The Renaissance of Plotinus: The Soul and Human Nature in Marsilio Ficino’s Commentary on the Enneads

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Plotinus (204/5–270 C.E.) is a central figure in the history of Western philosophy. However, during the Middle Ages he was almost unknown. None of the treatises constituting his Enneads were translated, and ancient translations were lost. Although scholars had indirect access to his philosophy through the works of Proclus, St. Augustine, and Macrobius, among others, it was not until 1492 with the publication of the first Latin translation of the Enneads by the humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) that Plotinus was reborn to the Western world. Ficino’s translation was accompanied by a long commentary in which he examined the close relationship between metaphysics and anthropology that informed Plotinus’s philosophy. Focusing on Ficino’s interpretation of Plotinus’s view of the soul and of human nature, this book excavates a fundamental chapter in the history of Platonic scholarship, one which was to inform later readings of the Enneads up until the nineteenth century. It will appeal to scholars and students interested in the history of Western philosophy, intellectual history, and book history. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Note to the Reader Introduction 1. Ficino’s Plotinus 2. Outline of the Book Notes Chapter 1 The Birth of the Latin Plotinus 1. The Labours and Pleasures of Giving (Re-)Birth to Plotinus 2. Plato, Plotinus, and the Metaphysics beyond Reason of the ‘Enneads’ 3. Plotinus and Christianity 4. The Post-Plotinian Plotinus Notes Chapter 2 Rescuing Aristotle’s Soul I: Plotinus and Alexander of Aphrodisias 1. Ficino and Aristotle 2. The Soul’s εἴδωλον and the Coming into Being of the συναμφότερον 3. A Presence without Participation Notes Chapter 3 Rescuing Aristotle’s Soul II: Plotinus and the Averroistic Intellect 1. Imagination and Thinking 2. The One and the Many 3. Immortality and the Persona of the Soul Notes Chapter 4 The Imagination at Work: Perceiving, Remembering, and Giving Birth 1. The Two Souls and Their Faculties 2. The Soul’s Two Imaginations 3. The Imagination and Conscious Apprehension 4. The Imagination and Memory 5. The Metaphysics of the Imagination and the Life of the Body 6. The Mirror of Dionysus: The Imagination and the Origin of Life Notes Chapter 5 Daemons and Stars 1. Plotinus and His Daemons 2. Ficino and His Daemons 3. The Legacy of the Myth of Er 4. The Stars and the Συναμφότερον 5. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index