The Phenomenology of the Mystical Experience: Hermeneutic Rationality in Plotinus

Abstract

Historically, the category of ‘mysticism’ has generated major hemeneutical problems, which have enabled
to analyze that experience from different points of view. Neoplatonism–understood as the pinnacle of ancient philosophy–and Plotinus’ philosophy, specifically, welcome a certain experience that is generally considered as a mystical one. Though diff ent studies, we will try to fathom both the ontological and epistemological aspects of the aforesaid experience. Using The Enneads as a primarysource, we will demonstrate that, as far as Plotinus is concerned, this mystical experience entails a hermeneutic rationality rather than a call for irrationalism.