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Plotinus

Plotinus
Born
c.204/5
Lycopolis, Egypt, Roman Empire
Died
270 (aged6465)
Campania, Roman Empire
Era
Ancient philosophy
Region
Western Philosophy
School
Neoplatonism
Main interests
Platonism, Metaphysics, Mysticism
Notable ideas
Three principles: One, the Two, and the Three; Emanationism; Henosis
Influences

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Influenced
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Plotinus (/pltans/; Greek: ; c.204/5 270) was a major Greekspeaking philosopher of the ancient world. In his philosophy there are three
principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul.[1] His teacher was Ammonius
Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition.[2] Historians of the 19th century
invented the term Neoplatonism[2] and applied it to him and his philosophy
which was influential in Late Antiquity. Much of the biographical information
about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus'
Enneads. His metaphysical writings have inspired centuries of Pagan,
Christian, Islamic and Gnostic metaphysicians and mystics.
Contents [hide]
1
Biography
1.1
Expedition to Persia and return to Rome
1.2
Later life
2
Major ideas

2.1
One
2.2
Emanation by the One
2.3
The true human and happiness
2.4
Against causal astrology
2.5
Plotinus's Relation to Plato
2.6
Plotinus and the Gnostics
3
Influence
3.1
Ancient world
3.2
Christianity
3.3
Islam
3.4
Renaissance
3.5
England
3.6
India
4
See also
5
Notes
6
References
7
Further reading
8
External links

Biography[edit]

Porphyry reported that Plotinus was 66 years old when he died in 270, the
second year of the reign of the emperor Claudius II, thus giving us the year of
his teacher's birth as around 205. Eunapius reported that Plotinus was born in
the Deltaic Lycopolis in Egypt, which has led to speculations that he may
have been a native Egyptian of Roman,[3] Greek,[4] or Hellenized Egyptian[5]
descent.

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.
From all accounts his personal and social life exhibited the highest moral and
spiritual standards.
Plotinus took up the study of philosophy at the age of twenty-seven, around
the year 232, and travelled to Alexandria to study. There he was dissatisfied
with every teacher he encountered until an acquaintance suggested he listen
to the ideas of Ammonius Saccas. Upon hearing Ammonius lecture, he
declared to his friend, "this was the man I was looking for," and began to
study intently under his new instructor. Besides Ammonius, Plotinus was also
influenced by the works of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Numenius, and various
Stoics.

Expedition to Persia and return to Rome[edit]

After spending the next eleven years in Alexandria, he then decided, at the
age of around 38, to investigate the philosophical teachings of the Persian
philosophers and the Indian philosophers.[6] In the pursuit of this endeavor he
left Alexandria and joined the army of Gordian III as it marched on Persia.
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.
At the age of forty, during the reign of Philip the Arab, he came to Rome,
where he stayed for most of the remainder of his life. There he attracted a
number of students. His innermost circle included Porphyry, Amelius
Gentilianus of Tuscany, the Senator Castricius Firmus, and Eustochius of
Alexandria, a doctor who devoted himself to learning from Plotinus and
attending to him until his death. Other students included: Zethos, an Arab by
ancestry who died before Plotinus, leaving him a legacy and some land;
Zoticus, a critic and poet; Paulinus, a doctor of Scythopolis; and Serapion
from Alexandria. He had students amongst the Roman Senate beside
Castricius, such as Marcellus Orontius, Sabinillus, and Rogantianus. Women
were also numbered amongst his students, including Gemina, in whose
house he lived during his residence in Rome, and her daughter, also Gemina;
and Amphiclea, the wife of Ariston the son of Iamblichus.[7] Finally, Plotinus
was a correspondent of the philosopher Cassius Longinus.

Later life[edit]
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.
Porphyry subsequently went to live in Sicily, where word reached him that his
former teacher had died. The philosopher 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: "Strive to give back the Divine in yourselves to the
Divine in the All." ["The Six Enneads" translated by Stephen Mackenna and B.
S. Page.] 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 over a period of several
years from ca. 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 not only polished them but put them into the
arrangement we now have.

