Extracts From Porphyry's Life Of Plotinus

by Porphyry, Stephen MacKenna

THIS 18 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Essence of Plotinus: Extracts from the Six Enneads and Porphyry's Life of Plotinus, by Stephen MacKenna. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766100928.

48 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2005

About the author

Porphyry's parents were Phoenician, and he was born in Tyre. His parents named him Malchus ("king") but his teacher in Athens, Cassius Longinus, gave him the name Porphyrius ("clad in purple"), possibly a reference to his Phoenician heritage, or a punning allusion to his name and the color of royal robes.

Porphyry of Tyre (Greek: Πορφύριος, Porphyrios, AD c. 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics. His Isagoge, or Introduction, is an introduction to logic and philosophy,and in Latin translation it was the standard textbook on logic throughout the Middle Ages. In addition, through several of his works, most notably Philosophy from Oracles and Against the Christians, he was involved in a controversy with a number of early Christians, and his commentary on Euclid's Elements was used as a source by Pappus of Alexandria. (Wikipedia)