Die Beziehung zwischen dem Schönen und dem Guten in der Philosophie Plotins

This dissertation on the philosophy of Plotinus has the relationship between the beautiful and the good as its central theme. Plato of course already drew attention to the moral value of the beautiful: Beauty awakens man’s Eros, which leads us – over more and more lofty forms of beauty – to the Good. Plotinus makes the connection between the beautiful and the good even more clear to us and made it one of the cornerstones of his philosophy. In this book the current debates on Plotinian ethics are being joined and new results are being examined for their relevance for the moral status of the artistic domain. The plausibility and strength of the Plotinian analysis of the aesthetic experience are being shown and the nature of art and the artist scrutinized. After the moral value of beauty and the arts have been thoroughly discussed, the focus will lay on the question, whether within the Plotinic philosophy beauty can be ascribed to the Good.