In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Plotinus’ Cosmology: A Study of Ennead II.1 (40). Text, Translation, and Commentary
  • Panayiota Vassilopoulou
James Wilberding. Plotinus’ Cosmology: A Study of Ennead II.1 (40). Text, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 269. Cloth, $125.00.

That the analysis of a complex object into its elements yields knowledge of it is a fundamental article of philosophical faith, which motivates the “analytic” dimension of the philosophical enterprise (passed on to modern science). On par with it, however, there is also the belief that knowledge of a complex object involves grasping it as a totality, over and beyond its constituent parts (an approach admittedly less popular in modern science). The paradigmatic object of philosophical speculation inviting both these approaches is, of course, the universe itself. Already in Plato’s Timaeus, we encounter a fully elaborated philosophical exercise of this kind—the world is simultaneously dissected into its elements (for example, [End Page 133] its body and soul, the four elements), and also explicitly conceived in terms of its totality (for example, as a perfect and unique animal created by a rational creator).

Plotinus engages with this cosmological tradition on many levels throughout his work, yet more systematically in the treatise II.1 (40), entitled On the Universe (following Porphyry) or On the Heaven (following the MSS). The treatise concentrates on the diachronic identity of the universe, and the investigation is consequently undertaken primarily from the point of view of totality. Since the notion of totality, then as now, operates as a focus of philosophical interest that transcends experience, Plotinus’s discussion, although situated within natural philosophy and its corresponding empirical basis, involves a number of metaphysical considerations. This aspect of the treatise, the establishment of “a setting where metaphysical speculations become concrete, where visible roles are conferred on ontological entities” (4), is a factor that makes its study a rewarding task for the modern reader. To this, a historical incentive may be added: Plotinus’s position unfolds (here more clearly than in other treatises) through a constant dialogue with the work of his predecessors (Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics), and also reflects the new urgency that cosmological issues acquired after the emergence of Christianity and Gnosticism. Thus, even though the treatise does not amount to a comprehensive text on cosmology, it may still function, through the sustained discussion of its single issue, as an introduction to the fundamental presuppositions and objectives of the cosmological tradition of ancient philosophy.

Plotinus follows the consensus of ancient Greek thinkers (if Plato’s Timaeus is not taken literally) in accepting that the universe is everlasting, without beginning or end in time. The issue concerns its underlying identity, which could range from the everlasting numerical identity of every single object within the universe (a position obviously untenable) to the everlasting numerical identity of the mere principle of the universe (a position associated with the Stoics and compatible with the eventual destruction of every particular order or object within the universe). Plotinus approaches this problem through the fundamental Platonic assumption that the universe is a compound of body (which, due to its material exchange with its environment, is subject to decay) and soul (in this case the World-Soul, which holds body together against the effects of material flux). He then argues for the everlasting numerical identity of only a specific part of the universe (the heavens) and, in the context of this argument, examines issues such as the material constitution of the heavens, the relationship between the heavens and the sublunary realm, the relationship between elementary and celestial motions, and the ways in which the World-Soul operates in the different parts of the universe.

Wilberding’s study is a fine example of contemporary scholarship on Plotinus. It contains the Greek text with full critical apparatus (the text of Henry-Schwyzer editio minor revised in accordance with subsequent addenda and corrigenda) and an English translation, which strikes a fine balance between accuracy and readability (and is conveniently paragraph-numbered). The book also includes a substantial introduction (70 pages), a line-by-line commentary (140 pages), a comprehensive bibliography, an index locorum, and indexes of names and subjects. The...

pdf

Share