Gary M. Gurtler's Books

From the Alien to the Alone

A Study of Soul in Plotinus

By: Gary M. Gurtler, SJ,Gurtler Sj Gary

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From the Alien to the Alone

A Study of Soul in Plotinus

By: Gary M. Gurtler, SJ,Gurtler Sj Gary

Plotinus is often accused of writing haphazardly, with little concern for the integral unity of a treatise. By analyzing each treatise as a whole, From the Alien to the Alone finds much evidence that he constructed them skillfully, with the parts working together in subtle ways. This insight was also key in translating several central passages by considering the flow of the argument as a whole to shed light on the difficulties in these passages as well as reveal the structure often latent in particular treatise. The volume also serves to clarify Plotinus' rich use of images. Commentators, for instance, tend to take the images of light and warmth to explain the relation of soul and body as in conflict, with light casting out warmth. A close look at the text, however, reveals that Plotinus uses each image to correct the limitations of the other. Thus, since the soul is incorporeal, it is actually more transcendent than light and as activating the body is more completely present than warmth. Similarly, recent commentators are quick to take the related impassibility of the soul as implying a Cartesian gap between body and soul. The problem Plotinus faces, however, is that his description of the soul's pervasive presence in the body jeopardizes its impassibility as in the intelligible. His effort then is actually to introduce a gap that preserves the soul's nature, rather than overcome a gap that would make the very existence of the body problematic. While this work confirms much recent scholarly consensus on Plotinus, many of Gurtler's interpretations and general conclusions give constructive challenges to some existing modes of understanding Plotinus' thought. The arguments and their textual evidence, with the accompanying Greek, provide the reader with direct evidence for testing these conclusions as well as appreciating the nature of Plotinus' philosophizing.

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Page Count

288

Publisher

CUA Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813234514

ISBN 13

9780813234519

PLOTINUS Ennead IV.4.30-45 & IV.5

Problems Concerning the Soul

By: Gary M. SJ Gurtler

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PLOTINUS Ennead IV.4.30-45 & IV.5

Problems Concerning the Soul

By: Gary M. SJ Gurtler

Ennead IV.4.30-45 and IV.5 retrieves the unity in this last section of Plotinus' treatise on Problems concerning the Soul. Combining translation with commentary, Gurtler enhances both the accuracy of the translation and the recovery of Plotinus' often unsuspected originality. This is especially true for IV.5, where previous translations fail to convey the concise nature of his argument against both the Aristotelian and Platonic theories of vision. Plato and Aristotle each claim that vision depends on the light between the eye and the object, but Plotinus presents evidence that this is not the case and develops a novel theory of light as a second activity that moves from source to object directly, even arguing that color is in the light itself rather than merely a quality of the object. This theory of vision, in turn, depends on the nature of sympathy developed especially in IV.4.30-45, where Plotinus shows how action at a distance is both possible and necessary for the proper unity in diversity of the sensible cosmos.

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Page Count

277

Publisher

Parmenides Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1930972725

ISBN 13

9781930972728

Erotic Wisdom

Philosophy and Intermediacy in Plato's Symposium

By: Gary Alan Scott,William A. Welton

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Erotic Wisdom

Philosophy and Intermediacy in Plato's Symposium

By: Gary Alan Scott,William A. Welton

A lively and highly readable commentary on one of Plato’s most beloved dialogues.

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Page Count

306

Publisher

SUNY Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791475832

ISBN 13

9780791475836

Book's by Gary M. Gurtler

From the Alien to the Alone

From the Alien to the Alone

PLOTINUS Ennead IV.4.30-45 & IV.5

PLOTINUS Ennead IV.4.30-45 & IV.5

Erotic Wisdom

Erotic Wisdom

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