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
In this higher realm, justice consists in directing the action of the
soul towards intelligence; temperance is the intimate conversion of
the soul towards intelligence; courage is the (suggestive fascination)
or impassibility, by which the soul becomes similar to that which it
contemplates; since it is natural for intelligence to be impassible.
Now the soul derives this impassibility from the virtue which hinders
her from sharing the passions of the lower principle with which she is
associated.
EVEN THE LOWER VIRTUES ARE MUTUALLY RELATED.
7. Within the soul the virtues have the same interconnection obtaining
within Intelligence between the types superior to virtue. For
Intelligence, it is thought that constitutes wisdom and prudence;
conversion towards oneself is temperance; the fulfillment of one's
proper function is justice, and the intelligence's perseverance in
remaining within itself, in maintaining itself pure and separated from
matter, is analogous to courage. To contemplate intelligence will
therefore, for the soul, constitute wisdom and prudence, which then
become virtues, and no longer remain mere intellectual types. For the
soul is not identical with the essences she thinks, as is intelligence.
Similarly, the other soul-virtues will correspond to the superior
types. It is not otherwise with purification, for since every virtue is
a purification, virtue exacts preliminary purification; otherwise, it
would not be perfect.
THE HIGHER VIRTUES IMPLY THE LOWER; BUT NOT CONVERSELY.
The possessor of the higher virtues necessarily possesses the
potentiality for the inferior virtues; but the possessor of the lower
does not, conversely, possess the higher. Such are the characteristics
of the virtuous man.
PRUDENCE TO DECIDE WHETHER IT IS POSSIBLE TO POSSESS VIRTUES
UNSYMMETRICALLY?
(Many interesting questions remain). Is it possible for a man to
possess the higher or lower virtues in accomplished reality, or
otherwise (merely theoretically)? To decide that, we would have
individually to examine each, as, for example, prudence. How could
such a virtue exist merely potentially, borrowing its principles
from elsewhere? What would happen if one virtue advanced naturally
to a certain degree, and another virtue to another? What would you
think of a temperance which would moderate certain (impulses), while
entirely suppressing others? Similar questions might be raised about
other virtues, and the arbiter of the degree to which the virtues have
attained would have to be prudence.
THE HOMELY VIRTUES MUST BE SUPPLEMENTED BY DIVINE DISCONTENT.
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