The Dialectics of Number in Plotinus

The publication of the book by the outstanding Russian philosopher and philologist Alexei Fedorovich Losev (1893-1988) "The Dialectics of Number in Plotinus" completes the program of the "Academic Project" for the new edition of all eight books by the author from 1927-1930, with corrections and reproduction of the pagination from the first editions. The edition contains the original translation from ancient Greek of one of the most difficult philosophical texts of antiquity – the treatise "On Numbers" (Enn. VI.6) by the founder of Neoplatonism Plotinus (204/5-270). The extensive commentary by the author is of particular value, as it clarifies and, in many ways, reinterprets the Neoplatonic dialectics of number as the basis of knowledge and cognition presented in the treatise. The connections and development of Plotinus' constructions in the philosophy of Proclus (412-485), who completed ancient Neoplatonism, are illustrated; excerpts from his "The Elements of Theology" were also translated by A.F. Losev. The work on these translations had a significant impact on the researcher's own philosophy of mathematics developed later in the book "Dialectical Foundations of Mathematics." The book is addressed to historians of ancient philosophy, historians of domestic philosophical thought, philosophers, cultural scholars, and may be involved in the circle of contemporary interdisciplinary research.