#182a - The Radiance of Perfection and the Mystic Ascent: Plotinus on the Good and the One, Plato's Symposium, The Myth of Psyche and Eros (Aphrodite), Socrates' Teacher Diotima, feat. Pierre Grimes

<p><a href="https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">If you enjoy this work, please support the show on Patreon!</a></p><p>Will (the host) <a href="https://williamengels.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">writes a Substack page</a> about various and sundry topics. </p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus" target="_blank">Plotinus (204-270 CE)</a> was a mystical philosopher who transformed Plato&#39;s metaphysical ideas about the Forms and the divine intellect or <em>nous </em>into a spiritual path. In this lecture, <a href="https://www.noeticsociety.org/pierre-grimes" target="_blank">Pierre Grimes</a> (1924-2024 CE) introduces Plotinus and his work as recorded by his student Porphyry in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneads" target="_blank"><em>The Enneads</em></a><em> - </em>a six-part treatise on the mystical ascent of the soul.</p><p><strong>&quot;That which gives pre-eminence to the members of any class...is the word &#39;Greatness... No one would have an interest in that experience, if it was not also Beautiful&quot;</strong></p><p>-this 03/24/1998 lecture, catalogue number NSPRS 092</p><p>You can find the original video, with chalkboard explanations here.</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/Cvs52cBjpgU?list=PLp6rnhCy8XkqKXmCtLRqC4hOFnEaVVWZx" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Cvs52cBjpgU?list=PLp6rnhCy8XkqKXmCtLRqC4hOFnEaVVWZx</a></p><p>The Internet home for the Noetic Society is available here, on YouTube:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@NoeticSociety" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/@NoeticSociety</a></p><p>Pierre Grimes had a remarkable life. He was an American boy who volunteered to fight Fascism at the age of 17, and earned a Bronze Star with an Oak Leaf Cluster, a Purple Heart, and a Bronze Arrowhead (for the amphibious landing at Dramont &quot;Red Beach&quot; in the south of France, part of Operation Dragoon). For WW2-heads he served in the <strong>1st Battalion, 142nd Infantry Regiment</strong> (part of the 36th Infantry Division). He saw heavy combat in the European theater, and participated in the grotesque and shocking liberation of &#39;satellite&#39; concentration camps outside of Dachau.</p><p>After the war, Grimes used philosophy to work with alcoholics on substance abuse. He thought the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-theaetetus/#:~:t