Plotinus on the Soul

Plotinus on the Soul is a study of Plotinus' psychology, which is arguably the most sophisticated Platonist theory of the soul in antiquity. Plotinus offers a Platonist response to Aristotelian and Stoic conceptions of the soul that is at the same time an innovative interpretation of Plato's Timaeus. He considers the notion of the soul to be crucial for explaining the rational order of the world. To this end, he discusses not only different types of individual soul (such as the souls of the stars, and human and animal souls) but also an entity that he was the first to introduce into philosophy: the so-called hypostasis Soul. This is the first study to provide a detailed explanation of this entity, but it also discusses the other types of soul, with an emphasis on the human soul, and explains Plotinus' original views on rational thought and its relation to experience.

Introduction; 1. Unity and creation: why Plotinus introduced the hypostasis Soul; 2. The hypostasis Soul; 3. The hypostasis Soul and its relation to individual souls; 4. The individual soul in the intelligible and in the sensible world; 5. Divine individual souls; 6. The human soul: its descent and its confusion in the sensible world; 7. The human soul: the higher and the lower soul; 8. The soul and the body.

Damian Caluori is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. His research focuses on ancient philosophy, with an emphasis on late ancient Platonism. He has published articles on Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Damascius and the Renaissance skeptic Franciscus Sanchez, whose main work, That Nothing Is Known, he co-translated from Latin into German. In 2013 he edited a volume on the philosophy of friendship, Thinking about Friendship. Historical and Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives.