Reading Neoplatonism
Non-discursive Thinking in the Texts of Plotinus, Proclus, and Damascius

Analyses Neoplatonic texts themselves using contemporary philosophy of language.

Sara Rappe (Author)

9780521651585, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 January 2000

292 pages
23.6 x 16.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.555 kg

'… a stimulating and provocative book.' Classics Ireland

Neoplatonism is a term used to designate the form of Platonic philosophy that developed in the Roman Empire from the third to the fifth century AD and that based itself on the corpus of Plato's dialogues. Sara Rappe's challenging study analyses Neoplatonic texts themselves using contemporary philosophy of language. It covers the whole tradition of Neoplatonic writing from Plotinus through Proclus to Damascius. Addressing the strain of mysticism in these works, the author shows how these texts reflect actual meditational practices, methods of concentrating the mind, and other mental disciplines that informed the tradition as a whole. In providing such a broad survey of Neoplatonic writing, the book will appeal to classical philosophers classicists as well as students of religious studies.

Preface: discursive strategies and Neoplatonic texts
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction. Representing a tradition: exegesis, symbol and self-reflection
Part I. Language in the Enneads: 2. Plotinus' critique of discursive thinking
3. Non-discursive thinking in the Enneads
4. Introspection in the dialectic of the Enneads
5. The symbolism of the Enneads
Part II. Text and Tradition in Neoplatonism: 6. History of an enigma: mathematical symbolism in the Neoplatonic tradition
7. Transmigrations of a myth: Orphic texts and Platonic contexts
8. Language and theurgy in Proclus' Platonic Theology
9. Damascius' ineffable discourse
10. Conclusion: reading Neoplatonism
References
General index
Index locorum.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]