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Plotinus

PlotinusPlotinus (204-270).

Table of Contents

  • 1 Ideas
  • 2 Biography
  • 3 Major Works of Plotinus
    • 3.1 Related:
  • 4 Videos
  • 5 Related Products
    • 5.1 Plotinus: The Enneads
    • 5.2 Plotinus: Complete Works: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods. [single volume, unabridged]
    • 5.3 Plotinus or the Simplicity of Vision
    • 5.4 The Enneads: Abridged Edition (Classics S)
    • 5.5 The Essential Plotinus (Hackett Classics)
    • 5.6 Plotinus: The Enneads (LP Classic Reprint Series)
    • 5.7 Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practice
    • 5.8 Delphi Complete Works of Plotinus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 54)
    • 5.9 St. Augustine and Plotinus: the human mind as image of the divine (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae: Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language)
    • 5.10 Reading Plotinus: A Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism (History of Philosophy) (Purdue University Press Series in the History of Philosophy)

Ideas

– The soul is more important and real than the body or any other material object.

– In its pure state, the World-Soul is the same as the Intellect (or Mind).

– The Intellect is a system of Platonic ideas that exists simultaneously in all individual souls.

– Above the Intellect is the One, the absolute unity from which all things come.

– The One is beyond being and is indescribable.

– The three principal levels of reality, in descending order, are the One, the Intellect, and the Soul.

– The goal of human life is to return to the One through developing a good moral character, cultivating reason, and experiencing, a mystical unity in which body, soul and intellect are left behind.

Biography

Plotinus, born in Lykopolis, Egypt.

In his late twenties, Plotinus began to study in Alexandria with Ammonius Saccas, a shadowy figure who was also the teacher of the theologian Origen.

After eleven years with Ammonius, Plotinus joined an expedition to Persia to learn Persian and Indian wisdom. The trek proved unsuccessful and Plotinus moved to Rome. There he established a school of philosophy and a friendship with the emperor Gallenius.

At one point he sought permission to found a city based on Plato’s Republic, but the plan came to naught. He stayed in Rome, teaching and writing, until the death of the emperor in 268. He then moved to the home of a friend where he died in 270, apparently from leprosy.

Major Works of Plotinus

– The Enneads

Related:

  • neo-Platonism
  • Marcus Aurelius
  • Epictetus
  • Moses Maimonides
  • Saint Augustine

  • Videos

  • Related Products

     
    Plotinus: The Enneads

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    Plotinus: Complete Works: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods. [single volume, unabridged]

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    The Enneads: Abridged Edition (Classics S)

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    The Essential Plotinus (Hackett Classics)

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