Dr. Lewis & Plotinus
If anyone has Dr. Lewis' address could you send it to me.
I have been thinking about the discussion we had last Thursday in History of Philosophy regarding Plotinus' view of the Good. I still find it difficult to affirm that Plotinus was actually arguing that the Good is ineffable. This may very well be the logical conclusion to his views but I do not find in his writing that he is directly claiming that this is the case. Instead he seems to be arguing that it is impossible to describe the Good, not that the Good is unknowable. He even seems to claim to "know" the Good through a mystical experience. This is a subtle but important distinction. I think we were all a bit miffed at Jones and his less than honest handling of Christianity and to ascribe ineffability to Plotinus is doing much the same thing.
Do not get me wrong. I am not arguing that I agree with Plotinus but I do want to make sure that anyone that I am engaging is understood for what they say and mean and not just what I think they are saying.
I have been thinking about the discussion we had last Thursday in History of Philosophy regarding Plotinus' view of the Good. I still find it difficult to affirm that Plotinus was actually arguing that the Good is ineffable. This may very well be the logical conclusion to his views but I do not find in his writing that he is directly claiming that this is the case. Instead he seems to be arguing that it is impossible to describe the Good, not that the Good is unknowable. He even seems to claim to "know" the Good through a mystical experience. This is a subtle but important distinction. I think we were all a bit miffed at Jones and his less than honest handling of Christianity and to ascribe ineffability to Plotinus is doing much the same thing.
Do not get me wrong. I am not arguing that I agree with Plotinus but I do want to make sure that anyone that I am engaging is understood for what they say and mean and not just what I think they are saying.
posted by MathEdDocStudent at
5:08:00 AM
2 Comments:
Check out the blog by Brian Hines - a guy who actually seems to hold to Plotinus' position(!), and wrote a book on the philosopher (not that sales seem to be doing terribly well - probably not a lot of interest in Neoplatonism either among philosophers or people looking for a new metaphysical system to embrace). Go to http://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/plotinus to have a look. He says:
"The One, or “God” if you like, is far beyond human the bounds of human reason, utterly ineffable, without any qualities that we can begin to comprehend."
I must admit that I was pretty confused about Plotinus' views in general. Seems like there was a lot more going on in his mind than I could pick up either from Jones or a single hour of class discussion. But at least he helped Augustine get saved... ;-)
By
Paul, at 1:47 PM
Check out http://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/writingweblogs/index.html
This guy seems to think that ineffable essentially means unknowable (at least cognitively). I think he might even *be* a neoplatonist.
By
Paul, at 3:59 PM
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