Book contents
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Porphyry’s Arrangement of the Enneads
- Abbreviations of Other Ancient Works and Authors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical Context
- 1 Plato and Aristotle in the Enneads
- 2 Plotinus, Gnosticism, and Christianity
- 3 From Plotinus to Proclus
- 4 The One as First Principle of All
- Part II Metaphysics and Epistemology
- Part III Psychology
- Part IV Natural Philosophy
- Part V Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from page ii)
3 - From Plotinus to Proclus
from Part I - Historical Context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2022
Book contents
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Porphyry’s Arrangement of the Enneads
- Abbreviations of Other Ancient Works and Authors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical Context
- 1 Plato and Aristotle in the Enneads
- 2 Plotinus, Gnosticism, and Christianity
- 3 From Plotinus to Proclus
- 4 The One as First Principle of All
- Part II Metaphysics and Epistemology
- Part III Psychology
- Part IV Natural Philosophy
- Part V Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from page ii)
Summary
The epigraph that opens this chapter quotes the statement with which Proclus, one of the last heads of the Platonic Academy in Athens, opens his Platonic Theology, a six-volume elaboration of the metaphysics of the divine as found in Plato’s dialogues. According to Proclus, the history of philosophy is a ‘golden chain’ of Platonic succession, which starts with the Gods, Pythagoras, and Plato, and then, after a period of retreat, finds in Plotinus a ‘coming back into the light’.1
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- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus , pp. 65 - 89Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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