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
they emanate from the universal (Being) as from a brilliant light would
emanate another less brilliant light; but the beings inhere in these
potentialities, as there could be no potentiality without being.
THE UNIVERSAL SOUL IS EVERYWHERE ENTIRE, INCLUDING SOULS SPLIT
INFINITELY.
Among such potentialities, which are necessarily conformable to each
other, the universal Soul must be the same everywhere, or, if she be
not absolutely everywhere, she must, at least, in every place, be
entire without division, as in one and the same body. In this case, why
could she not also be thus in the whole universe? If we were to suppose
that each particular soul were divided into infinity, the universal
Soul will no longer be entire, and, as a result of this division,
she will become completely impotent. Then, as there will be entirely
different powers in different parts of the world, there will be no
more sympathy among souls. Last, the image, separated from the essence
it represents, and the light, separated from the source of which it
is only a weakened emanation, could no longer subsist; for in general
everything that derives its existence from anything else and its image
could no longer subsist without its model. Likewise, these powers
which radiate from the universal Soul would cease to be if they found
themselves separated from their principle. If so, the Principle which
begets these powers will exist everywhere they are; consequently, from
this standpoint also, the universal (Being) must be everywhere present
as a whole, without undergoing any divisions.
THE IMAGE IS BOUND TO ITS MODEL BY RADIATION.
10. It may be objected that the image need not necessarily be attached
to its model; for there are images that subsist in the absence of their
model from which they are derived. For instance, when the fire ceases,
the heat that proceeds from it does not any the less remain in the
warmed object. The relation between this image and its model should be
understood as follows. Let us consider an image made by a painter. In
this case, it is not the model who made the image, but the painter;
and even so it is not even the real image of the model, even if the
painter had painted his own portrait; for this image did not arise from
the body of the painter, nor from the represented form, nor from the
painter himself, but it is the product of a complex of colors arranged
in a certain manner. We, therefore, do not really here have the
production of an image, such as is furnished by mirrors, waters, and
shadows. Here the image really emanates from the pre-existing model,
and is formed by it, and could not exist without it. It is in this
manner that the inferior potentialities proceed from the superior ones.
SOULS ARE AS IMMORTAL AS THE ONE FROM WHOM THEY PROCEED.
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