You are invited to the Harvard Humanities Center to attend a meeting of the Philosophy, Poetry and Religion Seminar. Plotinus’ Study of Light: Metaphysical and Epistemological Implications Gary M. Gurtler, S.J. Boston College In examining the nature of light, Plotinus makes some rather startling and original claims. He uses light as the prime example of his theory of two acts, the act by which something is itself and the act which overflows from it. The sun in the sensible cosmos is the prime example of the first act and its light is the second act, caused by the sun alone and incorporeal in nature. This incorporeal nature needs careful analysis. My thesis is that Plotinus is assimilating light to the nature of the soul, an activity that is omnipresent, but also limited by what receives it. The question arises, then, of how far this assimilation goes: is light completely incorporeal, like soul, or is it, as from the corporeal sun, only minimally incorporeal? Answering this question moves from examining the metaphysical aspect of light, captured in its nature as second act, to its more epistemological role as source of intelligibility. This dual role allows Plotinus to differentiate sensible light from intelligible light, and perhaps also to understand how sensible light is in fact related to the corporeal nature of the sensible cosmos. Thursday, March 1, 2012 7:00 P.M. Room 133 Barker Center Harvard University 12 Quincy St. (where Quincy St, Harvard St and Mass Ave converge near the Harvard Book Store) Cambridge, MA. 02138 For information: 617-495-0738 Free parking available at the Broadway St. Garage. Enter from Felton St, off of Cambridge St.