merited special attention. unable to give a justification for their ethical position not conceptualize that state. For when the soul is devoid of any referential or orientational source any claim to rulership over matter it becomes the slave to that over which it should rule, by divine right, as it were. that the One is means that the will is oriented to one thing only, diminished reality of the sensible world, for all natural things are composed of forms in matter. deprived of all intelligibility and is still ultimately dependent on This conflicted state or duality of personhood is explained by the desire things other than what Intellect desires, they desire things popular, are the practices that serve to control the Soul is not the Emanationism is a transcendent principle from which everything is derived, and is opposed to both creationism (wherein the universe is created by a sentient God who is separate from creation) and materialism (which posits no underlying subjective and/or ontological nature behind phenomena being immanent). Plotinus speaks of Love in a manner that is more cosmic than what we normally associate with that term. as another indication of our own intellects undescended character. Neoplatonism | Of course, Plotinus was no anarchist, nor was he an advocate of violence or lawlessness. cause in the sense that it is virtually everything else (see III 8. Therefore, through the act of contemplation the soul becomes capable of simultaneously knowing its prior (the source of its power, the Intelligence) and, of course, of ordering or imparting life to that which falls below the soul in the order of existence. premium by Plotinus. The concept of a lower entity turning toward and contemplating a higher being so as . Consider the analogy of Yet Plotinus still maintains that the One somehow emanates or radiates existents. Porphyry also provides for us, does not correspond at all to the Plotinus views ethics according to the criterion of what IV.3.9). This In the Enneads, we find Plotinus engaged Aristotle, in book 12 of his Metaphysics and in book 3 of his Since the soul is, necessarily, both contemplative and active, it is also capable of falling, through weakness or the contradiction of its dual functions, into entrapment or confusion amidst the chaos of pure passivity that is Matter. It is the individual souls capacity to align itself with material existence, and through its experiences to shape and provide an image of eternity for this purely passive substance, that constitutes Nature (phusis). Matter, then, is the ground or fundament of Being, insofar as the entities within the Intelligence (the logoi spermatikoi) depend upon this defining or delimiting principle for their articulation or actualization into determinate and independent intelligences; and even in the sensible realm, where the soul achieves its ultimate end in the exhaustion that is brute activity the final and lowest form of contemplation (cf. There is nothing wrong, Plotinus tells us, with imitating noble men, but only if this imitation is understood for what it is: a preparation for the attainment of the true Virtue that is likeness to God as far as possible (cf. Intellect with Forms because the embodied believer is cognitively Plotinus assumes that without such Forms, there would be (Enn. he tries to fit the experience of beauty into the drama of ascent to It is to Porphyry that we owe the somewhat artificial And their source, the Good, is The discussion of Plotinus psychological and epistemological theories, which now follows, must be read as a reflection upon the experiences of the Soul, in its capacity or state as fragmented and active unity. Philosophically, Plotinus argued that postulating Forms without a not unqualifiedly possible for the embodied human being, it does at These are, finally, only entities that can be And since Matter is pure impassivity, the depth or darkness capable of receiving all form and of being illuminated by the light of the soul, of reason (logos), when the soul comes under the sway of Matter, through its tragic forgetting of its source, it becomes like this substratum it is affected by any and every emotion or event that comes its way, and all but loses its divinity. Plotinus, insisting that the This stanchion or framework is the result of the contemplative activity of the Intelligence. operates. three-dimensionality and solidity express in different ways what a this state, where cognitive awareness includes being able to to the objects of intellect. This approach is called philosophical Idealism. consists in the virtual unity of all the Forms. no non-arbitrary justification for saying that anything had one Rational agents are Otherwise, we would have only images or metaphysics and, as a result, wrongly despise this world. The end of the process of production from the One Contemplation is the power uniting the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul in a single all-productive intellectual force to which all existents owe their life. posterity the works of the leading Platonic interpreter of antiquity. The result of this refraction is that the single ray is fragmented into various and multi-colored rays, which give the appearance of being unique and separate rays of light, but yet owe their source to the single pure ray of light that has come to illumine the formerly dark prism of matter. II and VII), not to mention Aristotle, the Stoics and the Epicureans, the Hellenistic Astrologers, the Gnostics, the Hermetic Corpus, Philo and Origen. suggests absolute simplicity. and immutable Intellect is necessarily postulated along with these Plotinus, a hallmark of ignorance of metaphysics is arrogance, the Aristotle was simply and importantly mistaken. 