Plotinus, the father of Neoplatonism, lived in Rome during the third
century A.D. As the last great philosopher in the ancient Greek tra-
dition, he is a figure of commanding importance. Despite a marked
increase in Plotinus scholarship since the 1970's, the need has been
felt for a book to make Plotinus more generally accessible.

The role of the Form as an intrinsically valuable object of intellective
and spiritual vision is often marginalized by the concern in contem-
porary Plato scholarship for its function as cause in ontology, epis-
temology, and ethics. Schroeder argues that the intrinsic value of
Form is central to Plotinus' thought. It is indeed an object of ecstatic
contemplation. Yet Plotinus builds its intrinsic value into the very
structure of his understanding of creation in such a way that its
philosophical uses need not be considered in abstraction from our
enjoyment of it.

The author initiates us into Plotinus' thought by a deft exploration
of the themes of form, light, silence, language, and love, and the
vocabulary that weaves these together in such a way that the reader
is enabled to begin reading Plotinus with understanding. Schroeder
displays, as well as demonstrates discursively, what Plotinus under-
stood by his doctrine of the sovereignty of Form.

FREDERIC M. SCHROEDER is an associate professor in the Department
of Classics, Queen's University.