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
6. Why (if the universal Soul possess the magnitude here attributed
to her), does she not approach some other body (than that which she
animates; that is, some individual body)? It would be this body's
(privilege or duty) to approach the universal Soul, if it be able to
do so; on approaching to her, it receives something, and appropriates
it. But would this body, that would approach the universal Soul, not
already possess her simultaneously with the soul proper to itself,
since these souls (the universal Soul, and the individual soul) do not
appear to differ from each other? The fact is, that as their sensations
differ, so must the passions that they experience likewise differ. The
things are judged to be different, but the judge is the same principle
successively placed in presence of different passions, although it be
not he who experiences them, but the body disposed in some particular
manner. It is as if when some one of us judges both the pleasure
experienced by the finger, and the pain felt by the head. But why does
not our soul perceive judgments made by the universal Soul? Because
this is a judgment, and not a passion. Besides, the faculty that judged
the passion does not say, "I have judged," but it limits itself to
judging. Thus, in ourselves, it is not the sight which communicates its
judgment to the hearing, although both of these senses made separate
judgments; what presides over these two senses is reason, which
constitutes a different faculty. Often reason cognizes the judgment
made by some other (being), while being conscious simultaneously of the
passion it experiences. But this question has been treated elsewhere.
HOW CAN THE SAME PRINCIPLE EXIST IN ALL THINGS?
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