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
But if the Soul had such an extension before the body approached
her, if she already filled all space, how can she have no magnitude?
Besides, how could she have been present in the universe when the
latter did not yet exist? Last, being considered indivisible and
non-extended, is she everywhere present without having any magnitude?
If the answer be that she extended herself throughout the body of the
universe without herself being corporeal, the question is not yet
resolved by thus accidentally attributing magnitude to the Soul; for
it would then be reasonable to ask how she grew great by accident. The
Soul could not extend herself in the entire body in the same manner as
quality, as for instance, sweetness or color; for these are passive
modifications of the bodies, so that one must not be astonished to see
a modification spread all over the modified body, being nothing by
itself, inhering in the body, and existing only within it; that is why
the soul necessarily has the same magnitude as the body. Besides, the
whiteness of one part of the body does not share the experience[1] (or,
"passion") experienced by the whiteness of another part; the whiteness
of one part is identical, in respect to species, to the whiteness of
another part; but it is not identical therewith in respect to number;
on the contrary, the part of the soul which is present in the foot is
identical with the portion of the soul present in the hand, as may be
seen in the percepts thereof. Last, what is identical in the qualities
is divisible, while that which is identical in the soul is indivisible;
if it be said to divide, it is in this sense that it is present
everywhere.
THE SOUL WAS CAPABLE OF EXTENSION BEFORE THE EXISTENCE OF THE BODY.
In view of these facts, let us, starting from the very beginning,
explain in a clear and plausible manner, how the soul, being
incorporeal and extended, could, nevertheless, have assumed such an
extension, either before the bodies, or in the bodies. If indeed one
see that she was capable of assuming extension before the bodies
existed, it will be easily understood that she could have done so
within the bodies.
DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSAL BEING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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