This was my first lecture for Foundation Year Program, which is famous in Halifax for its “musical theatre” approach to the art of the lecture. It’s a two-hour affair in a hall of 200 first year students with a peanut gallery of faculty sitting in the back row.
Writing this lecture was a really formative experience for me. I realized while preparing over the summer that this is one of the only lectures of the year (besides those on Virgil) about the Roman Empire. What does it mean to think of Plotinus as a distinctly Roman figure? I found myself wondering especially about the meaning of his school in Rome. In the end the lecture became partly an apology for forms of education that are not strictly determined by social and political agenda. What if the purpose of education was not “to make the world a better place”? What if the destiny of the soul lies not only beyond the cosmos?
“To elevate the god within us to the divine in the universe.” -Plotinus’ Last words, quoted by Porphyry in The Life of Plotinus.
“Plotinus and the Neoplatonic Tradition.” Lecture for Foundation Year Program, University of King’s College, October 4, 2024.
- Image: Marble sculpture of Plotinus(?), Ostiense Museum, Ostia Antica.
