Neoplatonism and Nature

Studies in Plotinus' Enneads

Edited by Michael F. Wagner

Subjects: Philosophy Of Science
Series: Studies in Neoplatonism: Ancient and Modern, Volume 8
Paperback : 9780791452721, 346 pages, November 2001
Hardcover : 9780791452714, 346 pages, November 2001

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Table of contents

Preface
R. Baine Harris

Introduction
Michael F. Wagner

Plotinus and the Possibility of Natural Science
Ronald F. Hathaway

Plotinus and Biology
Anthony Preus

Plotinus Against Aristotle's Essentialism
Lloyd P. Gerson

Explanation and Nature in Enneads VI. 7.1. -15
Sara L. Rappe

Providence: The Platonic Demiurge and Hellenistic Causality
Gary M. Gurtler

Freedom and Providence in Plotinus
Laura S. Westra

The Notion of Beauty in the Structure of the Universe: Pythagorean Influences
Aphrodite Alexandrakis

The One: Substance or Function?
Reiner Schurmann

Plotinus on the Origin of Matter
William J. Carroll

Plotinus' Set of Categories for the Kosmos Aisthetos
Christos Evangeliou

Sympathy: Stoic Materialism and the Platonic Soul
Gary M. Gurtler

Plotinus, Nature, and the Scientific Spirit
Michael F. Wagner

Index Propria

Index Locorum (Enneads)

Original essays by leading scholars on Plotinus' philosophy of nature.

Description

This book advances an understanding of Plotinus' views on the natural cosmos and their relevance to natural philosophy and the development of science. The contributors confront issues concerning the presence of scientific principles and conceptions in Plotinus' writing, and discuss the degree to which Plotinus' views and methodologies incorporate aspects of how modern thinkers interpret science as well as areas currently thought of as physics and biology. The essays recognize and embrace the richness, subtlety, and complexity of Plotinus' Neoplatonism as expressed in his Enneads, even while illustrating its pertinence to natural philosophy and the historical development of scientific thinking.

Michael F. Wagner is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego. He is the author of An Historical Introduction to Moral Philosophy.