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Plotinus (2018)

by dedalus on 5/21/23, 4:54 PM with 5 comments

  • by stareatgoats on 5/23/23, 5:28 AM

    "Founder of Neoplatonism" might not say much to most people nowadays. A perhaps more apt description follows later: "The theological traditions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all, in their formative periods, looked to ancient Greek philosophy for the language and arguments with which to articulate their religious visions. For all of these, Platonism expressed the philosophy that seemed closest to their own theologies. Plotinus was the principal source for their understanding of Platonism."

    Still, the content of his teachings is largely Greek to us now (pun intended).

  • by notthemessiah on 5/23/23, 5:47 AM

    If anyone wants to read a history of the widespread influence of ideas of Neoplatonism, I would suggest reading The Great Chain of Being by Arthur Lovejoy.

  • by wazoox on 5/23/23, 10:23 AM

    The chapter of Bertrand Russell's "history of Western philosophy" about Plotinus is a must-read (the whole book is, actually).

  • by eternalban on 5/23/23, 12:12 PM

    One can get a glimpse of the ever present One and its generations in modular mathematics. If we discard the insistence on numbers being simply a monotonically generated sequence (|, ||, |||, ..) which simply corresponds to counting, and instead assume a cyclical reality to Number, with the sequence of reduced residue sets of primorials illustrating the Generations of One, which is eternally present in each generation. Each is a 'measuring system', and measure engenders form. Reality is harmonic and knowing 'the beginning' is knowing 'the end'. (∅ +/- n)*

         ∅
     2: 1 ∅
     6: 1 - 3 - 5 ∅
    30: 1 - - - - - 7 - - - 11 - 13 - - - 17 - 19 - - - 23 - - - - - 29 ∅
   210: 1 ... 209 ∅
    That view btw also gives us insight into various numerical structures, e.g. twin primes, involving prime numbers.

    "Number rules the universe. Number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and the cause of gods and demons. Every man has been made by God in order to acquire knowledge and contemplate." -- attributed to Pythagoras

    * simply fold the rrs by ∅/2.

  • by pyuser583 on 5/23/23, 1:00 PM

    Studying Plotinus completely changed my life.

    I’m probably one of the last people who will ever say that.