Hellenistische Philosophie: Stoa, Epikureismus, Skeptizismus

This chapter deals with the Plotinian reception of the teachings of three major Hellenistic schools. While Plotinus severly criticises the Stoics’ corporealist ontology and empiricist theory of knowledge, he sometimes incorporates Stoic physical and ethical notions, which he adjusts to the Platonic metaphysical framework of his own philosophy. The main example of this is the use he makes of the Stoic notions of logos and sympatheia. Moreover, Plotinus’ account of autonomy draws on Epictetus. Plotinus’ reception of Epicureanism is mainly polemical, but occasionally he is also prepared to make positive use of Epicurean notions and distinctions. The Sceptics provided important inspiration for Plotinus’ doctrine of the Intellect in that he develops the thesis of the identity of the knower with the known in the face of Sceptical arguments against the possibility of (self-)knowledge.