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Plotinus/Neo-Platonism

biased

Active Member
Any fans of Plotinus here? I've only read the first ennead for about an hour or 2 but find it quite profound especially regarding his take on how sages are. I want to get a good copy of Enneads since I think it is one of the most influential philosophers in the history of theology both Islamic and Christian.

What are your thoughts on Plotinus? What are your thoughts on Neo-Platonism? I've never read anything besides the Enneads so feel free to throw out book recommendations or other Neo-Platonic overviews/philosophers so I can expand my knowledge.
 

Enai de a lukal

Well-Known Member
Any fans of Plotinus here? I've only read the first ennead for about an hour or 2 but find it quite profound especially regarding his take on how sages are. I want to get a good copy of Enneads since I think it is one of the most influential philosophers in the history of theology both Islamic and Christian.

What are your thoughts on Plotinus? What are your thoughts on Neo-Platonism? I've never read anything besides the Enneads so feel free to throw out book recommendations or other Neo-Platonic overviews/philosophers so I can expand my knowledge.

While it may hold some appeal to the religious, whether because the Platonic pedigree lends it an air of rigor or credibility, or because of the presence of so much mysticism and poetic discourse that is NOT rigorous or philosophical, or some other reason, Platonism (and by extension its descendants) is not generally viewed as defensible on philosophical grounds any longer- at least, not without some serious modifications, particularly the elimination of the existence of any transcendent realm of Forms or Ideas. Unfortunately, the separate, eternal, changeless existence of the Forms is precisely one of the things which lends Platonism to religious interpretations (it wouldn't be a stretch to construe Christianity as Platonic, for instance).

Anyways, if you're interested in reading a (somewhat technical, but not prohibitively so) discussion of the various arguments for and against Platonism, check out the Stanford article on Platonism.
 

TomD

Member
Well, as a Catholic with a profound interest in the teachings of the Patristic Era, I have been told by those who know that I am a 'Christian Platonist'. This is not necessarily heterodox, as, according to the Orthodox Tradition, 'when the Fathers thought, they Platonised' ... Augustine, for example, moved from Manicheanism to Platonism before his conversion by Ambrose, then bishop of Milan, himself another famous Christian Platonist. (By 'another' I mean like Augustine et al, not me!)

Plotinus speaks of the "flight of the alone to the alone," the rational inquiry into the source of the Platonic forms. The Enneads are marked by a mystical speculation which transcends reason, as the soul goes into itself and returns to its Source. This element of mysticism in Plotinus was a major source of inspiration for medieval Christian mystics and theologians, but was of course contemplated in the light of Scripture, which speaks of a God that transcends the rational mind and speaks of God coming to man, rather than man reaching out for God, although man necessarily rationalises his belief, and according to Catholic doctrine, faith and reason are the two wings on which man ascends to God.

Religions are essentially communal. The idea of a 'personal religion' is quite modern, and is really man asserting his autonomy in the face of God, and secularism of course wishes discussion of religion to be struck from communal discourse, and would relegate it to the private sphere of the individual.

The Platonic ideal can be summed up in the triune 'rest-movement-becoming' (stasis-kinesis-genesis), in that the general belief was in the soul existing as eternal and in divine contemplation, became somehow satiated, turned away and thus fell. The physical realm was a means of arresting this fall, and is thus seen as a necessary evil.

St Maximus the Confessor (6th century), following Scripture, simply revered this process. Souls are not eternal but created, and in their creation they come into being, and this coming-to-being is, in itself, a movement from nothing (creatio ex nihilo) into something (that says 'I am'). So the triune now reads genesis-kinesis-stasis, the 'end' being attained in the eternal rest in a union with the Divine.

If you read Aquinas, the two source he mentions most, after Scripture itself, is Augustine and the pseudoDionysius, the latter a 6th century Syrian monk and mystic who's thought is much in line with Plotinus and Porphyry. So Aquinas, the foremost theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, was a Platonist who demonstrated a mastery of the Aristotelian method in arguing the reason, rationality and logic of Christian doctrine.
 
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