Inwardness and Infinity of Selfhood: From Plotinus to Augustine

Abstract

Several scholars have drawn attention to the fact that to think of the self in terms of inner space or an inner realm is not universal. It is not an inevitable part of our self-description like perception or mortality, but can be traced back in history, especially to early modern philosophy. While ancient philosophers sometimes talked of an inner man or, rather, human being within (Plato, Republic IX, 589a),1 this was not the primary means to describe the nature of subjects or