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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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