Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Plotinus
- 2 Plotinus's metaphysics of the One
- 3 The hierarchical ordering of reality in Plotinus
- 4 On soul and intellect
- 5 Essence and existence in the Enneads
- 6 Plotinus on the nature of physical reality
- 7 Plotinus on matter and evil
- 8 Eternity and time
- 9 Cognition and its object
- 10 Self-knowledge and subjectivity in the Enneads
- 11 Plotinus
- 12 Human freedom in the thought of Plotinus
- 13 An ethic for the late antique sage
- 14 Plotinus and language
- 15 Plotinus and later Platonic philosophers on the causality of the First Principle
- 16 Plotinus and Christian philosophy
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Plotinus
- 2 Plotinus's metaphysics of the One
- 3 The hierarchical ordering of reality in Plotinus
- 4 On soul and intellect
- 5 Essence and existence in the Enneads
- 6 Plotinus on the nature of physical reality
- 7 Plotinus on matter and evil
- 8 Eternity and time
- 9 Cognition and its object
- 10 Self-knowledge and subjectivity in the Enneads
- 11 Plotinus
- 12 Human freedom in the thought of Plotinus
- 13 An ethic for the late antique sage
- 14 Plotinus and language
- 15 Plotinus and later Platonic philosophers on the causality of the First Principle
- 16 Plotinus and Christian philosophy
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
A COMPANION TO PLOTINUS
This volume, like the others in the series, is intended to serve as an aid to the reading of a major Western philosopher. One service that the editor and contributors would be glad to perform is to change the mind of those who cavil at the use of the term “major” or even “philosopher” in reference to Plotinus. Read them and him for yourself and decide. Do not be put off by ignorant detractors or uncritical enthusiasts or by the essentially empty label “Neoplatonist,” which in some circles has become nothing more than a term of abuse.
How best to assist someone who wants to read Plotinus, whose works, regardless of their quality, are intensely difficult, is not easy to determine. First of all, his thought is not simply divisible into the traditional categories of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and so on. And so it would be positively unhelpful to suggest otherwise by offering a tidy package of essays each of which “does” a given subject. Second, Plotinus's writings can hardly be characterized as systematic, although there is a Plotinian system in the sense that there are basic entities, principles of operation, and an effort at a unified explanation of the world. The system, however, does not for the most part cut up nicely into the written works, such that an introductory exposition of a work would provide one of that system's building blocks. Third, Plotinus is a philosopher deeply and selfconsciously rooted in a long and complex tradition. To try to represent his views without some appreciation of this context could only result in grotesque distortions and it would make this book at best a treacherous “companion.”
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus , pp. 1 - 9Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996