Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie

Plotinus Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie

This edition of the Enneads of Plotinus was the first full English translation. The work follows in the footsteps of previous Platonists, such as Ficinus and Taylor, and builds on Dr. Guthrie's translations and explanations of Plotinus's master Numenius, the Pythagorean texts, the works of Proclus, etc. Dr. Guthrie's translation includes several major features that are not found elsewhere, including a reorganization of the books of the Enneads into chronological order, displaying 4 progressive stages of development, which allows for a more complete examination of the development of Plotinus's philosophy (see the full edition of Guthrie's "Plotinus: Complete Works" for his own examination of that development). The present translation "is the best for him who wishes to understand Plotinus, because it is the only edition that unscrambles, chronologically, Plotinus's 4 progressive stages of development from Porphyry's frightful hodgepodge of 9 medleys. . . . It is the most faithful version, because Dr. Guthrie's sole object was to focus the labors of the best students, Marsilius Ficinus, Mueller, Drews, Bouillet, Chaignet, Taylor, and others; but one only thing he does claim, that he has not knowingly left any obscurity. Otherwise he glories in this subservience to all the best that had been done before him, and for himself he claims nothing but the unappreciated production of what nobody else would do, and the critical discovery of Plotinus's progress."-K. S. GUTHRIE