Plotinus

PLOTINUS or the Simplicity of Vision by Pierre Hadot, Michael Chase (Translator), ($13.00, paperback, 152 pages Reprint edition, University of Chicago Press, ISBN: 0226311945)

The Roman philosopher Plotinus (c. 205-70) is perhaps best known today for his doctrine of self-transformation through contemplation: "Never stop sculpting your own statue, until the godlike splendor of virtue shines forth to you." Since its publication in France in 1963 and through subsequent editions both there and abroad, Pierre Hadot's lively philosophical portrait of Plotinus has established itself as the preeminent introduction to the man and his thought. Michael Chase's lucid translation complete with a useful chronology and analytical bibliography-at last makes this book available to the English-speaking world.

Hadot carefully examines Plotinus' views on the self, existence, love, virtue, gentleness, and solitude. He shows that Plotinus, like other philosophers of his day, believed that Plato and Aristotle had already articulated the essential truths; for him, the purpose of practicing philosophy was not to profess new truths but to engage in spiritual exercises so as to live philosophically. Seen in this light, Plotinus' counsel against fixation on the body and all earthly matters stemmed not from disgust or fear, but rather from his awareness of the negative effect that bodily preoccupation and material concern could have on spiritual exercises.

Arnold Davidson's useful introduction sets this book against the background of current Plotinus scholarship, discusses Plotinus' understanding of mystical experience and the self, and emphasizes Plotinus' continuing philosophical significance.

Pierre Hadot's PLOTINUS or the Simplicity of Vision is a masterpiece of philosophical interpretation. Its mastery is exhibited not only in its interpretation of Plotinus, but also in its presentation of a vision of philosophy exemplified in, but certainly not exhausted by, the teachings of Plotinus. Originally published in French in 1963, its translation into English coincides with the appearance of the first volumes of Hadot's new translation of and commentary on Plotinus' Enneads. The thirty intervening years have seen the publication of many of Hadot's fundamental essays on Plotinus. But the best introduction to Hadot's reading of Plotinus remains this short book, for it allows us to see the experience of philosophy as manifested in the writings of a thinker too often consigned to the footnotes of philosophy.

From Introduction

Pierre Hadot is one of the most influential and wide-ranging historians of ancient philosophy writing today. His work exhibits that rare combination of prodigious historical scholarship and rigorous philosophical argumentation that upsets any preconceived distinction between the history of philosophy and philosophy proper.

PHILOSOPHY AS A WAY OF LIFE: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault by Pierre Hadot, Arnold I. Davidson (Editor) ($29.95, paperback, Blackwell Publishers; ISBN: 0631180338)

This book presents a history of spiritual exercises from Socrates to Foucault, an account of the centrality, decline, and re-emergence of spiritual exercises in the history of philosophy, and a discussion of the different conceptions of philosophy that have accompanied the trajectory and fate of the theory and practice of spiritual exercises. By focusing our attention on philosophy as a way of life, Hadot provokes us to ask the question of what it means to philosophize today. Hadot addresses the need for philosophy to return to the philosophy of the ancient writers (he places special emphasis on Socrates, Marcus Arelius, Epicurus and Epictetus). The book is well organized and clear to understand. Hadot does a good job with his citation of lots of ancient material, which allows the readers to read more of the original works that he cites. With a thorough bibliography and excellent endnotes, this book is a must-have for all philosophers interested in postmodern philosophy and ancient philosophy scholars. There is a special focus in the contemplative aspects of philosophy not as a collection of ideas about life but as an contemplative mode of living.

He is Professor Emeritus of the History of Hellenistic and Roman Thought at the College de France. He is the author of numerous landmark books and essays on the major figures and themes of ancient philosophy, as well as on medieval Philosophy, Goethe, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein.

The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
Lloyd P. Gerson, editor
Cambridge University Press
$59.95, cloth, 462 pages; bibliography, indexes
ISBN 0-521-47093-5

paper edition:

Plotinus
An Introduction to the Enneads
by Dominic J. O'Meara
Oxford University Press
$15.95, paper; 142 pages
ISBN 0-19-875147-8
cloth edition:

Currently there is no better introductory philosophical text about Plotinus than O'Meara's. He cleverly places Plotinus' arguments into their classic context showing how the tradition and his immediate predecessors' presuppositions about what Plato meant informed Plotinus' own strong moral purpose.

