This event is has taken place; a recording of the talk can be found here.
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On 20th October 2025, the Centre will host Prof. Robert Goulding, who will give a talk 'What are eyes for? Taking a second look at Plotinus' visual theory'. This event will take place in the Lightfoot Room of the Faculty of Divinity, beginning at 5 pm. An abstract to the talk is below:
Plotinus insists that physical vision takes place through "sympathy," the same connecting principle that underlies phenomena as diverse as planetary influence, magic, and prayer. To most commentators, it has been difficult to explain how this general principle of causation at a distance can save the particular phenomena of vision: directionality of gaze, the role of light, and even the perception of form itself. Recent scholars push the principle of sympathy as far as it seems able to go - and then inevitably fall back onto some version of the Aristotelian theory of the reception of forms without matter in the eye. I argue that this is unnecessary, and that Plotinus has a single, consistent theory of vision through sympathy which does not entail the reception of forms in the eye. The eye plays a necessary role, nevertheless, in the process of vision. In this talk, we will learn what eyes do (and will also consider the closely related question: what is light for?). Plotinus's account of vision, scattered across the Enneads, is (it turns out) entirely sui generis. Since light and vision serve so often as analogies of metaphysical influence and cognition, a better understanding of how they function may inform our reading of those passages too.