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
But why do not all the powers of the soul act everywhere? Now if we
consider the Soul which is one everywhere, we find that sensation is
not similar in all its parts (that is, in all the individual souls);
that reason is not in all (but in certain souls exclusively); and that
the vegetative power is granted to those beings who do not possess
sensation, and that all these powers return to unity when they separate
from the body.
THE BODY'S POWER OF GROWTH IS DERIVED FROM THE WHOLE, AND THE SOUL; BUT
NOT FROM OUR SOUL.
If, however, the body derive its vegetative power from the Whole and
from this (universal) Soul which is one, why should it not derive it
also from our soul? Because that which is nourished by this power forms
a part of the universe, which possesses sensation only at the price of
"suffering." As to the sense-power which rises as far as the judgment,
and which is united to every intelligence, there was no need for it to
form what had already been formed by the Whole, but it could have given
its forms if these forms were not parts of the Whole which produces
them.
THE UNITY OF THE SOULS IS A CONDITION OF THEIR MULTIPLICITY.
4. Such justifications will preclude surprise at our deriving all
souls from unity. But completeness of treatment demands explanation
how all souls are but a single one. Is this due to their proceeding
from a single Soul, or because they all form a single one? If all
proceed from a single one, did this one divide herself, or did she
remain whole, while begetting the multitude of souls? In this case, how
could an essence beget a multitude like her, while herself remaining
undiminished? We shall invoke the help of the divinity (in solving this
problem); and say that the existence of the one single Soul is the
condition of the existence of the multitude of souls, and that this
multitude must proceed from the Soul that is one.
THE SOUL CAN BEGET MANY BECAUSE SHE IS AN INCORPOREAL ESSENCE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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