This paper defends Plotinus’ reading ofSophist248e-249d as an expression of the togetherness or unity-in-duality of intellect and intelligible being. Throughout the dialogues Plato consistently presents knowledge as a togetherness of knower and known, expressing this through the myth of recollection and through metaphors of grasping, eating, and sexual union. He indicates that an intelligible paradigm is in the thought that apprehends it, and regularly regards the forms not as extrinsic “objects” but as the contents of living intelligence. A meticulous reading (...) ofSophist248e-249d shows that the “motion” attributed to intelligible being is not temporal change but the activity of intellectual apprehension. Aristotle’s doctrines of knowledge as identity of intellect and the intelligible, and of divine intellect as thinking itself, are therefore in continuity with Plato, and Plotinus’ doctrine of intellect and being is continuous with both Plato and Aristotle. (shrink)

It is widely accepted that ruling is the sole prerogative of Plato’s philosopher-rulers because they alone possess knowledge (ἐπιστήμη). This knowledge is knowledge of the Good, taken to be the only knowledge there is in Kallipolis. Let us call this the sufficiency condition thesis (the SCT). In this paper, I challenge this consensus. I cast doubt on the adequacy of the SCT, arguing that part of the training and education of the philosopher-rulers involves their gaining practical wisdom (φρόνησις) and experience (...) (ἐμπειρία). To succeed in this, I have two main aims. First, I argue that the philosopher-rulers must attain optimum cognitive success in these three modes of cognition to function efficiently in ruling. This involves showing that Plato, for his political project, appeals to other senses of cognitive successes besides his strictly metaphysical epistemology. Second, I attempt to demonstrate how these three modes of cognition coalesce or coincide in ruling the perceptible world, especially in the judgement and determination of concrete perceptible matters. (shrink)

In the resolution proclaiming 2015 the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies, the General Assembly of the United Nations drew atten- tion to the importance of light in the lives of the citizens of the world. This is of major importance, not only because light plays a crucial role in fields as diverse as arts, culture or technology, but also because ‘light’ is a major concept within the history of philosophy. Since the first Presocratic philosophers, light had an important (...) role in their philoso- phical systems and was one of the most resourceful concepts explaining realities and conveying their properties. Since these world-visions ‘light’ was much more than a physical reality or a symbol; it was a powerful metaphor, sometimes used against some ideas of ignorance, obscurantism or even evil. The relevance of Neoplatonist thinkers is proved by the extensive translations and commentaries undertaken during Middle Ages, which influenced art, physics, optics,and aesthetics. This paper will pay particular attention to the discussion of the concept of ‘light (phos)’ in Plotinus’ Enneads, and then we will discuss its metamorphosis in the thought of philosophers such as Proclus, Damascius and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. (shrink)