Although I've only read a few of the Enneads, the MacKenna translation is sometimes touted as one of the great triumphs of the art of translation. Academics like the new one so if you are reading to write, that might be a good choice.
You could've taken the time to google "wtf is plotinus talking about" once in those eleven years and yet here you are, begging strangers to explain it to you. Quit being lazy.
1 year ago
Anonymous
So you can’t explain it. You could have just said that
I've finally gotten into reading about it after seeing mentioned often, I DL'd Neoplatonism by Pauliina Remes and so far it's quite good. But obviously, I suppose, you must withstand the first page obligatory mention of Hapatia being killed. Muh female philosophers.... Keep your grains of sugar/salt handy.
I can tell you he is not about connecting Plato to Christianity, so much so that early Christian fathers like Augustine still remained hostile towards the "Neoplatonists" and their ideas, even though there are a few similarities between them in certain respects. Plotinus, especially Proclus (through the connection to Julian), would be better called an attempt to link Plato directly to the Roman state religion and its mythology. And that's still a major simplification of Plotinus, there is no ELI5.
This. Get both if you love Plotinus. If you are academically studying him, get the Gerson and the Loebs (for the Greek). MacKenna if you are interested in Neoplatonism as practicable Mysticism.
>practicable Mysticism
what's the point to it when you rarely have a real understanding of your experiences and you just end up acting as a phone line for the mystical?
I am by no means expert enough to answer you. Plotinus experienced union (according to Porphry) multiple times. Look at how his life was. He didn't act like a phone line he taught, he helped people out (saved Porphry from suicide by telling him to leave Rome), and even managed peoples estates (children put under his care). Iamblichus and Porphry were both sound men, and Julian was an emperor. Mystical union is, within a Neoplatonic framework, experiencing the one, if you believe in it, there can be no higher aim.
Read the original, angloBlack person.
Dont read the Penguin one if you care about translations, thats far as I can say
I heard Stephen MacKenna’s translation is very respected.
Guthrie
>Any translation stands above others?
Thomas Taylor, albeit incomplete it is the best. Second best is A.H. Armstrong, which is complete.
Is Lloyd P. Gerson's any good?
Yes
Gerson
DON’T read this one, this anon is a pseud
>DON’T read this one, this anon is a pseud
That's not a refutal, and your ad hominem does not work on me.
Refutation*. You’re so moronic you can’t spell, therefore your book recommendations are probably shit too. That’s logic.
The only logic I see here is that you are so utterly moronic that you didn't even bother to see that the word actually exists.
Great job moron, now everything you said can be disregarded and everyone here knows how much of an utter fool you are.
Although I've only read a few of the Enneads, the MacKenna translation is sometimes touted as one of the great triumphs of the art of translation. Academics like the new one so if you are reading to write, that might be a good choice.
Can someone eli5 what Plotinus is about? Is he only worth reading if you want to connect Plato to Christianity?
>Can someone eli5 what Plotinus is about
No. Go back.
Been here since ‘11, bucko, when you were still playing with yugi-oh cards
You could've taken the time to google "wtf is plotinus talking about" once in those eleven years and yet here you are, begging strangers to explain it to you. Quit being lazy.
So you can’t explain it. You could have just said that
I've finally gotten into reading about it after seeing mentioned often, I DL'd Neoplatonism by Pauliina Remes and so far it's quite good. But obviously, I suppose, you must withstand the first page obligatory mention of Hapatia being killed. Muh female philosophers.... Keep your grains of sugar/salt handy.
I can tell you he is not about connecting Plato to Christianity, so much so that early Christian fathers like Augustine still remained hostile towards the "Neoplatonists" and their ideas, even though there are a few similarities between them in certain respects. Plotinus, especially Proclus (through the connection to Julian), would be better called an attempt to link Plato directly to the Roman state religion and its mythology. And that's still a major simplification of Plotinus, there is no ELI5.
>Zeus-Jupiter
>Athena-Minerva
>…
Some groundbreaking work there
Read the original.
So did we settle on a translation yet, or what?
MacKenna's is poetic. Gerson's new one is the academic standard.
This. Get both if you love Plotinus. If you are academically studying him, get the Gerson and the Loebs (for the Greek). MacKenna if you are interested in Neoplatonism as practicable Mysticism.
>practicable Mysticism
what's the point to it when you rarely have a real understanding of your experiences and you just end up acting as a phone line for the mystical?
I am by no means expert enough to answer you. Plotinus experienced union (according to Porphry) multiple times. Look at how his life was. He didn't act like a phone line he taught, he helped people out (saved Porphry from suicide by telling him to leave Rome), and even managed peoples estates (children put under his care). Iamblichus and Porphry were both sound men, and Julian was an emperor. Mystical union is, within a Neoplatonic framework, experiencing the one, if you believe in it, there can be no higher aim.
,*