Plotinus (Arguments of the Philosophers)

346 Pages·1998·5 MB·English

by  Lloyd P. Gerson

PLOTINUS
THE ARGUMENTS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS
Editor: Ted Honderich
Grote Professor of the Philosophy of
Mind and Logic, University College London
The purpose of this series is to provide a contemporary assessment and history of the entire
course of philosophical thought. Each book constitutes a detailed, critical introduction to
the work of a philosopher or school of major influence and significance.
Already published in the series:
*Augustine Christopher Kirwan
*J.L.Austin Geoffrey Warn ock
Ayer Joh nFost er
*Bentham Ross Harrison
*Bergson A.R.Lacey
*Berkeley George Pitcher
Butler Terence Penelhum
*Descartes Margaret Dauler Wilson
*Dewey J.E.Tiles
Gottlob Frege Hans Sluga
Hegel M.J.Inwood
*Hobbes Tom Sorell
*Hume Barry Stroud
*Husserl David Bell
William James Graham Bird
*Kant Ralph C.S.Walker
*Kierkegaard Alastair Hannay
Karl Marx Allen Wood
Meinong Reinhart Grossman
*John Stuart Mill John Skorupski
*G.E.Moore Tom Baldwin
*Nietzsche Richard Schacht
*Pierce Christopher Hookway
*Plato Justin Gosling
*Karl Popper Anthony O’Hear
*The Presocratic Philosophers Jonathan Barnes
*Thomas Reid Keith Lehrer
*Russell R.M.Sainsbury
Santayana Timothy L.S.Sprigge
*Sartre Peter Caws
*The Sceptics R.J.Harkinson
*Schopenhauer D.W.Hamlyn
*Socrates Gerasimos Xenophon Santas
Spinoza R.J.Delahun ty
*Wittgenstein Robert J.Fogelin
*available in paperback
PLOTINUS
Lloyd P.Gerson
London and New York
First published 1994
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of
Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks
please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
First published in paperback 1998
© 1994 Lloyd P.Gerson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any storage or information
retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gerson, Lloyd P.
Plotinus/Lloyd P.Gerson.
p. cm.—(Arguments of the philosophers)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Plotinus 2. Neoplatonism.
I. Title. II. Series.
B693.Z7G47 1998
186!.4–dc21 97–50000
ISBN 0-203-01147-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17467-4 (Adobe ebook Reader Format)
ISBN 0-415-05662-4 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-17409-0 (pbk)
To my wife
Theresa Krystyniak Gerson
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
The Enneads x
Introduction xii
PART I
I AN ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF A FIRST PRINCIPLE OF

ALL 2
II THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE ONE 12
1 The entitative attributes of the One 12
2 The operational attributes of the One 18
III INTELLECT AND SOUL 36
1 Intellect: the realm of essence and life 36
2 Soul: the restless principle 49
IV TRUTH AND THE FORMS 56
1 Where and what is eternal truth? 56
2 Forms of individuals 62
V CATEGORIES AND THE TRADITION 68
1 The criticism of Stoic categories 68
2 The criticism of Aristotle’s categories 72
3 Aristotelian essentialism 80
4 The Plotinian categories 83
VI A PLATONIC WORLD 90
1 The composition of sensibles 90
2 Matter 94
3 Time and eternity 100
PART II
VII HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY 109
1 A refined dualism 109
2 Soul and self 119
3 The psychology of the endowed self 125
viii Contents
4 Desires of the dispossessed 130
5 Free will 134
VIII SOME EPISTEMOLOGICAL QUESTIONS 141
1 Perceptual realism 141
2 On thinking incarnately 146
IX CONQUERING VIRTUE 159
1 The good life 159
2 Evil 164
3 Virtue 170

X PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION 175

1 Religion as return to self 175

2 Beauty 182

3 Mysticism and philosophy 187
Some concluding remarks 193
Notes 195
Bibliography 260
General index 286
Index of texts cited 297
Acknowledgments
It is a great pleasure to acknowledge the assistance generously given to me by colleagues,
students, and friends. Earlier versions of the entire typescript were read by John
Bussanich, Gary Gurtler, SJ, Michael Wagner, John Rist, Eyjölfur Emilsson, and Mark
Reuter. Their extensive comments were enormously beneficial. Brad Inwood, Doug
Hutchinson, and Joseph Owens discussed with me many points of detail. Richard Sorabji
provided me with a number of acute comments on an earlier version of part of chapter III
delivered at a conference in New Delhi in 1993. In the academic year 1991–2 the Toronto
Greek Reading Group worked its way through Plotinus’ treatise III.7, “On Eternity and
Time.” All those who participated were of great help to me in learning to better
understand Plotinus’ difficult idiom. Abigail Cinader helped with the proofreading and
editorial tasks. A grant from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada relieved me of most teaching duties during 1991–2 when the largest part of this
book was written.