Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 2: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four PeriodsPlotinus
Philosophy
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 2: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods
Plotinus
Plotinus
The soul and the exterior object do not therefore suffice (to explain
sensation); for there would be nothing that suffers. There must
therefore be a third term that suffers, that is, which receives the
sense-form, or, shape. This third term must "sympathize," or, share
the passion of the exterior object, it must also experience the same
passion, and it must be of the same matter; and, on the other hand,
its passion must be known by another principle; last, passion must
keep something of the object which produces it, without however being
identical with it. The organ which suffers must therefore be of a
nature intermediary between the object which produces the passion
and the soul, between the sensible and the intelligible, and thus
play the part of a term intermediary between the two extremes, being
receptive on one side, making announcements on the other, and becoming
equally similar to both. The organ that is to become the instrument of
knowledge must be identical neither with the subject that knows, nor
with the object that is known. It must become similar to both of them;
to the exterior object because it suffers, and to the cognizing soul
because the passion which it experiences becomes a form. Speaking more
accurately, the sensations operate by the organs. This results from
the principle asserted above, that the soul isolated from the body can
grasp nothing in the sense-world. As used here, the word "organ" either
refers to the whole body, or to some part of the body fitted to fulfil
some particular function; as in the case of touch or sight. Likewise,
it is easy to see that tools of artisans play a part intermediary
between the mind which judges, and the object which is judged; and that
they serve to discover the properties of substances. For instance, a
(foot) rule, which is equally conformed to the idea of straightness
in the mind, and to the property of straightness in the wood, serves
the artisan's mind as intermediary to judge if the wood he works be
straight.
EXCLUSION OF OTHER SIDE ISSUES.
We have just demonstrated that sensation belongs exclusively to an
embodied soul, and that this implies organs. But we have nothing to
do with the question whether the perceived object must be in contact
with the organ, or whether the sensation can take place at a distance
from the sense-object, by means of an intermediary; as the case of
the fire which is located at a distance from our body, without the
intermediary's suffering in any manner. It happens again where, empty
space serving as intermediary between the eye and the color, one may
well ask whether, to see, it suffice to possess the potentiality proper
to that organ. But it is sure that sensation is some activity of the
soul in a body, or through a body.
ARE THE SENSES GIVEN US ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF UTILITY?
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