Plotinus, either through Thomas Aquinas for the Roman Catholics or Gregory Palamas for the Orthodox Christians.[citation needed
]

Islam

Neoplatonism and the ideas of Plotinus influenced medieval Islam as well, since the

da'i.[44] Neoplatonism was brought to the Fatimid court by Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, although his teachings differed from Nasafi and Sijistani, who were more aligned with the original teachings of Plotinus.[45] The teachings of Kirmani in turn influenced philosophers such as Nasir Khusraw of Persia.[45]

Judaism

As with Islam and Christianity, neoplatonism in general and Plotinus in particular influenced speculative thought. Notable thinkers expressing neoplatonist themes are Solomon ibn Gabirol (Latin: Avicebron) and Moses ben Maimon (Latin: Maimonides). As with Islam and Christianity, apophatic theology and the privative nature of evil are two prominent themes that such thinkers picked up from either Plotinus or his successors.

Renaissance

In the

Pico della Mirandola
, author of An Oration on the Dignity of Man.

Great Britain

In Great Britain, Plotinus was the cardinal influence on the 17th-century school of the

W. B. Yeats and Kathleen Raine.[46][47][48][49]

India

Vedantic thought.[citation needed] Coomaraswamy has compared Plotinus' teachings to the Hindu school of Advaita Vedanta (advaita meaning "not two" or "non-dual").[50] M. Vasudevacharya says, "Though Plotinus never managed to reach India, his method shows an affinity to the 'method of negation' as taught in some of the Upanishads, such as the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, and also to the practice of yoga."[51]

Advaita Vedanta and neoplatonism have been compared by J. F. Staal,[52] Frederick Copleston,[53] Aldo Magris and Mario Piantelli,[54] Radhakrishnan,[55] Gwen Griffith-Dickson,[56] and John Y. Fenton.[57]

