71 - Peter Adamson: Plotinus, Porphyry, and Neoplatonism

Peter Adamson is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London. He’s also the host of the podcast History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and the author of the book series by the same name. Robinson and Peter talk about Neoplatonism—a philosophical movement in late antiquity—and its great thinkers, including Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, as well as the many issues they thought and wrote about, such as evil, theology, logic, and vegetarianism.

OUTLINE:

02:14 Introduction

7:30 What’s Interesting About Neoplatonism?

5:35 The Etymology of “Neoplatonism”

11:36 Where was Neoplatonism?

19:48 The Great Plotinus

23:56 Plotinus’ Metaphysics

32:30 Plotinus and Theology

39:46 Plotinus on Evil

1:00:15 Porphyry, His Logic, and Arguments for Vegetarianism CLIP

1:18:31 Iamblichus

1:24:02 Proclus

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.