New York City Atheists

Plotinus’s Neo-Platonism(The last great pagan philosopher who served as a bridge between Greek philosophy and Christianity. Learn how much they borrowed from him.) Please join us as we listen to a recorded lecture from the Teaching Company about Plotinus by Dr. Philip Carey Ph.D. Plotinus lived around 3rd century CE.

He created the philosophy of Neo-Platonism. “He sees the universe in terms of a deep underlying unity (which he called the One and identified with Plato’s idea of the good). But he also thought in terms of an intellectual vision of Platonic forms (a level of being he called Nous or the mind of god, which he located a step lower on the ladder of being than the One)…Most influential of all, he sketched a spiritual ascent of the soul’s turning inward to discover its fundamental unity not only with the one Soul and the divine Mind, but with the One itself,” (from the introduction to the lecture).

Note: The lecture outline and transcript is located in the MORE pull-down (which contains the FILES section) at the top of the meet-up menu. Please try to read this in advance of the meeting.

A copy will be provided at the meeting. Link to Plotinus readings: www.iep.utm.edu/plotinus/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plotinus/

There are no prerequisites other than a willingness to be exposed to challenging ideas and engage in civil discourse with the other attendees.

Please arrive by 7:00 p.m. so we can start the lecture promptly and then have more time available for discussion.
Remember: you must be a member to attend (though you can sign up for membership on the evening of the lecture, so come on down).