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The Essential Functions Of A Plotinian Soul, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

In reading Plotinus one might get the impression that the essential functions of a Plotinian soul are very similar to those of an Aristotelian soul. Plotinus talks of such vegetative functions as growth, nurture and reproduction. He discusses such animal functions as sense perception, imagination and memory. And he attributes such functions as reasoning, judging and having opinions to the soul. In Plotinus' Psychology, Blumenthal bases his whole discussion of the soul on an analysis of these functions. He concludes that Plotinus 'saw the soul's activities as the functions of a series of faculties which were basically those of Aristotle' …

Divine Practical Thought In Plotinus, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

Plotinus follows the Timaeus and the Platonist tradition before him in postulating the existence of a World Soul whose function it is to care for the sensible world as a whole. It is argued that, since the sensible world is providentially arranged, the World Soul’s care presupposes a sort of practical thinking that is as timeless as intellectual contemplation. To explain why this thinking is practical, the paper discusses Plotinus’ view on Aristotle’s distinction between praxis and poiêsis. To explain why it is timeless, it studies Plotinus’ view on Aristotle’s distinction between complete and incomplete actuality. The focus is on …

Reason And Necessity: The Descent Of The Philosopher Kings, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

One of the reasons why one might find it worthwhile to study philosophers of late antiquity is the fact that they often have illuminating things to say about Plato and Aristotle. Plotinus, in particular, was a diligent and insightful reader of those great masters. Michael Frede was certainly of that view, and when he wrote that '[o]ne can learn much more from Plotinus about Aristotle than from most modern accounts of the Stagirite', he would not have objected, I presume, to the claim that Plotinus is also extremely helpful for the study of Plato. In this spirit I wish to …

What Is Education? Re-Reading Metaphysics In Search Of Foundations, Angus Brook

Angus Brook

There is a sense in which contemporary approaches to education and to training teachers for a career in educating have for the most part forgotten the philosophical question of the meaning of education; namely, the question of why it is that humans by nature require education. It will be the aim of this article to go back to and re-interpret the metaphysical foundations of the question of what education means through an analysis of the ontological principle first expressed by Aristotle: that ‘being is always the being on an entity’. Through this return to and re-reading of the metaphysical foundations …

From Aristotle’S Teleology To Darwin’S Genealogy: The Stamp Of Inutility, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 (Pdf: Introduction)., Marco Solinas

Marco Solinas

Substance And The Primary Sense Of Being In Aristotle, Angus Brook

Angus Brook

Virtue Ethics, Rule Of Law, And Self-Restriction, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle