Plotinus IV 7 (2) on the Immortality of the Soul: Studies on the Text and Its Contexts

The Enneadic treatise IV 7 (2) constitutes Plotinus’ first attempt to reflect systematically on the problem of the immortality of the soul. It is a complex text, in which the exposition of the Plotinian doctrine is preceded by a long doxographic excursus dedicated to the refutation of the ideas of some ancient philosophical schools (Aristotelian, Epicurean, Stoic, Pythagorean). The problems posed by the treatise are addressed in this volume from an interdisciplinary perspective: historians of ancient thought and of Neoplatonism, historians of religions, historians of late antique culture, classical philologists meet in these pages to address, from very different points of view, one of the most stimulating texts left to us by Plotinus.