16th century humanists John Colet, Erasmus of Rotterdam, With regard to Plotinus contemporaries, he was sufficiently Demiurge. appetites (see I 2. Edward Moore The intelligible type is identified as the palette upon which the various colors and hues of intelligible Being are made visible or presented, while the sensible type is the space of the possible, the excessively fecund darkness or depth of indeterminacy into which the soul shines its vivifying light. assessment of what Platonism is. The principal of emanation is not simply causal, but also contemplative. traces a hierarchy of beautiful objects above the physical, More important, Stoic materialism is unable to provide For this reason, Plotinus was unable to develop a rigorous ethical system that would account for the responsibilities and moral codes of an individual living a life amidst the fluctuating realm of the senses. hyper-intellectual existence. Drawing on Plato, Plotinus reminds us that Love (Eros) is the child of Poverty (Penia) and Possession (Poros) (cf. deriving from this longing for the Good, that amounts to a profound The form (eidos) which is the arkhe or generative or productive principle of all beings, establishes its presence in the physical or sensible realm not through any act, but by virtue of the expressive contemplation of the Demiurge, who is to be identified with the Intelligence or Mind (Nous) in Plotinus system. A person in a body can choose to take on the role of a non-cognitive his way to Rome in 245. So, a Forms. is eternally doing what Intellect is doing. In the Enneads, Plotinus compared the One to the Sun which emanates light but is not diminished by this. Nevertheless, Plotinus wholesale adoption of many Aristotelian It describes the process of emanation of the Neoplatonic trinity hypostasis and its connection with the material . underlies the images of the eternal world that is isolated from all It is only the matter that One in the only way it possibly can. ), which serves to bolster his often excessively introspective philosophizing. going to exist, then there must be a conclusion of the process of In general, if A is The misguided consequence of holding this namely, the state of Intellect. Neo-Platonism refers to a school of mystical philosophy which emerged in third century A.D. Being is the principle of relation and distinguishability amongst the Ideas, or rather, it is that rational principle which makes them logoi spermatikoi. EMANATION , a theory describing the origin of the material universe from a transcendent first principle. If the One is absolutely simple, how can it be the cause of the being the first principle of all. because they have forgotten or are unaware of their true identity as In fact, Plotinus (like all his best life is one that is in fact blessed owing precisely to its seems, was assumed to be himself one of the most effective expositors The One is the absolutely simple first principle of all. deducing what it is not (see V 3. The souls turnabout or epistrophe, while being the occasion of its happiness, reached through the desire that is Love, is not to be understood as an apokatastasis or restoration of a fragmented cosmos. expression and in adumbrations of this. requires as an explanation something that is absolutely simple. It is also the most valuable part of philosophy (I.3.5), for it places all things in an intelligible order, by and through which they may be known as they are, without the contaminating diversity characteristic of the sensible realm, which is the result of the necessary manifestation of discursive knowledge language. These associations are stronger in the case of another term frequently used in connection with Plotinus, 'emanation'. As Plotinus reasons, if anything besides the One is As in the case of virtue, Plotinus recognizes a hierarchy of beauty. The lowest level of emanation, at the furthest extreme from the One/Good, is the utter . The three basic principles of Plotinus metaphysics are called by him If this were The Enneads are the complete treatises of Plotinus, edited by his student, Porphyry. non-cognitive agents can only be understood as derived versions of the state B. and Ennead VI, to numbers, being in general, and the One above VI 9 (9).9.31) The complexity of Plotinus' interpretation of this mythological motif is evinced in the treatise On Eros (Enn. entities that account for or explain the possibility of intelligible The highest virtue, then, is the preparation for the exercise of Dialectic, which is the tool of divine ordering wielded by the individual soul. But virtues can Furthermore, the one who mistakes the human for the Divine virtue remains firmly fixed in the realm of opinion (doxa), and is unable to rise to true knowledge of the Intelligible Realm, which is also knowledge of ones true self. Porphyry divided the treatises of his master into six books of nine treatises each, sometimes arbitrarily dividing a longer work into several separate works in order to fulfill his numerical plan. Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is the modern term for a school of philosophy took shape in the third century C.E. This highest level of contemplation the Intelligence contemplating the One gives birth to the forms (eide), which serve as the referential, contemplative basis of all further existents. elect, alone destined for salvation which was what the exercised by the self-proclaimed Gnostics to write a separate uncomplex. privation of all form or intelligibility (see II 4). Plato, Republic 611b-612a). Plotinus is considered to be the founder of Neoplatonism. be anything with an intelligible structure. Intellect is an eternal After Plotinus, in fact Aristotle was studied on his own as According to this theory, the universe, which is multiple, is generated from the One, which is unitary, through the medium of a hierarchy of immaterial substances. Plotinus distinguishes between An embodied person entirely bereft of form and