Neoplatonic Philosophy: Introductory Readings

This is the best and most affordable collection of Neoplatonic writings under the standard of a single volume. These selections and translations were made by the foremost scholars in the modern Neoplatonic sphere; and they were unified by the guiding principle that readers need an introduction to NP that is altogether lucid, systematic, and thorough. The textual apparatus contains learned footnotes that direct readers to other main texts, while explaining obscurities, delivering occasional exegesis, and providing variants to the meaning of some of the most technical language. It also lends readers valuable introductory material pertinent to each of the works selected; and the definitive glossary highlights key philosophical concepts and terms. Found here will be some of the primary writings of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, which together form the first veritable canon of Neoplatonism.

The book had very little marking. Very happy

I love it. Thank you!!

Do you have strong sado-masochistic leanings? Were you tortured to death in a previous incarnation and do you long to undergo an agony of like kind once again? Do you enjoy feeling that you are going blind, or feeling that you are peering through thick fog because the words of a book you are trying to read are a ghostly light gray instead of black? Do you enjoy thermoplastic bindings which prevent you from concentrating on what you are trying to read because you are having to expend so much energy struggling to try to keep the book held open? If you answered YES! to most or all of these questions you are really going to enjoy this book, and might enjoy it even more if it came with a gift certificate for a free hair shirt. Less abnormal readers, on the other hand, would no doubt prefer that a bit of ink had been put in the printing machine before copies of this book had been run off, and that for their money they had been given something corresponding a little more closely to what the word BOOK is supposed to mean. Bottom line: Although the contents of this book (a brief introduction to Neoplatonism followed by annotated extracts from Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus) are excellent and of very real value, the poor printing and stiff binding make it very tiresome to read; hence the single star.

I would rather have a hot lead enema than try to read this book.

Neoplatonic Philosophy. Introductory readings. I found this super in terms of being an introduction to Neoplatonic Philosophy, and something to wet the appetite. The generally accepted founder of which being Plotinus, although some would argue that Numenius is at least worthy of an acknowledgement. Neoplatonic philosophy, as the term implies, is following, though not strictly within, the Platonic Tradition. Plotinus sees Plato as his teacher – Ammonius Sacchus (his actual teacher) left no record of what he actually taught, and he is only mentioned in his student, Porphyry’s ‘life of Plotinus.’ Plotinus’s key stamp is to try to answer questions Plato did not ask, and to consider some of the issues that Plato felt were not very important. For Platonists and Neoplatonists alike, John Dillon and Llyod P Gerson need no introduction, for their insightful authority in this area of classical philosophy precedes them. The preface sees this contribution to the field, as following Inwood and Gerson’s Introduction to Hellenic Philosophy – which now appears to be out of print. So what have we got? A very generous selection, from Plotinus providing an overview, with selections from Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus. Gerson did the Plotinus translations and Dillon did the others. I have Thomas Taylor’s translations of Plotinus, as well as McKenna’ s lyrical translation, and Armstrong’s (in the Leob edition), so that if I wish, I can compare the ‘sound’ in the translations. If the Introduction to Hellenic Philosophy was criticized for a paucity of footnotes, this one follows the model of Armstrong, illuminating and to the point. More recent scholarly explorations of both Plato and Plotinus, the footnotes regarding current academic debate, can be distracting; and Gerson shrewdly avoids this, for it is, after all, it is an introduction. The cross-referencing is excellent, bearing in mind that Plotinus was writing nearly some 700 years after Plato, and took on board developments of Plato’s thought in the Academy, the insights of Aristotle – who after all was Plato’s student, and the Stoics. With Thomas Taylor I sometimes have problems with the idiom, with the linguistic beauty of MacKenna’s, which I can just enjoy, and with Armstrong, an acuity in translation. I now have another translation, and thankfully (for me), a complete translation of foundational Enneads, viz. I I:6; V I:1, with selections from others, which would be more than enough to promote further reading. The Ennead term comes from Porphyry’s arrangement of 6 Enneads, each divided into 9 books – and some books are longer than others. The whole collection is probably the best ‘introduction’ I have seen for quite some time, and reading what the people actually said, rather than the convenient, supposedly more accessible, mixture of paraphrase and comment, is so much better.

Je cherchais un ouvrage présentant pour les non spécialistes une présentation synthétique du néoplatonisme et de ses courants. Celui-ci est avant tout une sélection de textes clés de divers auteurs de l'Antiquité, donc mon achat est de ce point de vue raté. Sera utile pour les étudiants avancés en philosophie de l'Antiquité.

Alles Super gelaufen. Danke

Needed it for uni. A great collection - it has everything I needed and a little more. The introductions are useful too, and don't over interpret the text for you. From what I hear (I don't read Greek), the translation is excellent.