THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE: HERMENEUTIC RATIONALITY IN PLOTINUS

Historically, the category of 'mysticism' has generated major hermeneutical problems, which have enabled to analyze that experience from diffent points of view. Neoplatonism-unders-tood as the pinnacle of ancient philoso-phy- and Plotinus' philosophy, specifi-cally, welcome a certain experience that is generally considered as a mystical one. Th ough diff ent studies, we will try to fathom both the ontological and episte-mological aspects of the aforesaid expe-rience. Using The Enneads as a primary source, we will demonstrate that, as far as Plotinus is concerned, this mystical experience entails a hermeneutic rationality rather than a call for irrationalism.