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  3. Philosophic Silence and the ‘One' in Plotinus
  • Cited by 10
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2018
Print publication year:
2018
Online ISBN:
9781316650790
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316650790
Subjects:
Classical Studies, Classical Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Philosophy
Information

Book description

Plotinus, the greatest philosopher of Late Antiquity, discusses at length a first principle of reality - the One - which, he tells us, cannot be expressed in words or grasped in thought. How and why, then, does Plotinus write about it at all? This book explores this act of writing the unwritable. Seeking to explain what seems to be an insoluble paradox in the very practice of late Platonist writing, it examines not only the philosophical concerns involved, but the cultural and rhetorical aspects of the question. The discussion outlines an ancient practice of ‛philosophical silence' which determined the themes and tropes of public secrecy appropriate to Late Platonist philosophy. Through philosophic silence, public secrecy and silence flow into one another, and the unsaid space of the text becomes an initiatory secret. Understanding this mode of discourse allows us to resolve many apparent contradictions in Plotinus' thought.

Reviews

'… an admirably scholarly account of the cultural and philosophical context of Plotinus’s works, … strongly recommended to all with an interest in late antique reasoning and philosophy.'

Source: Journal of the History of Philosophy

‘Banners book enriches the steadily growing Literature on Plotin's theology. It should turn out as the author hoped. Both for 'beginners' and for specialists as profitable reading prove.’

Benedikt Kramer Source: Plekos

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