Plotinus is the first Greek philosopher to hold a systematic theory of consciousness. The key feature of his theory is that it involves multiple layers of experience: different layers of consciousness occur in different levels of self. This layering of higher modes of consciousness on lower ones provides human beings with a rich experiential world, and enables human beings to draw on their own experience to investigate their true self and the nature of reality. This involves a robust notion of subjectivity. However, it is a notion of subjectivity that is unique to Plotinus, and remarkably different from the Post-Cartesian tradition. Behind the plurality of terms Plotinus uses to express consciousness, and behind the plurality of entities to which Plotinus attributes consciousness (such as the divine souls and the hypostases), lies a theory of human consciousness. It is a Platonist theory shaped by engagement with rival schools of ancient thought.

Plotinus on Consciousness

This chapter explores the role of self-knowledge in the Socratic and Buddhist ethical traditions. Socrates (in Plato’s “early” dialogues) and the Buddha (in the Pāli Canon) diagnose the primary cause of human suffering as a widespread misunderstanding of the self. They recommend a radical reconceptualization of selfhood as a necessary step toward their ultimate concerns of human well-being (eudaimonia) and liberation (nirvāṇa). In particular, they argue, we wrongly identify bodies, physical states, social status, or possessions as self. But Socrates endorses a view that the Buddha rejects, namely, that certain conscious states of mind (psychē) are self. Buddhists would object that the irreducible complexity and impermanence of mental states render them implausible candidates for selfhood. Similar concerns motivated Plato to advance the metaphysical theory of Forms, which may offer resources for a reply. The chapter closes with a review of an apparent tension, shared by both traditions, between the goals of embodied social virtue and world-transcendence. The Platonic philosopher and the Mahayāna Bodhisattva both experience a liberating insight which motivates them to return to the “cave” of social service or saṃsāra: both motivations are susceptible to consequentialist, deontological, and virtue-ethical interpretations, and I suggest that the two traditions are mutually illuminating.

The Ethics of Self-Knowledge in Platonic and Buddhist Philosophy

Virtuous Exemplarity in Business Ethics Education: Insights from the Platonic Tradition

Abstract This article analyzes the concept of self-constitution in Damascius’ treatises De principiis and In Parmenidem. On the one hand, I try to see how self-constitution functions within the framework of reality. I identify the different levels of self-constituted reality (τὸ αὐθυπόστατον), showing that each of these levels is also constituted by the absolute One, which is the cause of all things. Self-constitution is present throughout the process in which the One is slowly in labor towards plurality, starting from the highest level of intelligible being down to the level of the particular soul. On the other hand, I also try to show how self-constitution appears at a discursive level. In this context I discuss its crucial role in Damascius’ interpretation of the second and third hypotheses in Plato’s dialogue Parmenides.

Damascius on Self-Constituted Realities


I argue that in his commentary on Epictetus’ Encheiridion, Simplicius derives a method by which his students can enter into the process of self-constitution, which is only achieved through completion of the study of Plato’s dialogues. The result of following the method is the attainment of a perspective consonant with the level of political virtue, which I call ‘political subjectivity’. This is a speculative interpretation of the effect the student would. experience in following the method, accomplished through analyses of Simplicius’ interpretation of Epictetus’ concept of to eph’ hēmīn and the related prohairesis. I complement this with an analysis of the metaphysical foundation Simplicius gives the method in light of Charles Taylor’s notion of ‘strong evaluation’. In this way, I show how Simplicius adapts these concepts to his Neoplatonic psychology and virtue theory to make the method serve as preparation for the development of virtue prior to study of Plato.

Neoplatonic Political Subjectivity? Prohairesis, to eph’ hēmīn, and Self-constitution in Simplicius’ Commentary on Epictetus’ Encheiridion

Proclus on the ethics of self-constitution

Introduction Anna Marmodoro and Brian D. Prince Part I. The Origin of the Cosmos: 1. Two early Stoic theories of cosmogony Ricardo Salles 2. Plotinus' account of demiurgic causation and its philosophical background Riccardo Chiaradonna 3. Creation and divine providence in Plotinus Christopher Isaac Noble and Nathan M. Powers 4. Waiting for Philoponus Richard Sorabji 5. Gregory of Nyssa on the creation of the world Anna Marmodoro 6. Simplicius on elements and causes in Greek philosophy: critical appraisal or philosophical synthesis? Han Baltussen Part II. The Origins of Human Agency: 7. Divine and human freedom: Plotinus' new understanding of creative agency Kevin Corrigan 8. Consciousness and agency in Plotinus D. M. Hutchinson 9. Neoplatonists on the causes of vegetative life James Wilberding 10. Astrology and the will in Porphyry of Tyre Aaron P. Johnson 11. Proclus on the ethics of self-constitution Michael Griffin 12. Deficient causes: Augustine on creation and angels Gillian Clark 13. Willed causes and causal willing in Augustine Mark Edwards References Index locorum General index.

/pdf/causation-and-creation-in-late-antiquity-1196qfkfzh.pdf

Brian D. Prince

Papers

Proclus on the ethics of self-constitution

Causation And Creation In Late Antiquity