SOURCE: “The Originality of Plotinus,” in Plotinus: The Road to Reality, Cambridge University Press, 1967, pp. 169-87.

In the following excerpt, Rist outlines how Plotinus's ideas differ from those of Plato and Aristotle.

‘It is necessary to take the notable opinions of the ancients and consider whether any of them agree with ours.’

(Enneads 3.7.7.15)

It will not have escaped the reader's attention that, in discussing various ideas of Plotinus, it has apparently been necessary to refer frequently to those of earlier thinkers, especially Plato. He may therefore have begun to wonder at times either whether Plotinus can stand on his own feet, or why, if he cannot, he is worth serious attention. If he then looks at the apparatus fontium of Henry and Schwyzer's edition of the Enneads, he may find his worst fears confirmed when he sees the lists of quotations from Plato, Aristotle, or von Arnim's Stoicorum...