The present text is the revised and corrected English translation of the book published in German by the Lang Verlag, Bern 2008. Unfortunately the text still has some minor flaws (especially in the Index Locorum) but they do not concern the main thesis or the arguments. It will still be the final version, especially considering my age. It is among the most widespread and the least questioned convictions that in Metaphysics Lambda Aristotle presents a theology which has its basis in (...) a metaphysics of substance. Doubts about theological interpretation are beginning to stir in a growing number of publications, but nevertheless the majority of research literature, compendiums and histories of philosophy argues within this frame. A closer look at the facts reveals that this conviction has no basis in the text. Quite the contrary it is based on a reception with theological interests. It arised over centuries, starting from Patristic times and the Middle Ages; it was influenced by Neoplatonic texts as the Liber de Causis or the Theologia Aristotelis, texts for a long time considered as original Aristotelian books. And, if you read not translations but the Greek text, you see that the word 'god' occurs much less than in a theological book should be. In some translations we find more occurences of that word, and especially in French, Italian, English translations some words as le Bien, l'Intelligence etc. are written with capitals to inticate that it is about god. To make it even more clear, we read often the term 'First Mover' or 'Unmoved Mover' as an other name for god, but this expression is never used by Aristotle. So the reader has the impression that Aristotle speaks continuously about god. In addition, in the present book you will find arguments which clean up with the outdated concept of substance in the Aristotelian text, a concept which was developed for quite other problems than Aristotle had, namely theolgical ones. And, if there is no substance, there is no corresponding metaphysics of substance and no theology or onto-theology. If substance, metyphysics, theology play no role in Metaphysics Lambda, what else is its content and aim? That is not so difficult to say because Aristotle says it sufficiently clear in his first sentence, περὶ οὐσίας ἡ θεωρία: our inquiry is about being; its aim is to develop the Frage nach dem Sein and to state a speculative answer: being is noesis, Sein ist Gewahren. (shrink)

Dentro del sistema filosófico de Plotino, el tema de la naturaleza se vincula intrínsecamente al de la contemplación. En relación con este tópico, el presente trabajo procura reflexionar acerca de si la doctrina plotiniana sobre la naturaleza y su potencia generativa implica sólo las nociones de dispersión y de multiplicidad o si sugiere, antes bien, otras ideas al respecto. En orden a estos lineamientos, se seguirá un estudio analítico y descriptivo, acompañado de una lectura a la vez hermenéutica y crítica (...) tanto de las fuentes como de la bibliografía secundaria. (shrink)

The Plotinus’ treaty of En. III 8 shows by a personification how the contemplative form of natural production is: an activity like a dream state because it concerns a quiet and restful vision, although imprecise in some ways. This paper focus on some topics that interpret this dreamy behavior of Nature according to its own generative interiority, instead of his difference from wakefulness. As the subject asleep extracted from himself the warp of sleep, the same happens with Nature, as their (...) images do not come from any extrinsic data but from its very productive capacity. I conclude that Plotinus does not oppose the sensible world, but rather he understand it as a reflected expression of intelligible world. El tratado plotiniano de En. III 8 manifiesta mediante una prosopopeya cómo es la índole contemplativa de la producción natural, conviene a saber, una actividad semejante al ensueño puesto que se trata de un ver silencioso y reposado, pero un tanto desvaído. El propósito de este trabajo consiste en dilucidar qué significado posible encierra esta mención de lo onírico a propósito de la contemplación de la phýsis. En relación con ello, un aspecto significativo atribuido al sueño atañe a la interioridad implicada en la representación fantástica del durmiente. Así como el sujeto dormido extrae desde sí mismo la urdimbre del sueño, así también ocurriría en el caso de la Naturaleza, por el hecho de que sus imágenes no proceden de ningún dato extrínseco a ella sino de su misma capacidad productiva. La reconstrucción de este tópico permite mostrar, entre otros aportes plausibles, que lo sensible en Plotino, lejos de tener un estatuto envilecido frente al mundo inteligible, constituye en cambio su expresión refleja. (shrink)

Porphyry'sLife of Plotinusis the earliest extant memoir of a philosopher by his pupil. Historians of philosophy have embraced it as a key to the intellectual development of Plotinus, while historians of the third century have found it an invaluable supplement to the fragmentary records of this era. Yet few have cared to read it as an original work of literature, or even as the mature work of a scholar and philosopher who for centuries eclipsed his master in influence, if not (...) in reputation. In consequence, attention has not been paid to certain striking peculiarities in Porphyry's selection and arrangement of materials, which, if studied, will shed light on the form and purpose of the whole biography. This article is devoted to a strange chapter which, as in any ancient writing, we should expect to be the most instructive because it is the first. (shrink)

The first book-length philosophical study on the Presocratic influences in Plotinus’ Enneads.

Le genre littéraire des écrits de Plotin est très éloigné du procédé du commentaire que l’on retrouve chez Jamblique et les néoplatoniciens ultérieurs. Ils ne peuvent non plus être rangés, sauf dans quelques cas, dans le genre de la diatribe, mais représentent de véritables dissertations philosophiques, poursuivies parfois sur plusieurs traités, surtout dans la seconde période d’écriture de Plotin, indice de la présence d’un certain développement au sein de sa pensée.

Porphyry's Life of Plotinus is the earliest extant memoir of a philosopher by his pupil. Historians of philosophy have embraced it as a key to the intellectual development of Plotinus, while historians of the third century have found it an invaluable supplement to the fragmentary records of this era. Yet few have cared to read it as an original work of literature, or even as the mature work of a scholar and philosopher who for centuries eclipsed his master in influence, (...) if not in reputation. In consequence, attention has not been paid to certain striking peculiarities in Porphyry's selection and arrangement of materials, which, if studied, will shed light on the form and purpose of the whole biography. This article is devoted to a strange chapter which, as in any ancient writing, we should expect to be the most instructive because it is the first. (shrink)

_The first book-length philosophical study on the Presocratic influences in Plotinus’ Enneads._.

Porphyry'sLife of Plotinusis the earliest extant memoir of a philosopher by his pupil. Historians of philosophy have embraced it as a key to the intellectual development of Plotinus, while historians of the third century have found it an invaluable supplement to the fragmentary records of this era. Yet few have cared to read it as an original work of literature, or even as the mature work of a scholar and philosopher who for centuries eclipsed his master in influence, if not (...) in reputation. In consequence, attention has not been paid to certain striking peculiarities in Porphyry's selection and arrangement of materials, which, if studied, will shed light on the form and purpose of the whole biography. This article is devoted to a strange chapter which, as in any ancient writing, we should expect to be the most instructive because it is the first. (shrink)

In two chapters of Enn. II.9 [33], Plotinus discusses the Gnostic idea that the creation of the world is due to the ‘decline’ of a principle that he variously calls Soul or Sophia. The identity of Plotinus' Gnostics is notoriously difficult to establish with any degree of precision; I can only note here that the idea of Sophia's ‘decline’ features in a number of extant Gnostic texts, such as those from Nag Hammadi and the Berlin Codex, as a recent survey (...) of the evidence by Poirier has demonstrated. (shrink)