366 SELECTED GREAT FIGURESthe topic of creation; in the Introduction, he lists twenty-five propositions derived
from and summarizing Aristotle’s philosophy.
Philo [approximately 20 BCE–50 CE] One might begin with On the Creation
and On the Unchangeableness of God.
Plato [429–347 BCE] One might begin by reading his discussion of the
immortality of the soul in the Phaedo [esp. 78B–80C] and his discussion of an early
version of the argument from design for God’s existence in the Timaeus.
Plotinus [204–270 CE] One might begin with The Enneads, III, 7 on eternity and
time, and IV, 7 on the immortality of the soul; VI deals with the kinds of being.
Ramanuja [1017–1137 CE] One might begin with his Brahma-Sutra-Bhasya.
Shankara [700–800 CE] One might begin with his Brahma-Sutra-Bhasya; a
sutra is a principle (literally, a thread) and the principles of Vedanta are believed to
have been collected by Badarayana into a work on which later followers of Vedanta
comment.
Baruch Spinoza [1633–1677 CE] One might begin with his Ethics, Book I.