Pauliina Remes

Mind’s relationship to its own contents can be explained either in detectivist-observationalist or agential terms. Ancient philosophers often sided with the former view: minds activities and contents pre-exist - or coincide with - the act of thinking or being aware of them. The article argues that in late antiquity vestiges of an agential variant emerge in the works of Plotinus and Augustine. Augustine suggests that the mind’s relationship to its own contents is not one of observation, a predominantly receptive capacity. Rather, it is one of _cogitation_, sometimes voluntary and reflective introspection, more often a kind of unreflective, incessant weaving together of different contents into new meaningful connections. The sources of this conception are to be found in Plotinus: in the emergence of the idea of a self capable of inward directed reflection and self-identification. Unlike Augustine, however, Plotinus still operates with mainly obervationalist metaphors of “looking within” and with a detectivist notion of ideal self.

Plotinus (ca. a.d. 204–270) operates with an in his time novel distinction between the soul and the self that enables asking questions about self-knowledge more directly. His _Enneads_ provide both epistemic and ethical discussions on self-knowledge. Plotinus presents an elaborate picture of self-reflexivity. His other main contribution lies in the discussion of self-knowledge that is not a given, but an accomplishment. Becoming self-knowledgeable coincides with self-transformation. The inner turn coincides with a process in which the infelicities found within are chiseled away. The theory has a proto-voluntarist aspect: human beings are points of identification and origins of self-improvement. Second, we are not devoid of any essence: at the core of each human being is an innate intellect, governing and directing our lives as rational beings. Self-knowledge is self-realization of this true nature of our selfhood, and thus ennobling.

In the Timaeus, human bodies are treated as homeostatic systems, striving to maintain their natural state. This striving constitutes Plato’s explanatory framework for perception: perceptions come about when the equilibrium is shaken, and when it is restored. The article makes two main suggestions: first, that experienced pleasure and pain are grounded in non-experiential departures from and restorations of the natural state. Second, that the striving to maintain the natural state grounds perceptual interests, especially through conscious algesic and hedonic affection. Explanation of what humans find desirable and avoidable in their environment – what they attend to – is a complicated story that in the context of the Timaeus must include the role of human rational abilities. This article, however, only sheds light on its other, very basic aspect: the teleology involved in bodies and how it affects perceptual interests.

The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the most important issues and developments in one of the fastest growing areas of research in ancient philosophy. An international team of scholars situates and re-evaluates Neoplatonism within the history of ancient philosophy and thought, and explores its influence on philosophical and religious schools worldwide. Over thirty chapters are divided into seven clear parts: sources, instruction and interaction Methods and Styles of Exegesis Metaphysics and Metaphysical Perspectives Language, Knowledge, Soul, and Self Nature: Physics, Medicine and Biology Ethics, Political Theory and Aesthetics The legacy of Neoplatonism. The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism is a major reference source for all students and scholars in Neoplatonism and ancient philosophy, as well as researchers in the philosophy of science, ethics, aesthetics and religion

Plotinus, the founder of the Neoplatonic school of philosophy, conceptualises two different notions of self : the corporeal and the rational. Personality and imperfection mark the former, while goodness and a striving for understanding mark the latter. In this text, Dr Remes grounds the two selfhoods in deep-seated Platonic ontological commitments, following their manifestations, interrelations and sometimes uneasy coexistence in philosophical psychology, emotional therapy and ethics. Plotinus' interest lies in what it means for a human being to be a temporal and a corporeal thing, yet capable of abstract and impartial reasoning, of self-government and perhaps even invulnerability. The book argues that this involves a philosophically problematic rupture within humanity which is, however, alleviated by the psychological similarities and points of contact between the two aspects of the self. The purpose of life is the cultivation of the latter aspect, the true self.

Although Neoplatonism has long been studied, until recently many had dismissed this complex system of ideas as more mystical than philosophical. Recent research, however, has provided a new perspective on this highly influential school of thought, which flourished in the pagan world of Greece and Rome up through late antiquity. Pauliina Remes's lucid, comprehensive, and up-to-date introduction reassesses Neoplatonism's philosophical credentials, from its founding by Plotinus (204-70, C.E.) through the closure of Plato's Academy in 529. Using an accessible, thematic approach, she explores the ideas of leading Neoplatonists such as Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Simplicius, and Damascius, as well as less well-known thinkers. She situates their ideas alongside classical Platonism, Stoicism, and the neo-Pythagoreans as well as other intellectual movements of the time, including Gnosticism, Judaism, and Christianity. She also considers Neoplatonism's enduring legacy in the history of philosophical thought, providing a gateway to Neoplatonism for contemporary readers. _Copub: Acumen Publishing Limited_.