The joint influence of Advaitin and neoplatonic ideas on Ralph Waldo Emerson was considered by Dale Riepe in 1967.[58]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Plotinus:
    * "Our thought cannot grasp the One as long as any other image remains active in the soul. To this end, you must set free your soul from all outward things and turn wholly within yourself, with no more leaning to what lies outside, and lay your mind bare of ideal forms, as before of the objects of sense, and forget even yourself, and so come within sight of that One. (6.9.7)
    * "If he remembers who he became when he merged with the One, he will bear its image in himself. He was himself one, with no diversity in himself or his outward relations; for no movement was in him, no passion, no desire for another, once the ascent was accomplished. Nor indeed was there any reason or though, nor, if we dare say it, any trace of himself." (6.9.11)
  2. ^ From Introduction to Against the Gnostics in Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220–222:
    The treatise as it stands in the Enneads is a most powerful protest on behalf of Hellenic philosophy against the un-Hellenic heresy (as it was from the Platonist as well as the orthodox Christian point of view) of Gnosticism. There were Gnostics among Plotinus's own friends, whom he had not succeeded in converting (Enneads ch.10 of this treatise) and he and his pupils devoted considerable time and energy to anti-Gnostic controversy (Life of Plotinus ch.16). He obviously considered Gnosticism an extremely dangerous influence, likely to pervert the minds even of members of his own circle. It is impossible to attempt to give an account of Gnosticism here. By far the best discussion of what the particular group of Gnostics Plotinus knew believed is M. Puech's admirable contribution to Entretiens Hardt V (Les Sourcesde Plotin). But it is important for the understanding of this treatise to be clear about the reasons why Plotinus disliked them so intensely and thought their influence so harmful.
  3. ^ From Introduction to Against the Gnostics in Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220–222:
    Short statement of the doctrine of the three hypostasis, the One, Intellect and Soul; there cannot be more or fewer than these three.
    1. Criticism of the attempts to multiply the hypostasis, and especially of the idea of two intellects, one which thinks and that other which thinks that it thinks. (Against the Gnostics, Enneads ch. 1). The true doctrine of Soul (ch. 2).
    2. The law of necessary procession and the eternity of the universe (ch. 3).
    – Attack on the Gnostic doctrine of the making of the universe by a fallen soul, and on their despising of the universe and the heavenly bodies (chs. 4–5).
    – The sense-less jargon of the Gnostics, their plagiarism from and perversion of Plato, and their insolent arrogance (ch. 6).
    3. The true doctrine about Universal Soul and the goodness of the universe which it forms and rules (chs. 7–8).
    4. Refutation of objections from the inequalities and injustices of human life (ch. 9).
    5. Ridiculous arrogance of the Gnostics who refuse to acknowledge the hierarchy of created gods and spirits and say that they alone are sons of God and superior to the heavens (ch. 9).
    6. The absurdities of the Gnostic doctrine of the fall of "Wisdom" (Sophia) and of the generation and activities of the Demiurge, maker of the visible universe (chs. 10–12).
    7. False and melodramatic Gnostic teaching about the cosmic spheres and their influence (ch. 13).
    8. The blasphemous falsity of the Gnostic claim to control the higher powers by magic and the absurdity of their claim to cure diseases by casting out demons (ch. 14).
    9. The false other-worldliness of the Gnostics leads to immorality (ch. 15).
    10. The true Platonic other-worldliness, which loves and venerates the material universe in all its goodness and beauty as the most perfect possible image of the intelligible, contracted at length with the false, Gnostic, other-worldliness which hates and despises the material universe and its beauties (chs. 16–18).
    A. H. Armstrong, Introduction to Against the Gnostics in Plotinus' Enneads, pages 220–222
  4. ^ From Introduction to Against the Gnostics in Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220–222:
    The teaching of the Gnostics seems to him untraditional, irrational and immoral. They despise and revile the ancient Platonic teaching and claim to have a new and superior wisdom of their own: but in fact anything that is true in their teaching comes from Plato, and all they have done themselves is to add senseless complications and pervert the true traditional doctrine into a melodramatic, superstitious fantasy designed to feed their own delusions of grandeur. They reject the only true way of salvation through wisdom and virtue, the slow patient study of truth and pursuit of perfection by men who respect the wisdom of the ancients and that know their place in the universe. Pages 220–222
  5. ^ Introduction to Against the Gnostics in Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220–222:
    9. The false other-worldliness of the Gnostics leads to immorality (Enneads ch. 15).
  6. ^ Introduction to Against the Gnostics in Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220–222:
    Ridiculous arrogance of the Gnostics who refuse to acknowledge the hierarchy of created gods and spirits and say that they alone are sons of God and superior to the heavens (Enneads ch. 9)
  7. ^ They claim to be a privileged caste of beings, in whom alone God is interested, and who are saved not by their own efforts but by some dramatic and arbitrary divine proceeding; and this, Plotinus says, leads to immorality. Worst of all, they despise and hate the material universe and deny its goodness and the goodness of its maker. This for a Platonist is utter blasphemy, and all the worse because it obviously derives to some extent from the sharply other-worldly side of Plato's own teaching (e.g. in the Phaedo). At this point in his attack Plotinus comes very close in some ways to the orthodox Christian opponents of Gnosticism, who also insist that this world is the good work of God in his goodness. But, here as on the question of salvation, the doctrine which Plotinus is defending is as sharply opposed on other ways to orthodox Christianity as to Gnosticism: for he maintains not only the goodness of the material universe but also its eternity and its divinity. The idea that the universe could have a beginning and end is inseparably connected in his mind with the idea that the divine action in making it is arbitrary and irrational. And to deny the divinity (though a subordinate and dependent divinity) of the World-Soul, and of those noblest of embodied living beings the heavenly bodies, seems to him both blasphemous and unreasonable. Pages 220–222
  8. ^ "... as Plotinus had endeavored to revive the religious spirit of paganism".[34]

