Plotinus

205-270 c.e.

Neoplatonic philosopher

Sources

A Deep Thinker. Although a Roman, Plotinus was possibly born in Egypt, though he also seems to have been fluent in Greek. He became a philosopher in his late twenties, and even traveled east to improve his knowledge of philosophies in that region. Around 235 he settled in Rome. A teacher and social activist, he had a large following during his years in Rome. A late member of the Academy, in the period of thought known as “Neoplatonism,” Plotinus composed his teachings into a comprehensive work called the Enneads, or The Book of Nines when he was about fifty. Plotinus’s conception of reality held that all things proceeded outward from the “One” in concentric circles, like the ripples on water when a stone is thrown in a pool. These rings represent the various states of reality as they progress further and further from their origin. In the innermost ring, for example, is “Mind,” the next “Soul,” and finally, furthest out, “Nature,” that is, simple material reality with neither mind nor soul. Plotinus’s revival of Platonic thought remained the principal philosophical influence in late antiquity, until the emperor Justinian closed down the Athenian schools of philosophy in 529 c.e.

Sources

Émile Bréhier, The Philosophy of Plotinus, translated by Joseph Thomas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953).

Lloyd P. Gerson, Plotinus (London & New York: Routledge, 1994).

John Peter Kenney, Mystical Monotheism: A Study in Ancient Platonic Theology (Providence, R.I.: Brown University Press; Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1991).