Today I have been multiply blessed!
For instance, while reading THE ENNEADS by Plotinus the great 2nd century philosopher of Alexandria, Egypt, I read:
"Plotinus would be surprised at being thought of as the founder of a new school , 'Neoplatonism.' He considered himself a Platonist pure and simple, without prefix or qualification --in other words, as an interpreter and follower of Plato. Plato, in his view , possessed the truth, the whole truth. In his polemic against the Gnostics he accuses them either of plagiarizing Plato or, when they abandon him to 'split hairs' and invent new doctrines of 'departing from the truth' ."
Then, in footnote 14, Paul Henry, S.J., whose introductory "Place of Plotinus in the History of Thought," that I am reading, further writes:
"Among the 'Dialogues' [of Plato] those most frequently cited are first the 'Timaeus ' and then the Republic,' the 'Phaedo,' the 'Phaedrus,' the Symposium ,' the Theatecus,' the Philebus,' the 'Sophist,' the 'Parmenides.' There are few references to the works of Plato's youth in which he sets problems rather than solves them, and fewer still to the 'Laws.' Cf.'infra,' section vi, p.lxxv, the 'Plato dimidatus' of Theiler."
P. xlvii (Penguin Classics, London: 1991)
Fortunately, for me, I was blessed to buy (then read later) THE LAWS by Plato, at a close-out sale at Border's Bookstore in Overland Park, Kansas, some years ago.
I was also blessed to purchase Plato's COMPLETE WORKS online, and to read the lengthy 'Timaeus'. We had read the REPUBLIC at Howard University as part of a class assignment by Dr. Samuel F. Yette, our esteemed Journalism professor in 1972.
Nevertheless, in spite of the above named serendipitous encounters, Plato's broader philosophical context in relation to Plotinus,' I am just beginning to understand and to appreciate by reason of Paul Henry, S.J.'s erudition, whom I now thank!
Sunday, April 24, 2016
BLESSINGS FROM PLATO, PLOTINUS AND THEIR SOURCE
Today I have been multiply blessed!
For instance, while reading THE ENNEADS by Plotinus the great 2nd century philosopher of Alexandria, Egypt, I read:
"Plotinus would be surprised at being thought of as the founder of a new school , 'Neoplatonism.' He considered himself a Platonist pure and simple, without prefix or qualification --in other words, as an interpreter and follower of Plato. Plato, in his view , possessed the truth, the whole truth. In his polemic against the Gnostics he accuses them either of plagiarizing Plato or, when they abandon him to 'split hairs' and invent new doctrines of 'departing from the truth' ."
Then, in footnote 14, Paul Henry, S.J., whose introductory "Place of Plotinus in the History of Thought," that I am reading, further writes:
"Among the 'Dialogues' [of Plato] those most frequently cited are first the 'Timaeus ' and then the Republic,' the 'Phaedo,' the 'Phaedrus,' the Symposium ,' the Theatecus,' the Philebus,' the 'Sophist,' the 'Parmenides.' There are few references to the works of Plato's youth in which he sets problems rather than solves them, and fewer still to the 'Laws.' Cf.'infra,' section vi, p.lxxv, the 'Plato dimidatus' of Theiler."
P. xlvii (Penguin Classics, London: 1991)
Fortunately, for me, I was blessed to buy (then read later) THE LAWS by Plato, at a close-out sale at Border's Bookstore in Overland Park, Kansas, some years ago.
I was also blessed to purchase Plato's COMPLETE WORKS online, and to read the lengthy 'Timaeus'. We had read the REPUBLIC at Howard University as part of a class assignment by Dr. Samuel F. Yette, our esteemed Journalism professor in 1972.
Nevertheless, in spite of the above named serendipitous encounters, Plato's broader philosophical context in relation to Plotinus,' I am just beginning to understand and to appreciate by reason of Paul Henry, S.J.'s erudition, whom I now thank!