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Plotinus At Work on Platonism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

John Dillon
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Extract

‘These teachings are, therefore, no novelties, no inventions of today, but long since stated, if not stressed; our doctrine here is the explanation of an earlier, and can show the antiquity of these opinions on the testimony of Plato himself.’ This quotation, from Enn. V 1.8, where Plotinus is actually presenting his doctrine of the three hypostases – a metaphysical elaboration never envisaged by Plato – encapsulates the interesting relationship which links this great original mind to the other great original mind whom he wished to claim as his master. There is, of course, nothing strange, in the intellectual world of late antiquity, in this desire to base one's doctrine on some time-honoured authority; what is unusual is the degree of originality of the man who is doing this.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , October 1992 , pp. 189 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1992

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References

NOTES

1. Some useful books in English on Plotinus' philosophy are: Armstrong, A. H., The Architecture of the Intelligible Universe in the Philosophy of Plotinus, Cambridge, 1940 (repr. Amsterdam, 1967)Google Scholar; Blumenthal, H., Plotinus' Psychology: His Doctrine of the Embodied Soul, The Hague, 1971CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Emilsson, E., Plotinus on Sense-Perception: A Philosophical Study, Cambridge, 1988CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Daly, G. P., Plotinus' Philosophy of the Self, Shannon, 1973Google Scholar; Rist, J. M., Plotinus, The Road to Reality, Cambridge, 1967Google Scholar; Wallis, R. T., Neoplatonism, London and New York, 1972Google Scholar.

2. All aspects of Porphyry's Life of Plotinus are very fully discussed in the excellent French volume, Porphyre, La Vie de Plotin I: Travauxpréliminaires, ed. Brisson, Luc et al. , Paris, 1982Google Scholar.

3. What follows essentially corresponds to my introductory essay to the Penguin edition of MacKenna's, Stephen translation of Plotinus' Enneads (Harmonsworth, 1991)Google Scholar. Note that, in what follows, I use capital letters (e.g. the One, Intellect, Soul) to designate ‘hypostases’ or other basic realities of Plotinus' system.

4. A certain overlap and tension ensues between the concept of this second god, who is an active intellect, and Soul, since the rational aspect of Soul is hardly distinguishable from Intellect.

5. For agood discussion of Plotinus' doctrine ofthe embodied soul, see Blumenthal, H., Plotinus' Psychology, The Hague, 1971CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. See on this O'Daly, G. P., Plotinus' Philosophy ofthe Self, Shannon, 1973Google Scholar.

7. InLes Sources de Plotin (Entretiens Fondation Hardt, V), Vandoeuvres/Geneva, 1960, pp. 385–6Google Scholar.

8. Whether or not this is a genuine work of Plato's is irrelevant, since it was universally accepted as genuine by later Platonists.

9. On Stoic determinism, see for instance Rist, J. M., Stoic Philosophy, Cambridge, 1969, ch. 7Google Scholar.

10. On this question see Rist, J. M., Plotinus, The Road to Reality, Cambridge, 1967, ch. 10Google Scholar.

11. On this see Wallis, R. T., Neoplatonism, London and New York, 1972, ch. 6Google Scholar.