Plotinus the Master and the Apotheosis of Imperial Platonism - William H. F. Altman

Plotinus the Master and the Apotheosis of Imperial Platonism

Buch | Hardcover
472 Seiten
2024
Lexington Books/Fortress Academic (Verlag)
978-1-6669-4439-6 (ISBN)
139,65 inkl. MwSt
With both the Roman Empire and contemporary scholarship as backdrop, this book contrasts the Imperial Platonism of Plotinus with Plato's own by distinguishing one as a master enlightening disciples, and the other as an Athenian teacher who taught students to discover the truth for themselves in the Academy.
Unlike other recent studies, Plotinus the Master and the Apotheosis of Imperial Platonism is critical of Plotinus, and in particular of his version of Platonism, here described as “Imperial.” It is in contrast with Plato—a teacher whose dialogues challenge his students to think for themselves—that William H. F. Altman presents Plotinus as a master, who uses a seductive form of rhetoric throughout the Enneads to persuade his disciples to ignore his self-contradictions and decontextualized quotations from Plato while instead regarding his spiritual experiences, combined with a gift for the creative synthesis of previous thinkers, as the principal basis of their faithful and uncritical allegiance. While setting Plotinus in the context of the Roman Empire and his own critique of the Gnostics, this book grapples throughout with his current and virtually uncritical reception.

William H. F. Altman is an independent scholar.

Introduction: The Idea of Imperial Platonism

Chapter 1. Plotinus the Master

Section 1. Teachers and Masters

Section 2. The Exegete of the Platonic Revelation

Section 3. Platonic Exegesis §1: Theaetetus 176a8-b2

Section 4. Plotinian Exegesis §1: 4.8

Section 5. Defending the Master

Section 6. Between Apollonius and Julian §1: Returning to the Cave

Section 7. Plotinus and Plato’s Ion

Chapter 2. Porphyry the Disciple

Section 1. Three Portraits of the Master in Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus

Section 2. The Master’s Favorite Disciple

Section 3. Plotinian Exegesis §2: Longinus, Concerning the End (20.68-76)

Section 4. Between Apollonius and Julian §2: Pythagoras Reborn

Section 5. Longinus, [Longinus], and Anti-Imperial Platonism

Section 6. Platonic Exegesis §2: (R. 509b1-9)

Section 7. The Other Side of Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus

Chapter 3. Porphyry’s Successors

Section 1. The Apologetic Moment in the Interpretation of Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus

Section 2. “A Text Worthy of Plotinus”

Section 3. The Reason Why

Section 4. Between Apollonius and Julian §3: Praising the Pagan Wise Man

Section 5. Plotinian Exegesis §3: 5.5

Section 6. Platonic Exegesis §3: (R. 506d7-507a5)

Section 7. Richard Harder and the Großschrift

Chapter 4. Imperial Platonism and the Gnostics

Section 1. In Defense of Dualism

Section 2. Nag Hammadi

Section 3. Gnosticism as Anti-Imperial Platonism

Section 4. Platonic Exegesis §4: Timaeus 28b2-c2, Republic 517a8-b6, Laws 945e2-946a1

Section 5. Between Apollonius and Julian §4: Solar Theology

Section 6. Plotinian Exegesis §4: 2.9

Section 7. Mazurism

Chapter 5. Pierre Hadot and the Real Plotinus

Section 1. Between Apollonius and Julian §5: “The End of Paganism”

Section 2. Mazur and Hadot

Section 3. Hadot’s Plotinus

Section 4. Platonic Exegesis §5: Sophist 248e7-249a3

Section 5. The Real Plato?

Section 6. Plotinian Exegesis §5: 6.7

Section 7. The Revival of Plotinus: Why Now?

Chapter 6. Plotinus on Plato’s One

Section 1. Between Reading and Misreading: Apollonius and Julian §6

Section 2. Interpretive Sophistry

Section 3. Why Plato’s One is not the Idea of the Good

Section 4. Plotinus the Demiurge

Section 5. Platonic Exegesis §6: Parmenides 143a4-9

Section 6. The Pre-Existent “Stuff” of 6.6

Section 7. Plotinian Exegesis §6: 6.6

Chapter 7. The Rhetorical Apotheosis of Imperial Platonism

Section 1. Plotinus Orator

Section 2. Between Apollonius and Julian §7: Philostratus and Eunapius

Section 3. Dispositio

Section 4. Cosmos as Prophet and the Pagan Holy Man

Section 5. Plotinian Exegesis §7: 4.7.10

Section 6. Platonic Exegesis §7: Letters 312e4-313a6

Section 7. πειθοῦς δημιουργός

Erscheinungsdatum
Sprache englisch
Maße 161 x 235 mm
Gewicht 771 g
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Geschichte Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie Altertum / Antike
ISBN-10 1-6669-4439-4 / 1666944394
ISBN-13 978-1-6669-4439-6 / 9781666944396
Zustand Neuware
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt?
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
eine Biographie

von Klaus Kreiser

Buch | Softcover (2023)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
18,00
der Kaiser, dem die Welt zerbrach

von Heinz Schilling

Buch | Hardcover (2023)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
34,00
Universalgelehrter, Polarreisender, Entdecker

von Günther Wessel

Buch | Hardcover (2024)
mareverlag
28,00