Plotinus (c. AD 205-270) can be regarded as the greatest Greek philosopher of late Antiquity, and as the father of Neoplatonism. His Enneads ("the nines") are now recognized as seminal works in the development of Western thought. This book is the only detailed scholarly commentary available on this part of Plotinus's work, and should be invaluable to all scholars interested in ancient philosophy and early Christian theology. All Greek in the commentary is translated.

Ennead III.6

Plotinus

Fleet, Barrie

Religion & Spirituality

Clarendon Press

In Categories chapters 7 and 8 Aristotle considers his third and fourth categories - those of Relative and Quality. Critics of Aristotle had suggested for each of the non-substance categories that they could really be reduced to relatives, so it is important how the category of Relative is defined. Aristotle offers two definitions, and the second, stricter, one is often cited by his defenders in order to rule out objections. The second definition of relative involves the idea of something changing its relationship through a change undergone by its correlate, not by itself. There were disagreements as to whether this was genuine change, and Plotinus discussed whether relatives exist only in the mind, without being real. The terms used by Aristotle for such relationships was 'being disposed relatively to something', a term later borrowed by the Stoics for their fourth category, and perhaps originating in Plato's Academy. In his discussion of Quality, Aristotle reports a debate on whether justice admits of degrees, or whether only the possession of justice does so. Simplicius reports the further development of this controversy in terms of whether justice admits a range or latitude (platos). This debate helped to inspire the medieval idea of latitude of forms, which goes back much further than is commonly recognised - at least to Plato and Aristotle.

Simplicius: On Aristotle Categories 7-8 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Bloomsbury Academic

Book 2 of the Physics is arguably the best introduction to Aristotle's ideas, as well as being the most interesting and representative book in the whole of his corpus. It defines nature and distinguishes natural science from mathematics. It introduces the seminal idea of four causes, or four modes of explanation. It defines chance, but rejects a theory of chance and natural selection in favour of purpose in nature. Simplicius, writing in the sixth century Ad, adds his own considerable contribution to this work. Seeing Aristotle's God as a Creator, he discusses how nature relates to soul, adds Stoic and Neoplatonist causes to Aristotle's list of four, and questions the likeness of cause to effect. He discusses missing a great evil or a great good by a hairsbreadth and considers whether animals act from reason or natural instinct. He also preserves a Posidonian discussion of mathematical astronomy.

Simplicius: On Aristotle Physics 2 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Chapters 5 and 6 of Aristotle's Categories describe his first two categories, Substance and Quantity. It is usually taken that Plotinus attacked Aristotle's Categories, but that Porphyry and Iamblichus restored it to the curriculum once and for all. Nonetheless, the introduction to this text stresses how much of the defence of Aristotle Porphyry was able to draw out of Plotinus' critical discussion. Simplicius' commentary is our most comprehensive account of the debate on the validity of Aristotle's Categories. One subject discussed by Simplicius in these chapters is where the differentia of a species (eg the rationality of humans) fits into the scheme of categories. Another is why Aristotle elevates the category of Quantity to second place, above the category of Quality. Further, de Haas shows how Simplicius distinguishes different kinds of universal order to solve some of the problems.

Simplicius: On Aristotle Categories 5-6 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)

Haas, Frans de

Ennead IV.7 is a very early treatise (second according to Porphyry’s chronological table), and unlike the many treatises devoted to attempts at untangling various issues Plotinus found problematic in Plato's thinking, this one presents the teachings of the other main schools current in Plotinus’ day: the Stoics, Epicureans, Pythagoreans, and Peripatetics, all of whom presented soul as something material or as contingent upon material soul, and so as being neither truly immortal nor imperishable. It includes observations on many mainly Stoic doctrines on perception, memory, sensation, thought, virtue, powers of material bodies, mixture and reproduction (Chapters 1–83); on Pythagorean attunement (84); and on Peripatetic entelechy (85). In Chapters 9–10 Plotinus presents, in broad terms, Plato’s doctrines on soul’s immortality—mainly that of the individual soul, but a fortiori that of the soul of the cosmos. These chapters offer some of Plotinus’ most powerful prose. He is not concerned to prove the soul’s immortality—that was an uncontroversial tenet of Platonism, to be taken for granted. In this treatise Plotinus is laying down the indisputable foundations for his later writings.

PLOTINUS: Ennead IV.7: On the Immortality of the Soul: Translation, with an Introduction and Commentary (The Enneads of Plotinus)

Parmenides Publishing