I propose a discussion on "Analogies between Plotinus and Indian Philosophy" - PDF-PowerPoint of the lecture held by me on 13th September 2023 at the 2nd International Conference "The Greek World and India: History, Culture and Trade from the Hellenistic period to Modern Times (4th c. BCE – 18th c. CE)", jointly organised by the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice and by the Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, Venice, 12-13 September 2023. 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.
Dear Doctor
I pasted the following paragraphs from a worthy study hoping shed light on the subject.
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Advaita and Neoplatonism
(1961)–Frits Staal–📷 Auteursrechtelijk beschermd
A Critical Study in Comparative Philosophy
"According to Porphyry, Plotinus once ‘sought to learn directly the philosophy practised among the Persians and that which is held in esteem among the people of India’.1 The theory that some aspect of Neoplatonism was infruenced by ‘Indian thought’, has repeatedly been discussed and has found many learned advocates and opponents. As it seems that research on the subject has been done while scholars were unaware of the fact that the same subject was dealt with by others, we propose to contribute to a possible solution of the problem by giving a critical review of the existing literature in chronological order. In this way one can easily see what are the main arguments which can be brought forward, and which of these have been refuted. Of the work done before Bréhier's book of 1938 mention is made only of the article by Müller of 1914; after 1938, we hope that our enumeration is complete as far as articles which deal principally with the subject are concerned. Casual references in monographs touching upon the subject have not been discussed.
Critical remarks are based upon the methodological considerations mentioned in the first part2 and the method which has been formulated by Koster in dealing with the problem of Oriental influence on Plato; we need only read Plotinus where he says Plato: ‘There is only one method which leads to an adequate understanding of the doctrine of Plato. This is the method requiring the commentator when interpreting a passage first to ask whether this passage can be explained by what Plato teaches elsewhere or by what he taught previously; next whether the same can be done with the help of what is left of nis Greek predecessors; and lastly whether the interpreter has not forgotten to take the creative imagination and the personal logic of his author into account; this last consideration is not the least important. In short,
1Vita Plotini 3, 15-17.
2See above I, 6: 22-4.
[p. 236]
he has to deal with Plato as with Homer: explain him by himself. The person who studies Plato has to be led by one rule: first of all tòn Plátōna ed toû Plátōnos saphēnízein.3"
"We will mention three points dealt with in this book which are of special interest in the present context.
(1) The Neoplatonic idea of deriving the entire universe from the One is a natural development of the systems of Plato's pupils Speusippus and Xenocrates as well as (according to Aristotle), of Plato himself. ‘The most striking feature of this derivative system was the derivation of physicals, i.e. sensibles, from the anterior, non-sensible, unextended, timeless spheres’. An example is the way in which physical properties and even the atoms themselves were derived from mathematical entities.26
25Mind 64 (1955), 273-274.
26See 173, n. 1.
[p. 249]
(2) One of the two main principles of Speusippus, as known from a newly discovered fragment, is above being and thus ‘strictly comparable to the One of Plotinus and other Neoplatonists’. ‘The particular originality of Speusippus seems to consist in his having described the second principle as above nonbeing’.27
(3) The meaning of the notion of ‘being as such’, ‘being qua being’ (ón ḕi ón) in Aristotle's Metaphysics has to be reinterpreted. In this interpretation, the subject matter of Aristotle's Metaphysics becomes indeterminate being, ‘which, because it is indeterminate, is unrestricted and therefore first and fully being’. It is therefore justified to speak about an Aristoteles Neoplatonicus, This indeterminate being leads again to the Neoplatonic One.28
Our general conclusion is that it will be the task of future research on the question of Indian influence on Neoplatonism to find aspects of Neoplatonism which cannot be understood against the background of the Greek tradition. In the light of recent research, however, where the six centuries between Plato and Plotinus are no longer neglected, it seems unlikely that such aspects can be found. If they will be nevertheless found and if they are derivable from ideas occurring in the Upaniṣads, it will, in the light of the research of Filliozat, be very likely that the Upaniṣads influenced Plotinus. Apart from this it remains very well possible that Plotinus knew something of Upaniṣadic doctrines and was aware of their similarity to his own ideas.
Another question, with which we have not occupied ourselves, is, whether Plotinus' Greek predecessors, and thus he himself indirectly, were influenced by any aspects of Indian thought. In the case of Plato this is at any rate very unlikely.29 But in the case of the Pre-Socratics it is possible, though we can at present not say anything more definite about it.30"
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