Alexandrine Schniewind: L'Ethique du Sage chez Plotin. Le paradigme du spoudaios.

The focus of this monograph is, as its title suggests, the ethical stance of the spoudaios in Plotinus' Enneads. Schniewind, hereafter S, provides in her introduction an accurate summary of the work of previous writers on Plotinus' ethical theory. This summary demonstrates that there is some disagreement as to whether or not Plotinus provides an ethic that is applicable to the ordinary man, as opposed to the spoudaios. A number of writers, this reviewer included, have found it difficult to see what practical ethical guidance is available to the ordinary man in the egoistic behaviour of the Plotinian spoudaios. Yet Porphyry's Life presents Plotinus, whom one must assume was a spoudaios, as a figure deeply involved with the life of the community and not the austere figure that the Enneads seem to conjure up. S claims that this dichotomy can be resolved upon examination of the figure of the spoudaios, and in the seven chapters that make up this monograph, she argues her case in a thorough and scholarly manner

The Ethics of Plotinus

The theme of this paper is, what I believe to be, the inconsistency in the life lived by Plotinus and the ethical teaching of the Enneads. This paper will do little more than set out the problem. We know quite a bit about the life Plotinus lived because of a biography written by his most famous pupil, Porphyry. We have some fragments from another biogra~hy by Eunapius and other bits and pieces. But Porphyry is the chief source. We are lucky to have anything at all when we consider the opening lines of Porphyry's biography: Plotinus, the philosopher of our times, seemed ashamed of being in the body. As a result of this state of mind he could never bear to talk about his race or his parents or his native country (Vita Plotini 1.1-2)

The Ethics of Plotinus

The theme of this paper is, what I believe to be, the inconsistency in the life lived by Plotinus and the ethical teaching of the Enneads. This paper will do little more than set out the problem. We know quite a bit about the life Plotinus lived because of a biography written by his most famous pupil, Porphyry. We have some fragments from another biogra~hy by Eunapius and other bits and pieces. But Porphyry is the chief source. We are lucky to have anything at all when we consider the opening lines of Porphyry's biography: Plotinus, the philosopher of our times, seemed ashamed of being in the body. As a result of this state of mind he could never bear to talk about his race or his parents or his native country (Vita Plotini 1.1-2)

Did Alexander the Great read Xenophon?

It has been assumed by writers, ancient and modern, that Xenophon’s literary output had a direct influence on Alexander the Great. But is there any evidence to prove that it did? In spite of the paucity of references to Xenophon in the surviving Alexander sources, many writers, both ancient and modern, have no doubts concerning the influence of Xenophon’s writings on Alexander. An extreme position is suggested by Eunapius, the sophist and historian born at Sardis c. AD 345, when he says in his Lives of the Sophists (VS I, 453): ‘Alexander the Great would not have become great if there had been no Xenophon’. However, Eunapius might mean little more than Alexander had heard of, and been inspired by, what Xenophon had done in Asia. We are looking for evidence that Alexander had read Xenophon; most modern literature is in no doubt that he did. Almost all the major monographs on Alexander, those by Wilcken, Robinson, Tarn, Hammond and Lane Fox, among others, take it for granted that Alexander had read and learned from Xenophon

Alexandrine Schniewind: L'Ethique du Sage chez Plotin. Le paradigme du spoudaios.

The focus of this monograph is, as its title suggests, the ethical stance of the spoudaios in Plotinus' Enneads. Schniewind, hereafter S, provides in her introduction an accurate summary of the work of previous writers on Plotinus' ethical theory. This summary demonstrates that there is some disagreement as to whether or not Plotinus provides an ethic that is applicable to the ordinary man, as opposed to the spoudaios. A number of writers, this reviewer included, have found it difficult to see what practical ethical guidance is available to the ordinary man in the egoistic behaviour of the Plotinian spoudaios. Yet Porphyry's Life presents Plotinus, whom one must assume was a spoudaios, as a figure deeply involved with the life of the community and not the austere figure that the Enneads seem to conjure up. S claims that this dichotomy can be resolved upon examination of the figure of the spoudaios, and in the seven chapters that make up this monograph, she argues her case in a thorough and scholarly manner

Plotinus on Eudaimonia

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a tract from the Enneads listed 46th in the chronological order and entitled EGGa~~oviaq. Many critics have translated this as "Happiness', but as I shall make clear, eudaimonia is not equivalent to happiness. Neither is it equivalent to 'well-being', 'Gluckseligkeit', 'bonheur' or any such unqualified term. A more recent attempt to translate it comes from Ciapalo who calls it: 'the good state of one's inner reality' and equates it with the attainment of the One by those beings who live superabundantly. As we shall see, this is much closer to what Plotinus has in mind and since a single term does not suffice I shall transliterate rather than transIate the term and hope that by the end of this paper the content of eudaimonia will have been made clear

Review: Reading Ancient Texts. Volume I: Presocratics and Plato, and Reading Ancient Texts. Volume II: Aristotle and Neoplatonism: Essays in honour of Dennis O'Brien. edited by Suzanne Stern-Giller and Kevin Corrigan. Leiden: Brill. 2007. Volume I. ISBN 9789004165090. Volume II. ISBN 9789004165120.

Abstract included in text

Review: Reading Ancient Texts. Volume I: Presocratics and Plato, and Reading Ancient Texts. Volume II: Aristotle and Neoplatonism: Essays in honour of Dennis O'Brien. edited by Suzanne Stern-Giller and Kevin Corrigan. Leiden: Brill. 2007. Volume I. ISBN 9789004165090. Volume II. ISBN 9789004165120.

Abstract included in text

Does the Mystic Care? The Ethical Theory of Plotinus

This short article explores whether or not Plotinus' ethical theory as expounded in the Enneads was in line or at odds with his behaviour in personal lif

The Ethics of Plotinus

The theme of this paper is, what I believe to be, the inconsistency in the life lived by Plotinus and the ethical teaching of the Enneads. This paper will do little more than set out the problem. We know quite a bit about the life Plotinus lived because of a biography written by his most famous pupil, Porphyry. We have some fragments from another biogra~hy by Eunapius and other bits and pieces. But Porphyry is the chief source. We are lucky to have anything at all when we consider the opening lines of Porphyry's biography: Plotinus, the philosopher of our times, seemed ashamed of being in the body. As a result of this state of mind he could never bear to talk about his race or his parents or his native country (Vita Plotini 1.1-2)