This book presents a series of Dr. Blumenthal’s studies on the history of Neoplatonism, from its founder Plotinus to the end of Classical Antiquity, relating especially to the Neoplatonists’ doctrines about the soul. The work falls into two parts. The first deals with Plotinus and considers the soul both as part of the structure of the universe and in its capacity as the basis of the individual’s vital and cognitive functions. The second part is concerned with the later history of Neoplatonism, including its end. Its main focus is the investigation of how Neoplatonic psychology was modified and developed by later philosophers, in particular the commentators on Aristotle, and used as the starting point for their Platonizing interpretations of his philosophy.
Contents: Platonism in late antiquity; Nous and soul in Plotinus: some
problems of demarcation; Soul, world-soul and individual soul in Plotinus;
Did Plotinus believe in ideas of individuals?; Plotinus Psychology:
Aristotle in the service of Platonism; Plotinus, Enneads V 3[ 49] 3-4;
Plotinus adaption of Aristotles psychology: sensation, imagination and
memory; Some problems about body and soul in later pagan Neoplatonism: do
they follow a pattern?; Plotinus and Proclus on the citerion of truth;
Plotinus in Later Platonism; From ku-ru-so-wo-ko to theougos: word to ritual;
Plutarchs exposition of the De anima and the psychology of Proclus; Marinus
Life of Proclus: Neoplatonist biography; Alexander of Aphrodisias in the
later Greek commentaries on Aristotles De anima; John Philoponus and
Stephanus of Alexandria: two Neoplatonic Christian commentators on
Aristotle?; Simplicius on the first book of Aristotles De anima; Soul
vehicles in Simplicius; 529 and its sequel: what happened to the Academy?;
Index.
H.J. Blumenthal, formerly Liverpool University, UK
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