I propose as a subject for a discussion the PDF-Powerpoint of the lecture "Analogies between Plotinus and Indian Philosophy" held on 1st March 2024 at the International Conference on Topic: Cultures in Transformation: A Subcontinental Experience International Conference organized by the Department of History in Collaboration with Northern Region Centre Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), 1-2 March 2024, Ram Lal Anand College, University of Delhi. I am working on a text connected to the PowerPoint. In my inquiry, I would like to expose some aspects of Plotinus’ thought which have, in my opinion, analogies with aspects of Indian Philosophy. I shall therefore concentrate my attention on Plotinus’ conception of the One, on the relations between One and multiplicity, on the separation of the individual from the One and on the return to the One. I shall then investigate the opposition expressed in the Upanishads between inauthentic reality and authentic reality, the initial position of the individual in the darkness and the return of the individual to the true dimension of reality. The individual’s ascent to the One in Plotinus and the liberation of the individual from the dimension of multiplicity will be a central theme of my exposition since it constitutes one of the analogies with some passages of the Upanishads in which the process of liberation of the individual from the ties of the average sense reality are described: the initial position of the individual as a position of decadence of the individual will be exposed by resorting to different passages of Plotinus’ Enneads.
The opposition between knowledge and opinion, on the one hand, and between intellect and sense perception, on the other hand, will be investigated in order to see the similarities with passages from the Upanishads in which the opportunity of a progressive detachment from the sense dimension is insisted on.
The common ground between Plotinus and the Upanishads proves to be the conception of philosophy as the revelation that the average way of living is inauthentic, that there is an authentic dimension of reality, that the individual ought to reach the authentic dimension of reality, and that a long process of training is needed for the individual to be able to reach the authentic dimension of reality. Furthermore, the description of the position of the One as an entity which is beyond all predicates can be analysed, in my opinion, with particular attention to the analogies which this subject can have with the descriptions of the nature of Brahman.
The main texts on which I will base my inquiry will be Plotinus’ Enneads, on the one hand, and the Upanishads, on the other hand.
Am in agreement with your Gianluigi Segalerba observations; a remarkable similarity between the philosophical system of Plotinus (205–270 A. D.) and those of various Hindu philosophers in various centuries, including some that lived prior to the Third Century A. D. can been discovered.
زميلي العزيز
تحية طيبة
إن التشابه بين الفلسفة الهندية وبين أفلوطين راجع إلى كون الاثنين من منبع واحد، وهو الحضارة الشرقية، ذلك أن الحضارة الشرقية قريبة جدًا في فهمها للوجود وللحياة، أي توجد خطوط عريضة في دراسة هذه المباحث الفلسفية وطرحها، والتي تختلف بطبيعة الحال عن الحضارة الغربية.
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