Each volume of this series of Cambridge Companions to major philosophers contains especially commissioned essays by an international team of scholars, together with a substantial bibliography, and will serve as a reference work for students and nonspecialists. One aim of the series is to dispel the intimidation such readers often feel when faced with the work of a difficult and challenging thinker.

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's complex system. They place Plotinus in the history of ancient philosophy while showing how he was a founder of medieval philosophy. New readers and nonspecialists will find this the most convenient and accessible guide to Plotinus currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Plotinus.
This volume, like the others in the series, is intended to serve as an aid to the reading of a major Western philosopher. One service that the editor and contributors would be glad to perform is to change the mind of those who cavil at the use of the term "major" or even "philosopher" in reference to Plotinus. Read them and him for yourself and decide. Do not be put off by ignorant detractors or uncritical enthusiasts or by the essentially empty label "Neoplatonist," which in some circles has become nothing more than a term of abuse.

How best to assist someone who wants to read Plotinus, whose works, regardless of their quality, are intensely difficult, is not easy to determine. First of all, his thought is not simply divisible into the traditional categories of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and so on. And so it would be positively unhelpful to suggest otherwise by offering a tidy package of essays each of which "does" a given subject.

Second, Plotinus's writings can hardly be characterized as systematic, although there is a Plotinian system in the sense that there are basic entities, principles of operation, and an effort at a unified explanation of the world. The system, however, does not for the most part cut up nicely into the written works, such that an introductory exposition of a work would provide one of that system's building blocks.

Third, Plotinus is a philosopher deeply and self-consciously rooted in a long and complex tradition. To try to represent his views without some appreciation of this context could only result in grotesque distortions and it would make this book at best a treacherous "companion."

The expedient employed here is something of a compromise, in attempting to combine elements of different possible approaches. The first essay should give one an overview of the philosophical context of Plotinus's writings. The next three together provide an outline of the three "hypostases" or basic entities of Plotinus's system and their operations.

Essays five through nine discuss specific philosophical problems that Plotinus deals with on the basis of his fundamental principles. Essays ten through thirteen concern Plotinus's treatment of issues that cut across what today would be said to belong to philosophy of mind, ethics, and philosophy of religion. Essay fourteen concerns Plotinus's remarkable use of the Greek language in his sometimes tortured efforts to convey his philosophical vision. Essays fifteen and sixteen provide the reader with some signposts leading from Plotinus to the increasingly complex history of later Neoplatonism and its encounter with Christianity. Some important topics are only touched on - aesthetics and mysticism, for instance.

The airing of controversies regarding interpretation of texts has been largely suppressed, not by editorial fiat, but by the far more effective expedient of space limitations. I am reasonably confident that in generally having ignored deeply contentious issues of interpretation we have not done a disservice to the neophyte. More experienced readers of Plotinian scholarship will after all have some idea of what the issues are and what is the range of scholarly opinion, and they can evaluate what is said here accordingly.
Adapted from the Introduction by Lloyd P. Gerson.

Plotinus: The Enneads, the best current translation in English is in the Loeb Classical Library by A.H. Armstrong.

Plotinus Enneads (Loeb Classical Library, 440) Volume 1; 2nd Rev Edition Plotinus, Paul Henry (Editor), Harvard University Press, $18.95, Hardcover; 0-674-99484-1

Plotinus Ennead III by Plotinus, (Loeb Classical Library, No 442) Volume 3 translated by A.H. Armstrong, Harvard University Press, $18.95, Hardcover; 0-674-99487-6

Plotinus Ennead IV by Plotinus, (Loeb Classical Library, No 443) Volume 4 translated by A.H. Armstrong, Harvard University Press, $18.95, Hardcover; 0-674-99488-4

Plotinus Ennead V by Plotinus, (Loeb Classical Library, No 444) Volume 5 translated by A.H. Armstrong, Harvard University Press, $18.95, Hardcover; 0-674-99489-2

Plotinus Ennead VI by Plotinus, (Loeb Classical Library, No 445) Books 1-5,Volume 6 translated by A.H. Armstrong, Harvard University Press, $18.95, Hardcover; 0-674-99490-6

Plotinus Ennead VI by Plotinus, (Loeb Classical Library, No 446) Books 6-9,Volume 7 translated by A.H. Armstrong, Harvard University Press, $18.95, Hardcover; 0-674-99515-5

PLOTINUS

Ennead III.6 on the Impassivity of the Bodiless
by Plotinus

translated by Barrie Fleet with commentary

Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press

$75.00, Hardcover,

0-19-814965-4

Not reviewed.

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