I think it's important to realise that what happens in Neo-Platonism beginning with Plotinus and Porphyry and then going on for the next several centuries, is a real kind of contest for the ideas and convictions of the intelligentsia of… — Peter Adamson Copy Share Image
Plotinus thought that the entire world has a single soul. He also thought that each animal and plant and of course human, has an… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
Assuming there is an intellect, we're clearly not this universal intellect or we would know it. So that's one function of soul. — Peter Adamson Copy Share
The body is some kind of image of you, it's kind of something that's just attached to your soul, some kind of outside principle,… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
The forms are part of the mind, or really are the mind, they're just the contents of this universal night. — Peter Adamson Copy Share
Before the 3rd century you're having several philosophical schools still as a going concern. You have not only the Platonists and the Aristotelians but… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
Unlike later Neo-Platonists, Plotinus says that our souls are always connected to the universal intellect and that we never really fall away. — Peter Adamson Copy Share
The forms in intellect are some kind of blueprint or model on which the physical world is based, and something needs to come along… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
Once you're in a kind of revealed religious tradition, you wind up having to explain how the things said about God in the Bible… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
Al-Ghazali is the most important philosophical theologian of classical Islam, and Moderation in Belief is among his most important works. It sets out al-Ghazali's… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
In fact Plotinus thought not only that soul in general is eternal so that you always have soul, but he thought that each person's… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
Basically the problem is that if the intellect is looking at or beholding the forms, what it will get is some kind of representation… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
For Plotinus, what really exists are the Platonic forms, so the true nature or form of things like justice, beauty, maybe numbers, things like… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
This is in a way the most important thing about soul is that it's a kind of principle which mediates between the universal intellect… — Peter Adamson Copy Share
