Plotinus the Master and the Apotheosis of Imperial Platonism

Unlike other recent studies, Plotinus the Master and the Apotheosis of Imperial Platonism is critical of Plotinus, and in particular of his version of Platonism, here described as “Imperial.” It is in contrast with Plato—a teacher whose dialogues challenge his students to think for themselves—that William H. F. Altman presents Plotinus as a master, who uses a seductive form of rhetoric throughout the Enneads to persuade his disciples to ignore his self-contradictions and decontextualized quotations from Plato while instead regarding his spiritual experiences, combined with a gift for the creative synthesis of previous thinkers, as the principal basis of their faithful and uncritical allegiance. While setting Plotinus in the context of the Roman Empire and his own critique of the Gnostics, this book grapples throughout with his current and virtually uncritical reception.