Plotinus on Beauty and Reality: A Reader for Enneads I.6 and V.1

Plotinus on Beauty and Reality makes accessible to intermediate Greek students two treatises that describe the Neoplatonic cosmos of Plotinus. Enneads I.6 and V.1 treat the creation of the universe, the structure of the levels of reality, the place of the human soul in the universe, and how the soul can return to the One, its creator. The thorough introduction serves as a guide to Plotinus’s metaphysics and his reception.

Same- and facing-page notes and vocabulary accompany the Greek text of Enneads I.6 and V.1. Appendices including Diotima’s Speech from Plato’s Symposium, Augustine’s reception of Plotinus, and a discussion of Porphyry situate Plotinus’s work within a broader philosophical context.

Special Features

• Introduction and Bibliography
• Enneads I.6 and V.1 with same- and facing-page notes and vocabulary
• Appendix 1: Diotima’s Speech: Plato’s Symposium, 210a–211d
• Appendix 2: Augustine’s Reception of Plotinus: Confessions, Book 9, Chapter 10
• Appendix 3: Porphyry: On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of His Work
• Appendix 4: Plotinian Technical Philosophical Vocabulary from Enneads I.6 and V.1
• Appendix 5: Plotinus Word List