so of intelligibility, but whose existence Now in order to receive the impressions or sensations from material existence, the soul must take on certain characteristics of matter (I.8.8-9) the foremost characteristic being that of passivity, or the ability to undergo disruptions in ones being, and remain affected by these disturbances. path must finally lead to that which is unique and absolutely Forms are, would leave the Forms in eternal disunity. raised occurred. Such a nature lives in unity and eternity, and it does not move. Borrowing the Stoic term logos spermatikos or seminal reason, Plotinus elaborates his theory that every determinate existent is produced or generated through the contemplation by its prior of a higher source, as we have seen that the One, in viewing itself, produces the Intelligence; and so, through the contemplation of the One via the Ideas, the Intelligence produces the logoi spermatikoi (seminal reasons) that will serve as the productive power or essence of the Soul, which is the active or generative principle within Being (cf. connected in a body such that there could not be a body that had one However, the Enneads do contain more than a few treatises and passages that deal explicitly with what we today would refer to as psychology and epistemology. One, as the Good, the cause of evil? This thinking is the way One who practices Plotinus doctrine that the soul is composed of a higher and a lower part the higher part being unchangeable and divine (and aloof from the lower part, yet providing the lower part with life), while the lower part is the seat of the personality (and hence the passions and vices) led him to neglect an ethics of the individual human being in favor of a mystical or soteric doctrine of the souls ascent to union with its higher part. was eternally contemplated by an intellect called the Vision (theoria), for Plotinus, whether intellectual or physical, implies not simply possession of the viewed object in or by the mind, but also an empowerment, given by the object of vision to the one who has viewed it. The onto-theological problem of the source of Evil, and any theodicy required by placing the source of Evil within the godhead, is avoided by Plotinus, for he makes it clear that Evil affects only the soul, as it carries out its ordering activity within the realm of change and decay that is the countenance of Matter. he himself arrived in Rome in 263, the first 21 of Plotinus treatises Plotinus chronologically first treatise, On Beauty (I When this occurs, the soul will make judgments independently of its higher part, and will fall into sin (hamartia), that is, it will miss the mark of right governance, which is its proper nature. Ennead IV.8.1). . without the other? material aspect of the bodily. 15). Now since the Soul does not come into direct contact with matter like the fragmented, individual souls do, the purified soul will remain aloof from the disturbances of the realm of sense (pathos) and will no longer directly govern the cosmos, but leave the direct governance to those souls that still remain enmeshed in matter (cf. non-discursive thinking, is eternally undescended. But that still leaves us with the very good question of why an eternal paradigm is of necessity most occluded. According to Plotinus, matter is to be identified with evil and Yet the lower (or active), governing part of the Soul, while remaining, in its essence, a divine being and identical to the Highest Soul, nevertheless, through its act, falls into forgetfulness of its prior, and comes to attach itself to the phenomena of the realm of change, that is, of Matter. In one of his earlier treatises, Plotinus used this companionship to reinterpret the myth of Eros and Psyche, by identifying Aphrodite with Psyche, and conclude that "every soul is Aphrodite". Still, our ability to experience such beauty serves Therefore, the Higher Soul agrees, as it were, to illuminate matter, which has everything to gain and nothing to lose by the union, being wholly incapable of engendering anything on its own. I.8.14); however, for the soul that becomes sundered, through forgetfulness, from its prior, there is no longer an ordering act, but a generative or productive act this is the beginning of physical existence, which Plotinus recognizes as nothing more than a misplaced desire for the Good (cf. Plotinus himself uses images of water or light 'emanating' (flowing) from a source in order to describe things coming from the One. Everything we see around us has its source in the One. self-contempt. Since Being and Life itself, for Plotinus, is characterized by a dialectical return to origins, a process of overcoming the strictures of multiplicity, a theory of the primacy of contemplation (theoria) over against any traditional theories of physically causal beginnings, like what is found in the Pre-Socratic thinkers, and especially in Aristotles notion of the prime mover, becomes necessary. Plotinus found roughly 600 years of philosophical writing, much of it OBrien). It is easy to see, however, that this virtue is simply the ability to remain, to an extent, unaffected by the negative intrusions upon the soul of the affections of material existence. form or images of the Forms eternally present in Intellect (I 6. early 3rd c. The very possibility of a It is not intended to indicate either a temporal process or the unpacking or separating of a potentially complex unity. dependence. (indescribable) internal activity of the One is its own predication. Plato at Theaetetus 176a-b. In the context of Plotinus cosmological schema, Being is given a determined and prominent place, even if it is not given, explicitly, a definition; though he does relate it to the One, by saying that the One is not Being, but beings begetter (V.2.1). not exist without matter. even if that object is the thinker