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8 - Plotinus on Knowledge

from Part II - Metaphysics and Epistemology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2022

By
Christian Tornau
Edited by
Lloyd Gerson  and
James Wilberding
Lloyd Gerson
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
James Wilberding
Affiliation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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Summary

Knowledge in Plotinus is a complex yet unified phenomenon. His most general term for it, gnōsis (‘cognition’), covers a broad range of phenomena from sense-perception (aisthēsis) via discursive reasoning (dianoia) to intuitive intellectual insight (noēsis).1 The general framework of his epistemology is unambiguously Platonic. Plotinus shares Plato’s conviction, prominently voiced in the Timaeus, that only unchanging intelligible Being admits of real understanding, whereas perception of sensibles only yields opinion or belief.

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The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus , pp. 193 - 216
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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