Plotinus and the Presocratics ; A Philosophical Study of Presocratic Influences in Plotinus' Enneads )

284 Pages·2007·1.839 MB·English

by  Giannis Stamatellos

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GGIAIANNNNISIS S STTAAMMAATTEELLLLOOSS
Plotinus and the Presocratics
SUNY series in Ancient Greek Philosophy
Anthony Preus, editor
Plotinus and the Presocratics
A Philosophical Study of Presocratic Influences
in Plotinus’Enneads
Giannis Stamatellos
State University of New York Press

To my grandparents
Nikos and Elpinike Tetradi

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
INTRODUCTION 1
1 THE ORIGINS OF PLOTINUS’PHILOSOPHY 3
1.1 Plotinus’Predecessors 3
1.2 Plotinus’Philosophical Method 4
1.2.1 Lectures and Writings 5
1.2.2 Language, Simile, and Metaphor 6
1.2.3 Quoting Predecessors 8
1.3 Plotinus’Philosophical Sources 10
1.3.1 Plato 11
1.3.2 Aristotle 14
1.3.3 Stoics and Epicureans 14
1.3.4 Middle-Platonists, Aristotelians, and Neopythagoreans 15
1.3.5 Gnostics, Christians, the Orient, and Other
Contemporary Movements 17
1.4 Plotinus and the Presocratics 19
2 ONE AND UNITY 23
2.1 The One in Plotinus 23
2.2 The Presocratic One in the Enneads 26
2.3 Parmenides’Monism 30
2.4 The Ineffable One 33
2.4.1 The Apophatism of the First Principle 35
2.4.2 The Pythagorean Apophatism of the Monad 36
vii
viii Contents
2.5 The One as First Principle 42
2.5.1 Heraclitus’One 44
2.5.2 Empedocles’Philia 48
2.5.3 Anaxagoras’Mind 53
3 INTELLECT AND BEING 59
3.1 Plotinus’Theory of Intellect 59
3.2 Eleatic Being in the Enneads 64
3.3 The Nature of Being 65
3.3.1 Parmenides’Theory of Being 66
3.3.2 Plotinus on Parmenides’Being 70
3.3.3 Thinking and Being 72
3.4 The Predicates of Being 80
3.4.1 Ungenerated and Indestructible 81
3.4.2 Indivisible and Self-identical 83
3.4.3 Imperturbable and Changeless 84
4 ETERNITY AND TIME 89
4.1 Plotinus’Theory of Eternity and Time 89
4.2 Eternity and Time in the Presocratics 94
4.3 The Presocratic Theories of Eternity and Time in the Enneads 96
4.4 The Timelessness of Being 99
4.4.1 Philolaus’Eternal Continuance and Plato’s Eternity
of the Forms 101
4.4.2 Parmenides’Timelessness of Being 105
4.4.3 Plotinus’Timelessness of Eternity 111
4.5 The Eternal Life of Intellect 112
4.5.1 Eternity in Heraclitus 114
4.5.2 Eternal Life in Empedocles 117
Contents ix
4.6 The Everlastingness of Time 120
4.6.1 The Myth of Time 121
4.6.2 The Everlastingness of the Cosmos 123
4.6.3 The Movement of the Spheres, Eternal Recurrence,
and Spiral Time 129
5 MATTER AND SOUL 135
5.1 Matter and Ensouled Body in Plotinus 135
5.2 Plotinus’Criticism of Presocratic Matter 138
5.2.1 Anaximander’s apeiron 139
5.2.2 Empedocles’Theory of the Four Elements 142
5.2.3 Anaxagoras’Theory of Matter 145
5.2.4 The Atomic Theory of Matter 150
5.3 Plotinus’Theory of the Ensouled Body 156
5.3.1 The Presocratic Theories of the Ensouled Body in
theEnneads 158
5.3.2 Heraclitus’Theory of Soul and Physical Alteration 158
5.3.3 The daimo¯nin Empedocles 166
6 CONCLUSION 173
APPENDIX:TEXT OF PRESOCRATIC FRAGMENTS
IN PLOTINUS’ENNEADS 177
NOTES 197
BIBLIOGRAPHY 239
INDEX FONTIUM 255
INDEX OF CONCEPTS AND PROPER NAMES 259