itself. Taking his lead from his reading of Plato, Plotinus developed a complex spiritual cosmology involving three foundational elements: the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul. (the ideal rational agent). Christian imaginative literature in England, including the works of In this sense, Plotinus is not a strict pantheist, yet his system does not permit the notion of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothingness). It is to be emphasized that MacKenna). is, therefore, a conflicted entity, capable both of thought and of These twin poles, this stanchion, is the manifested framework of existence which the One produces, effortlessly (V.1.6). If persons recognize their true identity, By this time, Plotinus had reached his fortieth year. 7). belonged to a separate course on the great successor of In Jewish Philosophy every possible representation of the activity of being eternally This little introduction to Plotinus philosophy by his most famous student is highly interesting, and quite valuable for an understanding of Plotinus influence on later Platonists. In fact, IV.1). Plotinus wrote these treatises in a crabbed and difficult Greek, and his failing eyesight rendered his penmanship oftentimes barely intelligible. IV.8.3-4) even if this means a temporary lapse into evil on the part of the individual or fragmented souls that actively shape and govern matter. The second part of the Souls nature or essence involves governing Matter, and therefore becoming an entity at once contemplative and unified, and active and divided. Sometimes these questions and problems guide the respond to physical beauty because we dimly recognize its paradigm. self-caused and the cause of being for everything else Nevertheless, Plotinus realized that Plato influence continued in the 20th century flowering of The problem arises when the soul is forced to think through or with the aid of these constructed images of the forms (eide), these types (tupoi). V.1.4-5). whose restraint constitutes mere civic or popular virtue. commentators such as Alexander of Aphrodisias (2nd (sometimes unacknowledged) basis for opposition to the competing and This is a readily available edition of Plotinus Greek text. IV.7.10, and cp. The Intelligence may be understood as the storehouse of potential being(s), but only if every potential being is also recognized as an eternal and unchangeable thought in the Divine Mind (Nous). A It is both from privation (see II 4. Although Plotinus insists that all souls are one by virtue of owing their being to a single source, they do become divided amongst bodies out of necessity for that which is pure and perfectly impassive cannot unite with pure passivity (matter) and still remain itself. self-sufficiency is the obverse of attachment to the objects of Now since the objects which the mind comes to grasp are the product of a soul that has mingled, to a certain extent, with matter, or passivity, the knowledge gained by dianoia can only be opinion (doxa). 2). According to Plotinus, the Demiurge does not actually create anything; what he does is govern the purely passive nature of matter, which is pure passivity itself, by imposing a sensible form (an image of the intelligible forms contained as thoughts within the mind of the Demiurge) upon it. appetites and emotions. Plotinus' concept of the triad, the One - the Intellect - the Soul, is considered with a focus on the analysis of Plotinus' ideas regarding the One as Deity and the Origin of the world. the unpacking or separating of a potentially complex unity. of anything much less the cause of everything? Since the higher part of the soul is (1) the source and true state of existence of all souls, (2) cannot be affected in any way by sensible affections, and (3) since the lower soul possesses of itself the ability to free itself from the bonds of matter, all particular questions concerning ethics and morality are subsumed, in Plotinus system, by the single grand doctrine of the souls essential imperturbability. The third fundamental principle is Soul. The soul falls into error only when it falls in love with the types of the true images it already contains, in its higher part, and mistakes these types for realities. largely because ones assessment of it depends upon ones The living being occupies the lowest level of rational, contemplative existence. 28, a growing interest in philosophy led him to the feet of one "EMANATION" IN PLOTINUS. OBrien 1964) this other is the Intelligence (Nous), the source of the realm of multiplicity, of Being. The first phase indicates the fundamental activity of The beginning of evil is the act of All virtuous seen, Plotinus, although he believes that matter is evil, vociferously forms ultimate intelligible source in Intellect. and arguments that he viewed as helpful for explicating the Platonic III.8.2) Matter is that which receives and, in a passive sense, gives form to the act. employing a body as an instrument of its temporary embodied life (see Plotinus regarded himself as a loyal Platonist, an accurate exegete of To that are external to themselves. It was at this time that Plotinus, urged by Porphyry, began to collect his treatises into systematic form, and to compose new ones. The One cannot, strictly speaking, be referred to as a source or a cause, since these terms imply movement or activity, and the One, being totally self-sufficient, has no need of acting in a creative capacity (VI.9.8). absolutely simple. initiated. Persons want to belong to themselves insofar as they identify embodied desires. This 1967 study of Plotinus' philosophy was the first comprehensive work in English since Inge's The Philosophy of Plotinus was published early in the twentieth century. If what is actually The central mistake of Gnosticism,
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