Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World - Faces of Being and Mirrors of Intellect

In this study, Mateusz Strozynski offers an experiential and practical way of understanding Plotinus' thought and philosophy through a focus on the act of contemplation. He argues that contemplation, or direct seeing of the principles of reality, is not merely a part of Plotinus' thought, but rather a significant dimension of it. Moreover, he argues that Plotinus understands metaphysics as a conceptual and propositional description of reality from a third-person perspective, as well as an expression of an experience of that reality from a first-person perspective. Strozynski focuses on the first phase of the journey to the Good, namely, on the contemplation of the intelligible world: Nature, Soul, and Intellect. He describes the fall of the soul and her return through the lens of the so-called "Great Kinds": Being, Movement, Rest, Difference, and Identity. Strozynski also shows how this concept, derived from Plato's Sophist, is creatively used by Plotinus to explain both the loss and the restoration of our ability to contemplate through philosophical practice.

Product details

• Authors: Mateusz Stró¿y¿ski, Mateusz Strozynski, Mateusz (Uniwersytet Im. Adama Mickiew Strozynski, Mateusz (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu Strozynski, Mateusz Stróżyński
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.06.2024
• EAN: 9781009494861
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0949486-1
• No. of pages: 382
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: antiquity to present day; PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500