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Colloquium 5

Colloquium 5 When asked "Who was the happiest of men?" Anaxagoras answered: "None of those you suppose, but one who would appear a strange being to you" (Aristotle, EE 1215b7; cf. EN 1197al3 = Anaxagoras DK A 30). I can think of no better candi- date for this description than Plotinus. For within the tradition of ancient philosophical ethics Plotinus has the dubious distinc- tion of claiming-in even stronger terms than, say, Socrates or Epicurus-that what is of greatest value is immune to the con- tingencies of life, and that with sufficient effort we can attain a state of divine invulnerability. This ideal may strike us as unde- sirable or simply as impossible to achieve; but, it is, I think, wor- thy of philosophical scrutiny for two reasons. First, the search for ultimate grounds is a permanent feature of human culture. Simply condemning the aspiration to self-transcendence will not eradicate its stubbornly persistent hold on the imagination.' Second, Plotinus wrestles with the traditional problems in ancient eudaimonism and stakes out strikingly original posi- tions on the nature of goodness, and the sorts of lives we ought to live. At the same time, because his is a visionary, transforma- tive philosophy, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy Online Brill

Colloquium 5

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright 1992 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1059-986X
eISSN
2213-4417
DOI
10.1163/2213441790X00115
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

When asked "Who was the happiest of men?" Anaxagoras answered: "None of those you suppose, but one who would appear a strange being to you" (Aristotle, EE 1215b7; cf. EN 1197al3 = Anaxagoras DK A 30). I can think of no better candi- date for this description than Plotinus. For within the tradition of ancient philosophical ethics Plotinus has the dubious distinc- tion of claiming-in even stronger terms than, say, Socrates or Epicurus-that what is of greatest value is immune to the con- tingencies of life, and that with sufficient effort we can attain a state of divine invulnerability. This ideal may strike us as unde- sirable or simply as impossible to achieve; but, it is, I think, wor- thy of philosophical scrutiny for two reasons. First, the search for ultimate grounds is a permanent feature of human culture. Simply condemning the aspiration to self-transcendence will not eradicate its stubbornly persistent hold on the imagination.' Second, Plotinus wrestles with the traditional problems in ancient eudaimonism and stakes out strikingly original posi- tions on the nature of goodness, and the sorts of lives we ought to live. At the same time, because his is a visionary, transforma- tive philosophy,

Journal

Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy Online – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1990

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