Criticism > Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism > Plotinus - R. Ferwada (lecture date 1984)

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R. Ferwada (lecture date 1984)

SOURCE: “Pity in the Life and Thought of Plotinus,” in Plotinus amid Gnostics and Christians, edited by David T. Runia, VU Uitgeverij / Free University Press, 1984, pp. 53-72.

[In the following essay, originally presented as a lecture, Ferwada considers the question of whether Plotinus showed inconsistency in the matter of pity.]

When you have gone beyond giver and gift and recipient, you have reached compassion.

Buddhist saying

Plotinus is a difficult philosopher. This I know from personal experience. But it is not my intention to let that show this afternoon. What I want to do today is put before you a number of straightforward texts from the Enneads, preceded by two texts (also not too complicated) from Porphyry's biography.¹ Let us start with a text in Porphyry Vita Plotini 9:

Many men and women of the highest rank,...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. E. R. Dodds (essay date 1928)
   2. A. Hilary Armstrong (lecture date 1956)
   3. E. R. Dodds (lecture date 1959)
   4. John M. Rist (essay date 1961)
   5. A. H. Armstrong (essay date 1966)
   6. John M. Rist (essay date 1967)
   7. A. H. Armstrong (lecture date 1979)
   8. A. P. Bos (lecture date 1984)
   9. R. Ferwada (lecture date 1984)
   10. Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson (essay date 1988)
   11. Frederic M. Schroeder (essay date 1992)
   12. Steven K. Strange (essay date 1994)
   13. Georges Leroux (essay date 1996)
   14. Frederic M. Schroeder (essay date 1996)
   15. Th. G. Sinnige (essay date 1999)
   16. Sara Rappe (essay date 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Ancient Greece