ABSTRACT

How are we to live? Socrates understands this question as follows: How are we to live in order to live well? He takes it for granted that we all want to live well. His answer to the question is that we are to live virtuously. Thus, virtue (aretê) is the key to the good life, namely happiness (eudaimonia). Socrates’ approach of aspiring to human excellence is opposed to one that is concerned with minimal decency. Most of the ancient philosophers share Socrates’ aspiration, but especially the Platonists cherish the extreme version of ethical idealism. They ambitiously define the goal of their philosophy as ‘assimilation to god’ and believe that it is virtue that leads to god. In order to become godlike or divine, we need to be virtuous. For the ancient Platonists, the ideal philosopher is a virtuous man (spoudaios) as well as a divine man (theios anêr). What does such an ideal philosopher look like? What is his virtue? How are we to conceive of the god whom he is emulating? To approach these questions, I suggest looking at a portrait of the ideal philosopher presented in Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus (Vita Plotini), a biography of a Platonist hailed as a pagan saint in Late Antiquity. It is shown that the biographer reconstructs the hero’s life in virtue of his theory of a scale of virtues representing different levels in an upward movement of divinization of the human soul, namely: (1) political, (2) purificatory, (3) theoretical virtues. Thereby the hero emerges as a perfect philosopher possessing all virtues. In addition, I argue that the portrait of the holy and divine Plotinus reflects much of the biographer’s own ascetic ideal of philosopher propounded in De abstinentia. Furthermore, it is noted that Porphyry attributes to Plotinus a divine power which goes beyond the levels of virtues. In conclusion, the holy philosopher portrayed in the Life of Plotinus is an ascetic and wonder-worker like the Christian saints, but, unlike them, a sage (sophos) embodying perfect virtue. The ideal of life envisaged by ancient Platonists like Plotinus and Porphyry offers an alternative or a challenge to the view that one can do philosophy without engaging in virtue and holiness, as well as to the view that one can be virtuous and holy without philosophy.

KEYWORD

Asceticism, holiness, virtue, saint, God, biography, philosophy, Platonism

REFERENCES(42)open

  1. [book] R. D. Hicks / 1925 / Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers / Harvard University Press

  2. [book] A. Busse / 1900 / Elias, In Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis Categorias Commentaria, CAG ⅩⅧ, 1 / Reimer

  3. [book] W. Wright / 1921 / Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists, In Philostratus and Eunapius: Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists / Harvard University Press

  4. [book] J. H. Holden / 2011 / Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis / Tempe

  5. [book] De Vita Pythagorica / 1975 / Iamblichus, On Pythagoreanism: Book I / L. Deubner

  6. [book] H. D. Saffrey / 2002 / Marinus, Proclus ou Sur le bonheur / Les Belles Lettres

  7. [book] L. Spengel / 1856 / Menander, De laudationibus, In Rhetores graeci vol. Ⅲ / Teubner

  8. [book] P.Henry / 10982 / Plotinus, Plotini opera / Oxford University Press

  9. [book] J. Bouffartigue / 2003 / Porphyre, De l’abstinence I-III / Les Belles Lettres

  10. [book] 아도, 피에르 / 2013 / 플로티누스, 또는 시선의 단순성 / 탐구사

  11. [book] 유혁 / 2013 / 플라톤의 윤리학, In 서양고대철학1 / 도서출판 길 : 307 ~ 339

  12. [book] 송유레 / 2012 / 마음과 철학 / 서울대학교출판문화원 : 61 ~ 88

  13. [book] 황경식 / 2012 / 덕윤리의 현대적 의의 : 의무윤리와 결과윤리가 상보하는 제3 윤리의 모색 / 아카넷

  14. [book] Annas, J. / 1999 / Platonic Ethics, Old and New / Cornell University Press

  15. [jounal] Bartelink, G. J. M. / 1982 / Die literarische Gattungen der Vita Antoni / Vigiliae Christianae 36 : 38 ~ 62

