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Was Plotinus a Platonist? Lineage, Identity, and Scholarship
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For this special episode we have dispensed with the usual bibliographies, because we have something better to offer: a fully-footnoted paper discussing the topic of the episode, arguing for critical reflection on the second-order terms used to discuss ancient Platonism and related religious currents, along with some modest proposals for a set of terms of art which might do the trick. These proposals happen to be the definitions which we use here at the SHWEP, as found in the SHWEP glossary.
Here is a pdf of the paper: Was Plotinus a Platonist? A Few Observations about First and Second Order Terminology in the Study of Platonism
Albert Hand
February 3, 2021
Thank you for this episode which has been very nice fodder for annoying my friend the Plotinus scholar on Twitter. I’m convinced that it’s not really accurate to call the guy a Platonist.
Earl Fontainelle
February 3, 2021
Albert, always happy to lend a hand annoying people on Twitter. Do read my article carefully, though, please: it is legit to call him a Platonist, in my view, depending on what we mean by Platonist. I am just arguing that he never calls himself a Platonist. We can’t even have the discussion until we iron out our terminology, which is kind of what I’m trying to do in the article.
Albert Hand
February 4, 2021
Okay fair enough, apologies for getting that not quite right. Your point is very well taken that we need to be careful about what we mean calling anybody a Platonist, is definitely where I want to emphasize.
Collin Hazlett
February 4, 2021
I wonder if Plotinus is using his appeal to a wisdom lineage a bit differently than, for instance, Philo used it. Some perennialists (like Philo) say, “there was one special person long ago (Moses, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Zoroaster, whoever) who received specially-revealed insight not normally accessible to any human mind, and then that person passed it down through a long line of other people, and we are on the other end of that chain of transmission, which is lucky for us because otherwise we could never have figured it out by ourselves.” But Plotinus, recounting his wisdom lineage, reads to me more like “See how many very smart people throughout history have arrived at these same conclusions or similar ones? This just goes to show that the things I’m saying here are universal truths that any right-thinking person will eventually reach.” It seems to me like Plotinus holds to more of a “natural” perennialism. I’m not sure if that’s actually a legitimate distinction to draw, though.
Earl Fontainelle
February 4, 2021
Good observations, Collin.
Thomas Kiefer
February 10, 2021
I agree with Dr. Fontainelle’s praise of your comment. That seems to be a Stoic doctrine hiding in plain sight, no? That all views naturally converge on the Stoic doctrine? I’ve thought that was the reason why we’ve (tragically) lost almost all Stoic writings: besides being hidden behind closed doors, their books really didn’t matter, because we will end up with all the doctrines in some form or another in the end thanks to the Logos.
If someone could find a complete copy of Zeno’s Republic though, that would be great….
Collin Hazlett
February 11, 2021
Well, if the Stoics were right, maybe one day we’ll understand the universal correspondences between all things well enough that we’ll be able to recover Zeno’s Republic via haruspicy 🙂
Earl Fontainelle
February 11, 2021
Or we can just wait until the next iteration of the universe and read it then, when it’s still extant. Oh, wait, eternal recurrence ….. does that mean we NEVER get to read it????
Ah, well, we must accept lovingly the decrees of fate.
Tjalling
February 16, 2021
I think ‘Platonistic’ could work to delineate those influenced by such a tradition in an indirect, inculturated manner. An alternative could be ‘Platonicate,’ to echo the use of terms like ‘Italianate’ and ‘Islamicate.’ For instance, the last term could be defined as the aspects of medieval Islamic culture that were not themselves inherently Islamic, such as individuals, movements, works of literature etc. produced Ãn the aforementioned Islamic context. The same could work when thinking of a ‘Platonicate spectrum’ that people drew from and contributed to. Just a thought!
Earl Fontainelle
February 16, 2021
Dear Tjal,
‘Platonicate’ could indeed work. The only qualm I would have is that with ‘Islamicate’ we are looking at a whole civilisational architecture, within which loads of non-Islamic folks were working, say Christians and Jews to take the most prominent examples, and doing stuff which was obviously not Islamic, but which bore the marks of Islamicate civilisation, be they Arabic language, the influence of Ibn Sina, or what have you. So Islam provides the main framework, and the Islamicate exists within that framework.
The Platonistic, on the other hand, is more of an ingredient or set of ingredients than a framework. It comes down to a set of ideas and approaches — an immortal, incorporeal soul, a hierarchical reality, Forms of some kind, and so on, a privileging of the incorporeal and changeless as obviously superior to the bodily and changeable, and so on.
Tjalling
February 16, 2021
That’s a fair assessment! I did not necessarily think these contexts are totally equatable; I departed from the fact that there is a sphere of influence, even though the scope of those is of course radically different. Good points!
Saeeduddin Ahmed
April 18, 2022
Earl:
Did you publish this? (other than online here)
https://media.shwep.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/28145812/Was-Plotinus-a-Platonist-A-Few-Observations-about-First-and-Second-Order-Terminology-in-the-Study-of-Platonism.pdf
Earl Fontainelle
April 26, 2022
Saeeduddin,
Nope. It’s a SHWEP-exclusive publication.