Plotinus the Platonist

Abstract

This chapter assesses the contributions of Plotinus to the completion of the Platonic project. In the time between Plato and Plotinus, there were some six hundred years of reflections on the dialogues, Aristotle's testimony, and the indirect tradition. These reflections left multiple seemingly intractable problems and a susceptibility among self-declared Platonists to various charges of inconsistency. The chapter outlines Plotinus's efforts to solve these problems and to introduce consistency into the systematic framework. The three basic principles or hypostases of Plotinus's system unite the elements of Ur-Platonism and the foundational principle. That is, antinominalism, antimaterialism, antimechanism, antiskepticism, and antirelativism have their theoretical foundation in the hierarchically and causally ordered series One/Good, Intellect, and Soul. What this means, among other things, is that the correct version of what Aristotle calls the science of ultimate principles and causes will arrive at this triad. The chapter then looks at Plotinus's critique of Stoicism, distinguishing between Platonic and Stoic wisdom.