Major ideas[edit]
One[edit]

See also: Substance theory

Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "One", containing
no division, multiplicity or distinction; beyond all categories of being and nonbeing. 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 selfcontemplating intelligence (the noesis of the nous) must contain duality.
"Once you have uttered 'The Good,' add no further thought: by any addition,
and in proportion to that addition, you introduce a deficiency." [III.8.11]
Plotinus denies sentience, self-awareness or any other action (ergon) to the
One [V.6.6]. Rather, if we insist on describing it further, we must call the One
a sheer potentiality (dynamis) or 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 Nous (first will towards Good) to the
"Sun", and lastly the Soul 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 worldbut not through any act of creation, willful or otherwise,
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. Later
Neoplatonic philosophers, especially Iamblichus, added hundreds of
intermediate beings as emanations between the One and humanity; but
Plotinus' system was much simpler in comparison.[citation needed]
The One is not just an intellectual conception but something that can be
experienced, an experience where one goes beyond all multiplicity.[8] 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."[9]

Emanation by the One[edit]

Superficially considered, Plotinus seems to offer an alternative to the
orthodox Christian notion of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing), although
Plotinus never mentions Christianity in any of his works. The metaphysics of
Emanation, however, just like the metaphysics of Creation, confirms the
absolute transcendence of the One or of the Divine, as the source of the
Being of all things that yet 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 affected by some sort of exterior "nothingness".
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.[citation needed]
The first emanation is Nous (Divine Mind, Logos, Order, Thought, Reason),
identified metaphorically with the Demiurge in Plato's Timaeus. It is the first
Will toward Good. From Nous proceeds the World Soul, which Plotinus
subdivides into upper and lower, identifying the lower aspect of Soul with
nature. From the world soul proceeds individual human souls, and finally,
matter, at the lowest level of being and thus the least perfected level of the
cosmos. Despite this relatively pedestrian assessment of the material world,
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.[10]
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 mystical union common to many Eastern and Western
traditions.[citation needed]

The true human and happiness[edit]

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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[11]

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 humans 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 bodys discomfort in the physical realm. The Proficients
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." (Theat 176AB) and a focus on the highest, i.e. Forms and The One.

Against causal astrology[edit]

Plotinus seems to be one of the first to argue against the still popular notion
of causal astrology. In the late tractate 2.3, "Are the stars causes?", Plotinus
makes the argument that specific stars influencing one's fortune (a common
Hellenistic theme) attributes irrationality to a perfect universe, and invites
moral turpitude.[clarification needed] He does, however, claim the stars and planets are
ensouled, as witnessed by their movement.

Plotinus's Relation to Plato[edit]

See Also, Allegorical interpretations of Plato
For several centuries after the Protestant Reformation, Neo-Platonism was
condemned as a decadent and 'oriental' distortion of Platonism. In a famous
1929 essay, E. R. Dodds showed that key conceptions of Neo-Platonism
could be traced from their origin in Plato's dialogues, through his immediate
followers (e.g., Speusippus) and the Neo-Pythagoreans, to Plotinus and the
Neo-Platonists. Thus Plotinus' philosophy was, he argued, 'not the startingpoint of Neo-Platonism but its intellectual culmination.'[12] 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.'[13]
Since the 1950s, the Tbingen School of Plato interpretation has argued that
the so-called 'unwritten doctrines' of Plato debated by Aristotle and the Early
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 Neo-Platonism is less of an innovation than it
appears without the recognition of Plato's unwritten doctrines. Advocates of
the Tbingen 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.[14]

Plotinus and the Gnostics[edit]

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 whom he was addressing it to, 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 Greek terms from
philosophical contexts and re-applying them to religious contexts was popular
in Christianity, the Cult of Isis and other ancient religious contexts including
Hermetic ones (see Alexander of Abonutichus for an example).
Plotinus and the Neoplatonists viewed Gnosticism as a form of heresy or
sectarianism to the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy of the
Mediterranean and Middle East.[note 1] He accused them of using senseless
jargon and being overly dramatic and insolent in their distortion of Plato's
ontology."[note 2] Plotinus attacks his opponents as untraditional, irrational and
immoral[note 3][note 4] and arrogant.[note 5] He also attacks them as elitist and
blasphemous to Plato for the Gnostics despising the material world and its
maker.[note 6]
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.[note 7] Plotinus was not
claiming to innovate with the Enneads, but to clarify aspects of the works of
Plato that he considered misrepresented or misunderstood.[2] Plotinus does
not claim to be an innovator, but rather a communicator of a tradition.[16]
Plotinus referred to tradition as a way to interpret Plato's intentions. Because
the teachings of Plato were for members of the academy rather than the
general public, it was easy for outsiders to misunderstand Plato's meaning.
However, Plotinus attempted to clarify how the philosophers of the academy
had not arrived at the same conclusions (such as misotheism or dystheism of
the creator God as an answer to the problem of evil) as the targets of his
criticism.

