Plotinus

One of the most influential philosophers of late antiquity, Plotinus (ca.ce204/5–270) is the founder of the so‐called Neoplatonic school of thought, a late ancient interpretation and further development of Platonic philosophy. Plotinus’ ethics is a somewhat uncompromising version of Platonic–Aristotelian eudaimonism. At the center are the ideas of character formation toward virtues and of happiness effected through rational activities invulnerable to chance. In Plotinus, these features are intimately connected: the former happens through attending to the best, rational parts of one's nature. The goal is self‐identification of oneself as pure intellectual ability, the most divine spark of our proper nature. This involves also a grasp of the unlimited and overflowing goodness of the transcendent principle, the One. Such self‐transformation has consequences both for the agent herself and her surroundings. Intellectual and ethical self‐realization renders the agent self‐determined and blessedly happy, with an impartial, or “cosmic,” view of other people and changing life situations. Plotinus is further famous for a doctrine, influential in late antiquity, of grades of virtue.