A PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION ON PLOTINUS’ CONCEPT OF BEAUTY AS AN ECSTATIC EXPERIENCE OF THE SOUL

Abstract

This paper posits Plotinus‘ conception of beauty as not only one of the answers to the question on how to fill the lacuna created by the demise of religious sublimity and awareness in many. But is the most persuasive and transforming way for individual spiritual transformation and by extension the transformation of the world. It focuses on Plotinus‘ concept of beauty, from the perspective of the human person. Attention has been given to Plotinus‘ aesthetics mostly within the general scope of Platonism, focusing on the notion of beauty as form (intellectual beauty) and on the question of whether or not beauty is conceived as symmetry both in Plato and Plotinus. This paper claims that the notion of beauty for Plotinus is an ecstatic experience of the soul. Thus, for Plotinus, beauty is not just aesthetical, it is more so a spiritual experience in the soul. This focus on Plotinus‘ notion of beauty is considered important as an alternative way for the cultivation of the interior life, in a world that is increasing becoming secularized. It is also relevant because the philosophical focus on beauty has largely been on the object out there. Even when a subjective focus is given on the concept of beauty, it is not largely focused on the spiritual transformation of the human person. Hence, this paper, is an analytical exposition of Plotinus‘ works on beauty.