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
By the mere fact that it feels by means of the entire body, every
sense-power undergoes division. Since it is present everywhere, it may
be said to be divided. But as, on the other hand, it manifests itself
everywhere as a whole, it cannot really be considered as divided. We
cannot go further than the statement that it becomes divisible in
bodies. Some might object that it was divided only in the sense of
touch. It is however also divided in the other senses, since it is
always the same body that receives it, but only less so. The case is
the same with the power of growth and nutrition; and if appetite have
its seat in the liver, and anger in the heart, these appetites must
be subject to the same conditions. Besides, it is possible that the
body does not receive those appetites in a mixture, or that it receives
them in some other manner, so that they result from some of the
things that the body derives from the soul by participations. Reason
and intelligence, however, are not communicated to the body because
they stand in no need of any organs to fulfil their functions. On the
contrary, they find in them only an obstacle to their operations.
THE SOUL AS A WHOLE OF TWO DISTINCT DIVISIBLE AND INDIVISIBLE PARTS.
Thus the indivisible and the divisible are in the soul two distinct
parts, and not two things mingled together so as to constitute but a
single one. They form a single whole composed of two parts, each of
which is pure and separable from the other by its characteristic power.
If then the part which in the body becomes divisible receives from the
superior part the power of being indivisible, this same part might
simultaneously be divisible and indivisible, as a mixture of divisible
nature and of the (indivisible) power received by it from the higher
part.
E. RELATIONS BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY.
IF FUNCTIONS ARE NOT LOCALIZED THE SOUL WILL NOT SEEM ENTIRELY WITHIN
US.
20. Are the above-mentioned and other parts of the soul localized
in the body, or are some localized, and others not? This must be
considered, because if none of the parts of the soul are localized, and
if we assert that they are nowhere either in or out of the body, the
latter will remain inanimate, and we will not be able to explain the
manner of the operations occurring by help of the organs. If, on the
other hand, we assign a location in the body to certain parts of the
soul, without localizing other parts, the unlocalized parts will seem
not to be within us, and consequently not the whole of our soul will
seem to be in the body.
SPACE IS CORPOREAL; THE BODY IS WITHIN THE SOUL.
Of the soul neither a part nor the whole is in the body as a locality.
The property of space is to contain some body. Where everything is
divided it is impossible for the whole to be in every part. But the
soul is not body, and the soul contains the body rather than the body
contains the soul.
NOR IS THE BODY A VASE, FOR PROXIMATE TRANSMISSION OF THE SOUL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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