Rating: Not rated
Tags: Freedom, Philosophy, Lang:en
Summary
As the most important philosophical work to emerge in the
700-year period between Aristotle and Augustine, The Enneads
has been subject to intense scrutiny for more than 2000 years.
But the mystical and abstract nature of these treatises by
Plotinus continues to resist easy elucidation. In this volume,
the latest in the Aarhus Studies on Mediterranean Antiquity,
Asger Ousager grapples with the great neo-Platonist's
conception of the individual. Is the individual free or
determined? Is the Plotinian God subject to any compulsion
Himself, and with what consequences for our inner and outer
freedom? And finally, what are the political and ethical
implications of Plotinism? Since Plotinus has traditionally
been regarded as apolitical, it is the evidence that Ousager
marshals for his political philosophy that forms the most
intriguing part of this study. According to the author, what
distinguishes Plotinus from Plato and Aristotle politically is
his emphasis on natural authority, mutual cooperation and the
immense potential of all people, even slaves. **