Plotinus and Epicurus: Matter, Perception, Pleasure

Description

This volume investigates the reasons why Plotinus, a philosopher inspired by Plato, made critical use of Epicurean philosophy. Eminent scholars show that some fundamental Epicurean conceptions pertaining to ethics, physics, epistemology and theology are drawn upon in the Enneads to discuss crucial notions such as pleasure and happiness, providence and fate, matter and the role of sense perception, intuition and intellectual evidence in relation to the process of knowledge acquisition. By focusing on the meaning of these terms in Epicureanism, Plotinus deploys sophisticated methods of comparative analysis and argumentative procedures that ultimately lead him to approach certain aspects of Epicurus' philosophy as a benchmark for his own theories and to accept, reject or discredit the positions of authors of his own day. At the same time, these discussions reveal what aspects of Epicurean philosophy were still perceived to be of vital relevance in the third century AD.

Angela Longo is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Philosophy at the University of L'Aquila. Her research focuses on Plato and late Platonism, particularly Plotinus, Syrianus, Hermias and Proclus. Her books include Plotin, Traite 2 (IV, 7). Sur l'immortalite de l'ame. Introduction, traduction, commentaire et notes (2009) and Argument from Hypothesis in Ancient Philosophy (2011). Daniela Patrizia Taormina is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Philosophy at the University of Rome 'Tor Vergata' and Visiting Professor at the University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne, the Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris. Her books include Plutarco di Atene. L'Uno, l'anima e le forme (1989), Jamblique, critique de Plotin et de Porphyre. Quatre etudes (1999) and Giamblico. I frammenti dalle epistole. Introduzione, testo, traduzione e commento (with R. M. Piccione, 2010).

'The volume has a clear and comprehensive stage-setting introduction by the editors and a full biography. There is hardly a sentence in the Enneads that is not rooted in the history of philosophy as Plotinus knew it. This book s a valuable addition to the scholarship seeking to illuminate this background.' Lloyd P. Gerson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review