Influence[edit]

Ancient world[edit]

The emperor Julian the Apostate was deeply influenced by Neoplatonism, as

was Hypatia of Alexandria, as well as many Christians, most notably PseudoDionysius the Areopagite. St. Augustine, though often referred to as a
"Platonist," acquired his Platonist philosophy through the mediation of the
Neoplatonist teachings of Plotinus.[citation needed]

Christianity[edit]
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.[17]
The Eastern Orthodox position on energy, for example, is often contrasted
with the position of 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 of Nyssa for the Orthodox
Christians.[citation needed]

Islam[edit]
Neoplatonism and the ideas of Plotinus influenced medieval Islam as well,
since the Sunni Abbasids fused Greek concepts into sponsored state texts,
and found great influence amongst the Ismaili Shia.[18] Persian philosophers
as well, such as Muhammad al-Nasafi and Abu Yaqub Sijistani. By the 11th
century, Neoplatonism was adopted by the Fatimid state of Egypt, and taught
by their da'i.[18] Neoplatonism was brought to the Fatimid court by Hamid alDin al-Kirmani, although his teachings differed from Nasafi and Sijistani, who
were more aligned with original teachings of Plotinus.[19] The teachings of
Kirmani in turn influenced philosophers such as Nasir Khusraw of Persia.[19]

Renaissance[edit]
In the Renaissance the philosopher Marsilio Ficino set up an Academy under
the patronage of Cosimo de Medici in Florence, mirroring that of Plato. His
work was of great importance in reconciling the philosophy of Plato directly
with Christianity. One of his most distinguished pupils was Pico della
Mirandola, author of An Oration On the Dignity of Man. Our term 'Neo
Platonist' has its origins in the Renaissance.[citation needed]

England[edit]
In England, Plotinus was the cardinal influence on the 17th-century school of
the Cambridge Platonists, and on numerous writers from Samuel Taylor
Coleridge to W. B. Yeats and Kathleen Raine.[citation needed]

India[edit]

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Ananda Coomaraswamy used the writing of

Plotinus in their own texts as a superlative elaboration upon Indian monism,
specifically Upanishadic and Advaita Vedantic thought.[citation needed]
Coomaraswamy has compared Plotinus' teachings to the Hindu school of
Advaita Vedanta (advaita meaning "not two" or "non-dual").[20]
Advaita Vedanta and Neoplatonism have been compared by J. F. Staal,[21]
Frederick Copleston,[22] Aldo Magris and Mario Piantelli,[23] Radhakrishnan,[24]
Gwen Griffith-Dickson,[25] and John Y. Fenton.[26]
The joint influence of Advaitin and Neoplatonic ideas on Ralph Waldo
Emerson was considered by Dale Riepe in 1967.[27][full citation needed]

See also[edit]

Antiochus of Ascalon
Disciples of Plotinus
Ecstasy in philosophy
Emanationism
Form of the Good
Allegorical interpretations of Plato
The One in Neoplatonism
Pantaenus
Platonic Academy
Plato's unwritten doctrines
Plutarch of Chaeronea
The Theology of Aristotle
Thomas Taylor

Jump up
^ From Introduction to Against the Gnostics Plotinus' Enneads as translated
by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220222:
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.

Notes[edit]

Jump up
^ From Introduction to Against the Gnostics Plotinus' Enneads as translated
by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220222:
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. (Enneads Against the Gnostics 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. 45).
- 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. 78).
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. 1012).
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 love 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, otherworldliness which hates and despises the material universe and its beauties
(chs. 1618).
A. H. Lawrence, Introduction to Against the Gnostics Plotinus' Enneads,
pages 220222
Jump up
^ From Introduction to Against the Gnostics Plotinus' Enneads as translated
by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220222:
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 the know their place in the universe.
Pages 220222
Jump up
^ Introduction to Against the Gnostics Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A.
H. Armstrong, pp. 220222:
9. The false other-worldiness of the Gnostics leads to immorality (Enneads
ch. 15).
Jump up
^ Introduction to Against the Gnostics Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A.
H. Armstrong, pp. 220222:
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)
Jump up
^ 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 220222
Jump up
^ "... as Plotinus had endeavored to revive the religious spirit of paganism".[15]

References[edit]
1
2

Jump up
^ "Who was Plotinus?".
^ Jump up to:
a b c Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Plotinus.

