Essential Plotinus [Paperback]

This book has something of Plotinus (204-270) about it. It is not just another presentation of the works, of perhaps the greatest mind the Western world has ever produced, but rather the product of a completely fresh translation from a number of sources in the original Greek. This book carries the subtitle 'Representative Treatises From The Enneade'. This is an apt description, as O'Brien has managed to achieve exactly what he set out to do. Porphyry (232-304), the most famous of the students of Plotinus, gathered his works together shortly after his death. This work consisted of an enormous amount of notes and essays, usually scribbled in bad handwriting, and often compounded by a poor use of Greek. Plotinus, the student of Ammonius Saccas, (sharing the same teacher as the Christian thinker Origen), wrote in an often hasty manner, preparing rough notes to be used for lecturing or in debate. Plotinus was uninterested in the editing process, and left this process to his students. As well as possibly being considered the attitude of a genius, his approach to editing has sometimes been blamed on his poor eyesight. Porphyry gathered this huge amount notes and edited them into 54 treatises, he then arranged these treatises into six groups of 'nine'. From that time, the works
of Plotinus have been referred to by the Greek word for 'nine', namely 'Ennead',or in the case of Plotinus, 'The Enneads'.

Ennead I - Human - Ethical Topics.
Ennead II - Cosmology - Physical Reality.
Ennead III - Cosmology - Physical Reality.
Ennead IV - Soul.
Ennead VI - Beyong Being - The One.

This book offers an over-view of the teachings of Plotinus, it has and Introduction and 10 chapters:

Beauty - (Ennead I).
Intelligence, The Ideas and Being - (Ennaed V).
The Descent of the Soul - (Ennead IV).
The Good of The One - (Ennead VI).
The Three Primal Hypostases - (Ennead V).
The Post Primals - (Ennead V).
Virtue - (Ennead I).
Dialectic (Ennead I).
The Soul - (Ennead IV).
Contemplation - (Ennead III).

O'Brien includes four Appendices:

I) Related Readings.
II) A Plotinus Glossary.
III) Selected Annotated Bibliography.
IV) Guide to Sources.

The paperback (1978) edition contains 223 numbered pages. It is a very well constructed study of the work of Plotinus, who trained in philosophy for 11 years in Alexandia. He was born in Egypt and is believed to have been of Greek descent. In his 38th year, he decided that he wanted to study both Persian and Indian philosophy. To this end, he joined the army of Gordian III, and took part in a military expedition to Persian. The campaign failed, and Plotinus found himself alone in a hostile land, but he managed to eventually make his way to safety. At the age of 40, he journied to Rome, where he settled and spent the rest of his life teaching both men and women. Plotinus taught that 'The One', and undivided totality exists beyond all phenomena, and that this 'oneness' is realisable through meditation and contemplation. For Plotinus, this reality is not 'thought' as thought is dependent upon a dulaity (or 'division'), between a thought and its thinker. The One is beyond all that can be readily known, and can not be limited or defined by that which readily presents itself to the senses. Plotinus equates The One with both the 'good' and the 'beautiful'.

'As The One begets all things, it cannot be any of them - neither thing, nor quality, nor quantity, nor intelligence, nor soul. Not in motion, nor at rest, not in space, not in time, it is "the in itself uniform," or rather it is the "with-out-form" preceding form, movement, and rest, which are characteristics of Being and make Being multiple.'

This is a very good book that warrants a careful study - its merits are many, as a reliable introduction to the life and philosophy of Plotinus.