preview

Essay about Remarks on the Spoudaios in Plotinus

Better Essays

Remarks on the Spoudaios in Plotinus

Who is the Plotinian spoudaios and what is his function in the Enneads? This question turns out to be fundamental, especially when trying to make out an ethical dimension in Plotinus. Treatise I 4 [46] offers, concerning that question, not only the longest sustained discussion of the spoudaios, but also shows how highly problematic it is to figure out more precisely his characteristics. This is due to the terminological ambiguity with the term sophos, which is also the reason why the two terms are often considered synonymous by translators. It appears in I 4 that this ambiguity is closely related to the question of aisthesis. And this is also perhaps the main problematic point concerning the …show more content…

In a search for specifical studies on the spoudaios in Plotinus, it appears that there aren't any, beside Heiser's remarks(1) which are based on the conception that the spoudaios is indeed already and fully an accomplished sage.(2)

Other studies on the spoudaios—and they are rare—refer mainly to the Aristotelian connotation of this term;(3) yet, it is indeed in and with Aristotle that the spoudaios obtains his specifical sense. Therefore, before trying to show who the Plotinian spoudaios is, a brief analysis of this term seems not only helpful but also necessary.

2. Brief etymological analysis

According to the LSJ(4) spoudaios (spoude) originally meant being in haste, quick, (for a person) being earnest, serious, zealous, and changed gradually to good, excellent, the sense of good becomming more and more a moral character, making therefore spoudaios synonymous with agathon. Not only is spoudaios used for persons, it can also describe things being worth serious attention, weighty, but also good and excellent in their kind.(5)

Generally one can say that this term made a transformation from a more outer description of being serious, to a more inner quality of moral virtue and goodness.

3. The spoudaios in Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics

3.1. Plato

While spoude occurs frequently in Plato, mostly opposed to paidia,(6) the term of

Get Access