9
10
11

12

13

14

15

Jump up
^ "Plotinus." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia
University Press, 2003.
Jump up
^ "Plotinus." The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Oxford
University Press, 1993, 2003.
Jump up
^ Bilolo, M.: La notion de lUn dans les Ennades de Plotin et dans les
Hymnes thbains. Contribution ltude des sources gyptiennes du noplatonisme. In: D. Kessler, R. Schulz (Eds.), "Gedenkschrift fr Winfried Barta
tp dj n zj" (Mnchner gyptologische Untersuchungen, Bd. 4), Frankfurt;
Berlin; Bern; New York; Paris; Wien: Peter Lang, 1995, pp. 6791.
Jump up
^ 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").
Jump up
^ 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"
Jump up
^ Stace, W. T. (1960) The Teachings of the Mystics, New York, Signet, pp.
110123
Jump up
^ Stace, W. T. (1960) The Teachings of the Mystics, New York, Signet, p122
Jump up
^ I.6.6 and I.6.9
Jump up
^ Plotinus (1950). The philosophy of Plotinus: representative books from the
Enneads. Appleton-Century-Crofts. p.vii. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
Jump up
^ 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.
Jump up
^ Philip Merlan, From Platonism to Neoplatonism (The Hague: Martinus
Nijhoff, 1954, 1968), p. 3.
Jump up
^ Detlef Thiel: Die Philosophie des Xenokrates im Kontext der Alten
Akademie, Mnchen 2006, pp. 197ff. and note 64; Jens Halfwassen: Der
Aufstieg zum Einen.
Jump up
^ A Biographical History of Philosophy, by George Henry Lewes Published
1892, G. Routledge & Sons, LTD, p. 294

16 Jump up
^ Pseudo-Dionysius in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
17 Jump up
^ "A History of Western Philosophy." Bertrand Russell. Simon and Schuster,
INC. 1945. pp. 284285
18 ^ Jump up to:
a b Heinz Halm, Shi'ism, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 176.
19 ^ Jump up to:
a b Heinz Halm, Shi'ism, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 177.
20 Jump up
^ Swami-krishnananda.org
21 Jump up
^ J. F. Staal (1961), Advaita and Neoplatonism: A critical study in
comparative philosophy, Madras: University of Madras
22 Jump up
^ Frederick Charles Copleston. "Religion and the One 19791981".
Giffordlectures.org. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
23 Jump up
^ 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
24 Jump up
^ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (ed.)(1952), History of Philosophy Eastern and
Western, Vol.2. London: George Allen & Unwin. p.114
25 Jump up
^ "Creator (or not?)". Gresham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
26 Jump up
^ 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
27 Jump up
^ Dale Riepe (1967), "Emerson and Indian Philosophy", Journal of the
History of Ideas

Further reading[edit]

Critical editions of the Greek text

mile Brhier, Plotin: Ennades (with French translation), Collection
Bud, 19241938.
Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (eds.), Editio maior (3 volumes),
Paris, Descle de Brouwer, 19511973.
Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (eds.), Editio minor, Oxford,
Oxford Classical Text, 19641982.
Complete English translation
Plotinus. The Enneads (translated by Stephen MacKenna), London,
Medici Society, 19171930.

A. H. Armstrong, Plotinus. Enneads (with Greek text), Loeb Classical

Library, 7 vol., 19661988.
Thomas Taylor, Collected Writings of Plotinus, Frome, Prometheus
Trust, 1994. ISBN 1-898910-02-2 (contains approximately half of the
Enneads)
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.
Introductory works
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
Cinzia Arruzza, Plotinus: Ennead II.5, On What Is Potentially and What
Actually, The Enneads of Plotinus Series edited by John M. Dillon and
Andrew Smith, Parmenides Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-1-930972-63-6
Michael Atkinson, Plotinus: Ennead V.1, On the Three Principal
Hypostases, Oxford, 1983.
Kevin Corrigan, Plotinus' Theory of Matter-Evil: Plato, Aristotle, and
Alexander of Aphrodisias (II.4, II.5, III.6, I.8), Leiden, 1996.
John N. Deck, Nature, Contemplation and the One: A Study in the
Philosophy of Plotinus, University of Toronto Press, 1967; Paul Brunton
Philosophical Foundation, 1991.
John M. Dillon, H.J. Blumenthal, Plotinus: Ennead IV.3-4.29, "Problems
Concerning the Soul, The Enneads of Plotinus Series edited by John M.

