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Plotinus

Björk, Mårten LU (2017) p.186-192
Abstract
The philosophy of Plotinus plays a contradictory role in Giorgio Agamben’s corpus. He comments on Plotinus in a lapidary fashion in several articles and essays before commencing the Homo Sacer series, where he undertakes a longer and more ambiguous analysis of Plotinus in Opus Dei and The Use of Bodies. In Opus Dei, Agamben develops the brief criticism of Plotinus he proposed in The Kingdom and the Glory in order to describe the crucial instance when Western metaphysics starts to designate being as operativity: ‘The place and moment when classical ontology begins that process of transformation that will lead to the Christian and modern ontology is the theory of the hypostases in Plotinus’ (OD 58). Agamben is referring to the development in... (More)
The philosophy of Plotinus plays a contradictory role in Giorgio Agamben’s corpus. He comments on Plotinus in a lapidary fashion in several articles and essays before commencing the Homo Sacer series, where he undertakes a longer and more ambiguous analysis of Plotinus in Opus Dei and The Use of Bodies. In Opus Dei, Agamben develops the brief criticism of Plotinus he proposed in The Kingdom and the Glory in order to describe the crucial instance when Western metaphysics starts to designate being as operativity: ‘The place and moment when classical ontology begins that process of transformation that will lead to the Christian and modern ontology is the theory of the hypostases in Plotinus’ (OD 58). Agamben is referring to the development in the Enneads of the idea of the three hypostases of being – the One, the Soul and the Intellect – from which the whole complex of reality emanates. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Plotinus, Hypostasis, Aristotelian ontology
host publication
Agamben’s Philosophical Lineage
editor
Kotsko, Adam and Salzani, Carlo
pages
186 - 192
publisher
Edinburgh University Press
DOI
10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423632.003.0020
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
c634794f-f2c3-4fac-ab3b-4d1835b9e8b8
date added to LUP
2024-10-04 14:15:44
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:12:53
@inbook{c634794f-f2c3-4fac-ab3b-4d1835b9e8b8,
  abstract     = {{The philosophy of Plotinus plays a contradictory role in Giorgio Agamben’s corpus. He comments on Plotinus in a lapidary fashion in several articles and essays before commencing the Homo Sacer series, where he undertakes a longer and more ambiguous analysis of Plotinus in Opus Dei and The Use of Bodies. In Opus Dei, Agamben develops the brief criticism of Plotinus he proposed in The Kingdom and the Glory in order to describe the crucial instance when Western metaphysics starts to designate being as operativity: ‘The place and moment when classical ontology begins that process of transformation that will lead to the Christian and modern ontology is the theory of the hypostases in Plotinus’ (OD 58). Agamben is referring to the development in the Enneads of the idea of the three hypostases of being – the One, the Soul and the Intellect – from which the whole complex of reality emanates.}},
  author       = {{Björk, Mårten}},
  booktitle    = {{Agamben’s Philosophical Lineage}},
  editor       = {{Kotsko, Adam and Salzani, Carlo}},
  keywords     = {{Plotinus; Hypostasis; Aristotelian ontology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{186--192}},
  publisher    = {{Edinburgh University Press}},
  title        = {{Plotinus}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423632.003.0020}},
  doi          = {{10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423632.003.0020}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}