CNVE 2010 - Plotinus' Use of Early Greek Philosophers (Public Lecture): The Case of Ethics

Description

Plotinus’ Enneads assimilate nearly eight centuries of ancient Greek philosophical tradition: from early and classical antiquity to the Hellenistic and the Imperial age. Plotinus uses early Greek philosophers such as Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and the Pythagoreans in key areas of his thought. Presocratic theories are evident in the Plotinian enquiries of the unity of being; the nature of intelligence; eternity and time; and the life of ensouled bodies. This paper aims to compare Presocratic ethics to Plotinus’ virtue ethics and explore early Greek ethical concepts such as ethos and arête in Plotinus’ key Enneadic texts related to soul’s noetic ascent, self-knowledge, wisdom and responsibility.

Period	5 May 2010
Event title	Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
Event type	Conference
Organiser	Center for Neoplatonic Virtue Ethics
Location	Copenhagen, DenmarkShow on map