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 2213-1426
    .
  2. ^
    Philip the Arabian was proclaimed emperor. Plotinus escaped with difficulty and made his way back to Antioch. From there he went to Rome, where he settled at the age of 40. [...] Plotinus's own thought shows some striking similarities to Indian philosophy
    , but he never actually made contact with Eastern sages because of the failure of the expedition. Though direct or indirect contact with Indians educated in their own religious-philosophical traditions may not have been impossible in 3rd-century Alexandria, the resemblances of the philosophy of Plotinus to Indian thought were more likely a natural development of the Greek tradition that he inherited.
  3. ^
    OCLC 643092515. Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2021. Plotinus (204/5 – 270), is generally regarded as the founder of neoplatonism. He is one of the most influential philosophers in antiquity after Plato and Aristotle. The term 'neoplatonism' is an invention of early 19th century European scholarship and indicates the penchant of historians for dividing 'periods' in history. In this case, the term was intended to indicate that Plotinus initiated a new phase in the development of the Platonic tradition. What this 'newness' amounted to, if anything, is controversial, largely because one's assessment of it depends upon one's assessment of what Platonism is. In fact, Plotinus (like all his successors) regarded himself simply as a Platonist, that is, as an expositor and defender of the philosophical position whose greatest exponent was Plato himself. [...] The three basic principles of Plotinus' metaphysics are called by him 'the One' (or, equivalently, 'the Good'), Intellect, and Soul. These principles are both ultimate ontological realities and explanatory principles. Plotinus believed that they were recognized by Plato as such, as well as by the entire subsequent Platonic tradition. [...] Porphyry
    informs us that during the first ten years of his time in Rome, Plotinus lectured exclusively on the philosophy of Ammonius. During this time he also wrote nothing. Porphyry tells us that when he himself arrived in Rome in 263, the first 21 of Plotinus' treatises had already been written. The remainder of the 54 treatises constituting his Enneads were written in the last seven or eight years of his life.
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  6. ^ "Who was Plotinus?". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2011-06-07.
  7. ^ Bilolo, M.: La notion de « l’Un » dans les Ennéades de Plotin et dans les Hymnes thébains. Contribution à l’étude des sources égyptiennes du néo-platonisme. In: D. Kessler, R. Schulz (Eds.), "Gedenkschrift für Winfried Barta ḥtp dj n ḥzj" (Münchner Ägyptologische Untersuchungen, Bd. 4), Frankfurt; Berlin; Bern; New York; Paris; Wien: Peter Lang, 1995, pp. 67–91.
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  10. ^ "Plotinus." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press, 2003.
  11. ^ Armstrong, A.H. (20 July 1998). "Plotinus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-01-22.
  12. ^ "The Enneads of Plotinus: Porphyry: On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Work". www.sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
  13. ^ McGroarty, Kieran (2001) The Ethics of Plotinus. In: Eklogai: Studies in Honour of Thomas Finan and Gerard Watson. Department of Ancient Classics, National University of Ireland Maynooth, p. 20. ISBN 0901519340 "His [Plotinus'] language was certainly Greek."
  14. ^ Castel, Toni Leigh. (2014) "The Plotinian first hypostasis and the Trinity: points of convergence and of divergence in Augustine's De doctrina Christiana liber primus." (thesis). University of Johannesburg. p. 15 "Plotinus' name may be Roman but his native tongue was certainly Greek"
  15. ^
    OCLC 967937243.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  16. ^
    LCCN 2006017562
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  17. ^ Porphyry, On the Life of Plotinus and the Order of His Books, Ch. 3 (in Armstrong's Loeb translation, "he became eager to make acquaintance with the Persian philosophical discipline and that prevailing among the Indians").
  18. ^ Porphyry, Vita Plotini, 9. See also Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell (1999), Iamblichus on The Mysteries, page xix. SBL. who say that "to gain some credible chronology, one assumes that Ariston married Amphicleia some time after Plotinus's death"
  19. ^ Mark Edwards, Neoplatonic Saints: The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by Their Students, Liverpool University Press, 2000, p. 4 n. 20.
  20. ^ Stace, W. T. (1960) The Teachings of the Mystics, New York, Signet, pp. 110–123
  21. ^ Stace, W. T. (1960) The Teachings of the Mystics, New York, Signet, p. 122
  22. ^ Plotinus (204—270)
  23. ISBN 9781134667895
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  24. ^ Plotinus (1950). The philosophy of Plotinus: representative books from the Enneads. Appleton-Century-Crofts. p. vii. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  25. ^ "Plotinus". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2018.
  26. ISBN 0791470628
  27. ^ a b Neoplatonism and Gnosticism by Richard T. Wallis, Jay Bregman, International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, p. 55
  28. ISBN 978-0-7914-1337-1
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  29. neoplatonist philosopher: "With Plotinus there even appears, probably for the first time in Western philosophy, idealism that had long been current in the East even at that time, for it taught (Enneads, iii, lib. vii, c.10) that the soul has made the world by stepping from eternity into time, with the explanation: 'For there is for this universe no other place than the soul or mind' (neque est alter hujus universi locus quam anima), indeed the ideality of time is expressed in the words: 'We should not accept time outside the soul or mind' (oportet autem nequaquam extra animam tempus accipere)." (Parerga and Paralipomena
    , Volume I, "Fragments for the History of Philosophy," § 7)
  30. ^ E. R. Dodds, 'The Parmenides of Plato and the Origin of the neoplatonic One,' The Classical Quarterly, v. 22, No. 3/4, 1928, pp. 129–142, esp. 140.
  31. ^ Philip Merlan, From Platonism to Neoplatonism (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1954, 1968), p. 3.
  32. ^ Detlef Thiel: Die Philosophie des Xenokrates im Kontext der Alten Akademie, München 2006, pp. 197ff. and note 64; Jens Halfwassen: Der Aufstieg zum Einen.
  33. ^
    ISBN 9781107001770
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  34. ^ A Biographical History of Philosophy, by George Henry Lewes Published 1892, G. Routledge & Sons, LTD, p. 294
  35. ^ Pseudo-Dionysius in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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  38. ^ Michael A. B. Deakin (2018-02-22). "Hypatia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2018-03-26.
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  41. ^ Mendelson, Michael (2016). "Saint Augustine". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.). Stanford: Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
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  43. ^ "A History of Western Philosophy." Bertrand Russell. Simon & Schuster, INC. 1945. pp. 284–285
  44. ^ a b Heinz Halm, Shi'ism, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 176.
  45. ^ a b Heinz Halm, Shi'ism, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 177.
  46. ^ Michaud, Derek (2017). Reason Turned into Sense: John Smith on Spiritual Sensation. Peeters. pp. 102–105, 114, 115, 129, 137, 146, 153, 154, 155, 172, 174, 175, 177–178, 180, 181, 181, 184, 185, 188, 195.
  47. ^ "W. B. Yeats and "A Vision": Plotinus and the Principles".
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  50. ^ Swami-krishnananda.org
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  52. ^ J. F. Staal (1961), Advaita and Neoplatonism: A critical study in comparative philosophy, Madras: University of Madras
  53. ^ Frederick Charles Copleston. "Religion and the One 1979–1981". Giffordlectures.org. Archived from the original on 2010-04-09. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
  54. ^ Special section "Fra Oriente e Occidente" in Annuario filosofico No. 6 (1990), including the articles "Plotino e l'India" by Aldo Magris and "L'India e Plotino" by Mario Piantelli
  55. ^ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (ed.)(1952), History of Philosophy Eastern and Western, Vol.2. London: George Allen & Unwin. p. 114
  56. ^ "Creator (or not?)". Gresham.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2009-02-14. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
  57. ^ John Y. Fenton (1981), "Mystical Experience as a Bridge for Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion: A Critique", Journal of the American Academy of Religion, p. 55
  58. ^ Dale Riepe (1967), "Emerson and Indian Philosophy", Journal of the History of Ideas 28(1):115 (1967)
Library resources about
Plotinus
By Plotinus