  16. [book] Brisson, L. / 1982 / Notices sur les noms propres,In Porphyre. La Vie de Plotin I / Vrin : 49 ~ 142

  17. [book] Brisson, L. / 1992 / Plotin: Une Biographie, In Porphyre. La Vie de Plotin II / Vrin : 1 ~ 29

  18. [jounal] Brown, P. / 1971 / The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity / The Journal of Roman Studies 61 : 80 ~ 101

  19. [book] Cox, P. / 1983 / Biography in Late Antiquity. A Quest for the Holy Man / University of California Press

  20. [book] Crisp, R. / 1998 / Virtue Ethics, In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy / Routledge

  21. [book] Dihle, A. / 1956 / Studien zur Griechischen Biographie / Göttingen

  22. [jounal] Fowden, G. / 1982 / The Pagan Holy Man in Late Antiquity Society / The Journal of Hellenic Studies 102 : 33 ~ 59

  23. [book] Frede, D. / 1999 / Platons Phaidon. Der Traum von der Unsterblichkeit der Seele / Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft

  24. [book] Gentili, B. / 1988 / History and Biography in Ancient Thought /

  25. [book] Glucker, J. / 1978 / Antiochus and the Late Academy / Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

  26. [book] Goulet, R. / 1992 / Le Plan de la Vie de Plotin, In Porphyre. La Vie de Plotin I / Vrin : 77 ~ 85

  27. [book] Goulet, R. / 2001 / Etudes sur les Vies de philosophes de l’Antiquité tardive, In Diogène Laërce, Porphyre de Tyr, Eunape de Sardes / Vrin

  28. [book] Hadot, P. / 1995 / Qu’est-ce que la philosophie antique? / Gallimard

  29. [book] Hägg, T. / 2000 / Greek Biography and Panegyric in Late Antiquity / University of California Press

  30. [web] Hursthous, R. / Virtue Ethics

  31. [jounal] Kirschner, R. / 1984 / The Vocation of Holiness in Late Antiquity / Vigiliae Christianae 38 : 105 ~ 124

  32. [book] Leo, F. / 2009 / Die Griechisch-roemische Biographie nach ihrer litterarischen Form / Leipzig

  33. [book] Männlein-Robert, I. / 2002 / Biographie, Hagiographie, Autobiographie - Die Vita Plotini des Porphyrios, In Metaphysik und Religion: Zur Signatur des spätantiken Denkens / Wuerzburg : 581 ~ 609

  34. [book] Momigliano, A. / 1993 / The Development of Greek Biography / Harvard University Press

  35. [book] O’Meara, D. J. / 1996 / The Hierarchical Ordering of Reality in Plotinus, In Cambridge Companion to Plotinus / Cambridge University Press : 66 ~ 81

  36. [book] O’Meara, D. J. / 2003 / Platonopolis. Platonic Political Philososphy in Late Antiquity / Oxford University Press

  37. [book] Saffrey, H. D. / 1992 / Pourquoi Porphyre a-t-il édité Plotin?, In Porphyre. La Vie de Plotin II / Vrin : 31 ~ 64

  38. [book] Schniewind, A. / 2003 / L’Ethique du sage chez Plotin. Le Paradigme du Spoudaios / Vrin

  39. [book] Song, E. / 2009 / Aufstieg und Abstieg der Seele. Diesseitigkeit und Jenseitigkeit in Plotins Ethik der Sorge / Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

  40. [jounal] Song, E. / 2009 / The Ethics of Descent in Plotinus / Hermathena 187 : 27 ~ 48

  41. [jounal] Song, E. / 2012 / Plotinus on the World-Maker / Horizons 3 (1) : 81 ~ 102

  42. [book] Song, E. / 2013 / Ashamed of Being in the Body? Plotinus versus Porphyry, In Plato Revived. Essays on Ancient Platonism in Honour of Dominic J. O’Meara / De Gruyter