Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius
E736692
"Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius" refers to the historical controversy in which the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus was charged with borrowing extensively from the earlier thinker Numenius, prompting his disciple Amelius Gentilianus to write a detailed defense of Plotinus’s originality.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8473571 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius Context triple: [Amelius Gentilianus, defended, Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius]
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A.
Theologia Platonica
Theologia Platonica is Marsilio Ficino’s major philosophical treatise that systematically presents a Christianized interpretation of Plato’s metaphysics and the immortality of the soul, foundational to Renaissance Platonism.
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B.
On the Secret Doctrines of Plato
On the Secret Doctrines of Plato is a lost philosophical treatise by the Middle Platonist Numenius of Apamea that explored and interpreted Plato’s esoteric teachings, often in relation to Pythagorean and Eastern thought.
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C.
Proclus' Chrestomathy
Proclus' Chrestomathy is a lost ancient Greek work, known through later summaries, that provided prose epitomes of the early epic poems of the Trojan cycle and other pre-Homeric epics.
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D.
Renaissance Platonism
Renaissance Platonism was a revival and reinterpretation of Plato’s philosophy during the Renaissance, blending classical Platonic ideas with Christian theology, humanism, and contemporary artistic and intellectual culture.
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E.
God and the Platonic Host
"God and the Platonic Host" is a philosophical work by William Lane Craig that critiques Platonism and defends a theistic account of abstract objects.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius Target entity description: "Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius" refers to the historical controversy in which the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus was charged with borrowing extensively from the earlier thinker Numenius, prompting his disciple Amelius Gentilianus to write a detailed defense of Plotinus’s originality.
-
A.
Theologia Platonica
Theologia Platonica is Marsilio Ficino’s major philosophical treatise that systematically presents a Christianized interpretation of Plato’s metaphysics and the immortality of the soul, foundational to Renaissance Platonism.
-
B.
On the Secret Doctrines of Plato
On the Secret Doctrines of Plato is a lost philosophical treatise by the Middle Platonist Numenius of Apamea that explored and interpreted Plato’s esoteric teachings, often in relation to Pythagorean and Eastern thought.
-
C.
Proclus' Chrestomathy
Proclus' Chrestomathy is a lost ancient Greek work, known through later summaries, that provided prose epitomes of the early epic poems of the Trojan cycle and other pre-Homeric epics.
-
D.
Renaissance Platonism
Renaissance Platonism was a revival and reinterpretation of Plato’s philosophy during the Renaissance, blending classical Platonic ideas with Christian theology, humanism, and contemporary artistic and intellectual culture.
-
E.
God and the Platonic Host
"God and the Platonic Host" is a philosophical work by William Lane Craig that critiques Platonism and defends a theistic account of abstract objects.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (39)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
historical controversy
ⓘ
philosophical dispute ⓘ |
| accusationsDirectedAt |
extent of Plotinus's use of Numenius's terminology
ⓘ
originality of Plotinus's metaphysics ⓘ |
| argumentFocus |
degree of dependence of Plotinus on Numenius
ⓘ
distinctiveness of Plotinus's metaphysical system ⓘ interpretation of Plato ⓘ |
| concerns |
allegations of plagiarism
ⓘ
originality of Plotinus's philosophy ⓘ relationship between Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism ⓘ |
| defendedBy | Amelius Gentilianus ⓘ |
| defenseClaims |
Plotinus transformed and deepened ideas found in Numenius
ⓘ
linked to:
Neoplatonism
similarities are due to shared Platonic tradition rather than direct copying ⓘ |
| documentedIn | Porphyry's Life of Plotinus ⓘ |
| featuresDefenseBy |
claim that similarities arise from common Platonic sources
ⓘ
comparison of doctrines of Plotinus and Numenius ⓘ emphasis on Plotinus's systematic development of Platonic themes ⓘ |
| hasAspect |
continuity between Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism
ⓘ
questions of intellectual property in ancient philosophy ⓘ use of earlier philosophical authorities ⓘ |
| hasOutcome |
ongoing scholarly debate about Plotinus's sources
ⓘ
reinforcement of Plotinus's status as founder of Neoplatonism ⓘ |
| historicalContext | early Neoplatonism in the Roman Empire ⓘ |
| involves |
Amelius Gentilianus
ⓘ
Numenius of Apamea ⓘ |
| locationContext | philosophical circles in 3rd‑century Rome and the Greek East ⓘ |
| mainSubject | Plotinus ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
doctrine of Intellect (Nous)
ⓘ
doctrine of Soul ⓘ doctrine of the One ⓘ exegesis of Plato's dialogues ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
ancient debates over doctrinal priority among Platonists
ⓘ
history of Platonism ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Enneads
ⓘ
writings of Numenius of Apamea ⓘ |
| scholarlyReception |
analysis of testimonia in Porphyry and later doxographers
ⓘ
modern discussions of Plotinus's dependence on Numenius ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 3rd century ⓘ |
| triggeredBy | claims that Plotinus borrowed extensively from Numenius ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius Description of subject: "Plotinus against accusations of plagiarizing Numenius" refers to the historical controversy in which the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus was charged with borrowing extensively from the earlier thinker Numenius, prompting his disciple Amelius Gentilianus to write a detailed defense of Plotinus’s originality.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.