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DOUGLAS BURTON-CHRISTIE
The Pagan Philosopher's Quest for Holiness: Plotinus and his Circle
From Douglas Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert, Oxford University Press 1993, pp. 49-54
Page 5
The goals of self-transformation and total unification between the self and "the One" help explain why so much emphasis was placed on the necessity of a personal, dialogical approach to interpreting Plato's text. The way of inner dialectic was, by its very nature, an experimental task, a process of discernment which required a guide. It is interesting and significant, then, that Porphyry directs our attention more to the style of Plotinus's exposition than the substance of his teaching. Plotinus appears as a spiritual master who acted as a mediator of the philosophical tradition to his disciples. Porphyry testifies to Plotinus's power of expression and explanation, and especially of his "remarkable power of going to the heart of the subject."[31] He recalls that Plotinus's discourses were "free from academic pomp," and that "he never forced upon his hearers the severely logical substructure of his thesis."[32] Rather, "he used to encourage his hearers to put questions, a liberty which ... led to a great deal of wandering and futile talk."[33] This meandering style was not seen as a hindrance to the quest for truth but as a necessary part of the process. Thus Porphyry remarks, with obvious approval, that Plotinus's "lectures sometimes had the air of conversation."[34] He was willing to entertain all marmer of questions and rather than constructing a formal system, preferred to address individual philosophical problems as they arose.[35] When a certain visitor asked Plotinus - clearly with a certain amount of irritation - to expound his theory in a set treatise instead of continuing to answer Porphyry's multitude of questions, Plotinus responded by posing a question to the visitor, "But if we cannot first solve the difficulties Porphyry raises, what could go into the treatise?"[36] This reply expresses a principle of interpretation to which Plotinus firmly adhered: that reference to the ancients, however useful and helpful, must never become a pretext for dispensing with one's own reflection on difficult philosophical problems.[37] It was not sufficient simply to repeat Plato; it was necessary to elaborate and develop the truth implicit in the texts, so that each one might apprehend the truth in himself.
Cf. Plotinus,
The soul's movement
will be about its source,
Music leads to the absolute beauty
Plato, Books
can be your worst enemies |||
Plato
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