Bibliography

Critical editions of the Greek text
  • Émile Bréhier, Plotin: Ennéades (with French translation), Collection Budé, 1924–1938.
  • Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (eds.), Editio maior (3 volumes), Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1951–1973.
  • Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (eds.), Editio minor, Oxford,
    Oxford Classical Text
    , 1964–1982.
Complete English translation
Lexica
  • J. H. Sleeman and G. Pollet, Lexicon Plotinianum, Leiden, 1980.
  • Roberto Radice (ed.), Lexicon II: Plotinus, Milan, Biblia, 2004. (Electronic edition by Roberto Bombacigno)
The Life of Plotinus by Porphyry
  • Porphyry, "On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Works" in Mark Edwards (ed.), Neoplatonic Saints: The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by their Students, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2000.
Anthologies of texts in translation, with annotations
  • Kevin Corrigan, Reading Plotinus: A Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism, West Lafayette, Purdue University Press, 2005.
  • John M. Dillon and Lloyd P. Gerson, Neoplatonic Philosophy: Introductory Readings, Hackett, 2004.
  • Long, Anthony A., ed. (2022). Ennead II.4: On matter. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing.
    ISBN 9781733535762
    .
Introductory works
  • Erik Emilsson, Plotinus, New York: Routledge, 2017.
  • Kevin Corrigan, Reading Plotinus. A Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism, Purdue University Press, 1995.
  • Lloyd P. Gerson, Plotinus, New York, Routledge, 1994.
  • Lloyd P. Gerson (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus, Cambridge, 1996.
  • Dominic J. O'Meara, Plotinus. An Introduction to the Enneads, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993. (Reprinted 2005)
  • John M. Rist, Plotinus. The Road to Reality, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1967.
Major commentaries in English
General works on Neoplatonism
Studies on some aspects of Plotinus' work

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Plotinus.
Wikisource has original works by or about:
Plotinus
Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Text of the Enneads
  • Greek original (page scans of
    Teubner
    edition) with English (complete) and French (partial) translations;
Online English translations
Encyclopedias
Bibliographies
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