Dillon and Andrew Smith, Parmenides Publishing, 2015, ISBN

978-1-930972-89-6
Eyjlfur K. Emilsson, Steven K. Strange, Plotinus: Ennead VI.4 & VI.5:
On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole,
The Enneads of Plotinus Series edited by John M. Dillon and Andrew
Smith, Parmenides Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-1-930972-34-6
Barrie Fleet, Plotinus: Ennead III.6, On the Impassivity of the Bodiless,
Oxford, 1995.
Barrie Fleet, Plotinus: Ennead IV.8, On the Descent of the Soul into
Bodies, The Enneads of Plotinus Series edited by John M. Dillon and
Andrew Smith, Parmenides Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-930972-77-3
Lloyd P. Gerson, Plotinus: Ennead V.5, That the Intelligibles are not
External to the Intellect, and on the Good, The Enneads of Plotinus
Series edited by John M. Dillon and Andrew Smith, Parmenides
Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-930972-85-8
Gary M. Gurtler, SJ, Plotinus: Ennead IV.4.30-45 & IV.5, "Problems
Concerning the Soul, The Enneads of Plotinus Series edited by John M.
Dillon and Andrew Smith, Parmenides Publishing, 2015, ISBN
978-1-930972-69-8
W. Helleman-Elgersma, Soul-Sisters. A Commentary on Enneads IV, 3
(27), 18 of Plotinus, Amsterdam, 1980.
James Luchte, Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn. London:
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978-0567353313.
Kieran McGroarty, Plotinus on Eudaimonia: A Commentary on Ennead
I.4, Oxford, 2006.
P. A. Meijer, Plotinus on the Good or the One (VI.9), Amsterdam, 1992.
H. Oosthout, Modes of Knowledge and the Transcendental: An
Introduction to Plotinus Ennead V.3, Amsterdam, 1991.
J. Wilberding, Plotinus' Cosmology. A study of Ennead II. 1 (40), Oxford,
2006.
A. M. Wolters, Plotinus on Eros (eNN. III.5), Amsterdam, 1972.
General works on Neoplatonism
Robert M. Berchman, From Philo to Origen: Middle Platonism in
Transition, Chico, Scholars Press, 1984.
Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy: Vol. 1, Part 2. ISBN
0-385-00210-6
P. Merlan, "Greek Philosophy from Plato to Plotinus" in A. H. Armstrong
(ed.), The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval
Philosophy, Cambridge, 1967. ISBN 0-521-04054-X
Pauliina Remes, Neoplatonism (Ancient Philosophies), University of
California Press, 2008.

Thomas Taylor, The fragments that remain of the lost writings of

Proclus, surnamed the Platonic successor, London, 1825. (Selene
Books reprint edition, 1987. ISBN 0-933601-11-5)
Richard T. Wallis, Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, University of
Oklahoma, 1984. ISBN 0-7914-1337-3 and ISBN 0-7914-1338-1
Studies on some aspects of Plotinus' work
R. B. Harris (ed.), Neoplatonism and Indian Thought, Albany, 1982.
Giannis Stamatellos, Plotinus and the Presocratics. A Philosophical
Study of Presocratic Influences in Plotinus' Enneads, Albany, 2008.
N. Joseph Torchia, Plotinus, Tolma, and the Descent of Being, New
York, Peter Lang, 1993. ISBN 0-8204-1768-8
Antonia Tripolitis, The Doctrine of the Soul in the thought of Plotinus
and Origen, Libra Publishers, 1978.
M. F. Wagner (ed.), Neoplatonism and Nature. Studies in Plotinus'
Enneads, Albany, 2002.

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Plotinus

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Plotinus

Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Works by Plotinus at Project Gutenberg

Works by or about Plotinus at Internet Archive
Text of the Enneads
Greek original (page scans of Adolf Kirchhoff's 1856 Teubner edition)
with English (complete) and French (partial) translations;
Online English translations
The Internet Classics Archive of MIT The Six Enneads, translated into
English by Stephen MacKenna and B.S. Page.
On the Intelligible Beauty, translated by Thomas Taylor Ennead V
viii(see also the Catalog of other books which include Porphyry,
Plotinus' biographer - TTS Catalog).
Philosophy Archive: An Essay on the Beautiful, translated into English
by Thomas Taylor in 1917

On the First Good and the Other Goods, Ennead 1.7 Translated by Eric
S. Fallick, 2011
On Dialectic, Ennead 1.3 Translated by Eric S. Fallick, 2015
Encyclopedias
Gerson, Lloyd P. "Plotinus". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Moore, Edward. "Plotinus". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Bibliographies
In English, by Richard Dufour.
In French by Pierre Thillet.
Plotinus' Criticism of Aristotle's Categories (Enneads VI, 1-3) with an
annotated bibliography
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