Plotinus on the Identity of Knowledge with its Object
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23205709 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen Menn (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2001-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Apeiron (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-6390 • E-ISSN: 2156-7093 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/apeiron.2001.34.3.233 |
| OpenAlex | W2332912189 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Plotinus's insistence that knowledge is identical with its object has been a major obstacle to taking him seriously as a philosopher: as we will see, even later neo-Platonists such as Proclus either reject or minimize this part of Plotinus's thought. Plotinus says in V.9 7 that all έπιστημαι 'inasmuch as they are έπιστημαι, are the same as each of the things they know [νοοΰσι].' This is, on the face of it, absurd: when I know a tree, do I become identical with that tree? Trying to interpret charitably, we might suppose that Plotinus is thinking, not of ordinary knowledge, but of a special cognitive state in which I am somehow identified with the things I know. But this is no solution: taken seriously, it would imply the absurd conclusion that (since the Platonic Forms are eπιστητά) I must myself be each of the Forms (it only looks like there is a solution here because we are tempted to cheat by weakening the meaning of 'identify'). How else can we make sense of what Plotinus is saying? A crucial first step toward a solution is to recognize that (in V.9 7 and elsewhere) Plotinus is asserting, not that the knower is identical with the
Absurdism · Aesthetics · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept) · Identity (music) · Linguistics · Meaning (existential) · Object (grammar) · Reflexive pronoun · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,21 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2015 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |