The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus

by Edited by Lloyd P. Gerson

• ISBN13: 9780521476768
• ISBN10: 0521476763
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-08-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Plotinus is the greatest philosopher in the 700 year period between Aristotle and Augustine. He thought of himself as a disciple of Plato, but in his efforts to defend Platonism against Aristotelians, Stoics, and others, he actually produced a reinvigorated version of Platonism that later came to be known as "Neoplatonism". In this volume, sixteen leading scholars introduce and explain the many facets of Plotinus' complex system. They place Plotinus in the history of ancient philosophy while showing how he was a founder of medieval philosophy.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
The Enneads	xi
Introduction	1	(9)
Lloyd P. Gerson
Plotinus: The Platonic tradition and the foundation of Neoplatonism	10	(28)
Maria Luisa Gatti
Plotinus's metaphysics of the One	38	(28)
John Bussanich
The hierarchical ordering of reality in Plotinus	66	(16)
Dominic J. O'Meara
On soul and intellect	82	(23)
Henry J. Blumenthal
Essence and existence in the Enneads	105	(25)
Kevin Corrigan
Plotinus on the nature of physical reality	130	(41)
Michael F. Wagner
Plotinus on matter and evil	171	(25)
Denis O'Brien
Eternity and time	196	(21)
Andrew Smith
Cognition and its object	217	(33)
Eyjolfur Kjalar Emilsson
Self-knowledge and subjectivity in the Enneads	250	(25)
Sara Rappe
Plotinus: Body and soul	275	(17)
Stephen R. L. Clark
Human freedom in the thought of Plotinus	292	(23)
Georges Leroux
An ethic for the late antique sage	315	(21)
John M. Dillon
Plotinus and language	336	(20)
Frederic M. Schroeder
Plotinus and later Platonic philosophers on the causality of the First Principle	356	(30)
Cristina D'Ancona Costa
Plotinus and Christian philosophy	386	(29)
John Rist
Bibliography	415	(22)
Index of passages	437	(20)
Index of names and subjects	457