Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 1: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four PeriodsPlotinus
Philosophy
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 1: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods
Plotinus
Plotinus
6. A man who has achieved such a state no longer commits such faults;
for he has become corrected. But his desired goal is not to cease
failing, but to be divine. In case he still allows within himself
the occurrence of some of the above-mentioned unreflecting impulses,
he will be simultaneously divinity and guardian, a double being; or
rather, he will contain a principle of another nature (Intelligence),
whose virtue will likewise differ from his. If, however, he be not
troubled by any of those motions, he will be wholly divine; he will be
one of those divinities "who (as Plato said)[342] form the attending
escort of the First." It is a divinity of such a nature that has
come down from above to dwell in us. To become again what one was
originally, is to live in this superior world. He who has achieved that
height dwells with pure Intelligence, and assimilates himself thereto
as far as possible. Consequently, he feels none of those emotions, nor
does he any more commit any actions, which would be disapproved of by
the superior principle who henceforth is his only master.
THE HIGHER VIRTUES MERGE INTO WISDOM.
For such a being the separate virtues merge. For him, wisdom consists
in contemplating the (essences) possessed by Intelligence, and with
which Intelligence is in contact. There are two kinds of wisdom, one
being proper to intelligence, the other to the soul; only in the latter
may we speak of virtue. In the Intelligence exists only the energy (of
thought), and its essence. The image of this essence, seen here below
in a being of another nature, is the virtue which emanates from it.
In Intelligence, indeed, resides neither absolute justice, nor any of
those genuinely so-called virtues; nothing is left but their type. Its
derivative in the soul is virtue; for virtue is the attribute of an
individual being. On the contrary, the intelligible belongs to itself
only, and is the attribute of no particular being.
INCARNATE JUSTICE IS INDIVIDUAL; IF ABSOLUTE, IT IS INDIVISIBLE.
Must justice ever imply multiplicity if it consist in fulfilling its
proper function? Surely, as long as it inheres in a principle with
several parts (such as a human soul, in which several functions may
be distinguished); but its essence lies in the accomplishment of
the function proper to every being, even when inhering in a unitary
principle (such as Intelligence). Absolute and veritable Justice
consists in the self-directed action of an unitary Principle, in which
no parts can be distinguished.
THE HIGHER FORMS OF THE VIRTUES.
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