Man and reality

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521040549.015

Chapter 14 - Man and reality

from Part III - PLOTINUS

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Edited by

A. H. Armstrong

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Perhaps as good a starting-point as any for a consideration of the rich, complex and difficult thought of Plotinus is to see what he himself thought that he was really trying to do, what the aim was which he constantly pursued in all his thinking, teaching and writing. As he summed it up himself on his deathbed (whichever version of his last words we accept), it was to bring back the divine in man to the divine in the All. This is an ambiguous enough statement, which can be interpreted in a variety of ways, beginning with the crudest Stoic pantheism. But if we come to understand as precisely as possible what Plotinus meant by it, we shall be well on the way to understanding his philosophy as a whole. Man for Plotinus is in some sense divine, and the object of the philosophic life is to understand this divinity and restore its proper relationship (never, as we shall see, completely lost) with the divine All and, in that All, to come to union with its transcendent source, the One or Good. We must, of course, in studying Plotinus, beware from the beginning of the confusion that can so easily arise if we neglect the wide and vague meaning of theos and theios in Greek and understand his statements about divinity in terms of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, which, in its normal way of speaking, reserves ‘God’ and ‘Divine’ for the transcendent creative cause of all things, and only uses them of created beings rarely, and generally with carefully expressed qualifications (e.g. ‘divine by participation’).

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy , pp. 222 - 235

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521040549.015 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armstrong, A. H. ‘Was Plotinus a Magician?’, in Phronesis, 1, 1 (1955).CrossRef Google Scholar

Armstrong, A. H.The Architecture of the Intelligible Universe in the Philosophy of Plotinus.Cambridge, 1940 (reprinted Amsterdam 1967).Google Scholar

Arnou, R.Le Désir de Dieu dans la philosophie de Plotin.Paris, 1921.Google Scholar

Aubin, P. ‘L'“Image” dans l'Œuvre de Plotin’, in Recherches de Science Religieuse, 41, 3 (1953).Google Scholar

Bourbon de Petrella, F.Il Problema dell'Arte e della Bellezza in Plotino.Florence, 1956.Google Scholar

Bréhier, E.La philosophie de Plotin.Paris, 2nd edn. 1961.Google Scholar

Crouzel, H. ‘Origène et Plotin, élèves d'Ammonios Saccas’, in Bulletin de Littérature Ecclésiastique de Toulouse (1956), 4; (1958), 1.Google Scholar

Dodds, E. R. ‘Tradition and Personal Achievement in the Philosophy of Plotinus’, in Journal of Roman Studies, 50 (1960).CrossRef Google Scholar

Gandillac, M.La Sagesse de Plotin.Paris, 1952.Google Scholar

Hadot, P.Plotin.Paris, 1963.Google Scholar

Harder, R. ‘Plotins Leben, Wirkung und Lehre’, in Kleine Schriften, ed. Marg, W.. Munich, 1960.Google Scholar

Harder, R.Zur Biographie Plotins, in Kleine Schriften, ed. Marg, W.. Munich, 1960.Google Scholar

Heinemann, F.Plotin.Leipzig, 1921.Google Scholar

Henry, P. ‘La dernière parole de Plotin’, in Studi Classici e Orientali (Pisa), 11 (1953).Google Scholar

Himmerich, W.Eudaimonia : die Lehre des Plotin von der Selbstverwirklichung des Menschen.Würzburg, 1959.Google Scholar

Inge, W. R.The Philosophy of Plotinus, 2 vols., 3rd edn. London, 1929 (reprinted 1948).Google Scholar

Keyser, EugenieLa Signification de l'Art dans les Ennéades de Plotin by (Louvain, Publications Universitaires, 1955)Google Scholar

Keyser, E.La signification de l'art dans les Ennéades de Plotin.Louvain, 1955.Google Scholar

Kristeller, O. O.Der Begriff der Seele in der Ethik des Plotin.Tübingen, 1929.Google Scholar

Lloyd, A. C. ‘Neoplatonic and Aristotelian Logic’, in Phronesis, 1 (1955–6) and (also for Part IV, ch. 19).Google Scholar

Merlan, P. ‘Plotinus and Magic’, in Isis, 44 (1953).CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Petrella, Fiammetta BourbonIl Problema del-l'Arte e della Bellezza in Plotino by (Florence, Le Monnier, 1956).Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads An English translation, with notes, of the revised Henry-Schwyzer text, by Armstrong, A. H., is appearing in the Loeb Classical Library (vols, i–iii. London, 1966–7).Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads Ed. Bréhier, E. (with French translation, introductions and notes), 7 vols. Paris, 1924–38.Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads ed. Henry, P. and Schwyzer, H. R. (ed. minor, extensively revised: vol. I (Enn. I–III) so far published. Oxford, 1964–.

,plotinusEnneads ed. Henry, P. and Schwyzer, H. R. (vols. I–II (Vita Plotini and Enn. I–V) so far published, vol. III (Enn. VI) still to appear). Paris and Brussels, 1951–.Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads ed. Harder, R., continued by Beutler, R. and Theiler, W. (with German translation and notes). Hamburg, 1956–67.Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads English translation by MacKenna, S., 3rd edn., revised by Page, B. S.. Introduction by Henry, P.. London, 1962.Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads French translation by Bouillet, M. M. (of value only for its extensive commentary), 3 vols. Paris, 1857–61.Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads German translation by Harder, R. (first edition of the translation later revised and reprinted with text and notes: see above), 5 vols. Leipzig, 1930–7.Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads Italian translation, with critical commentary, by Cilento, V., 3 vols, (the last contains an extensive bibliography by Mariën, B.). Bari, 1947–9.Google Scholar

,plotinusEnneads Latin translation by Ficinus, Marsilius. Florence, 1492.Google Scholar

Rist, J. M. ‘Plotinus on Matter and Evil’, in Phronesis, 6 (1961).CrossRef Google Scholar

Schwyzer, H. R. ‘Plotinos’, in Paulys Realencyclopädie, 21. 1 (1951).Google Scholar

Trouillard, J. ‘Valeur critique de la mystique plotinienne’, in Revue philosophique de Louvain, 59 (1961).CrossRef Google Scholar

Trouillard, J.La Purification Plotinienne.Paris, 1955.Google Scholar

Book contents

Chapter 14 - Man and reality

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive