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
All men say that the soul is in the body, however, because the soul is
not visible, while the body is. Observing the body, and judging that it
is animated because it moves and feels, we say that it has a soul, and
we are thereby led to suppose that the soul is in the body. But if we
could see and feel the soul, and if we could realize that she surrounds
the whole body by the life she possesses, and that she extends around
it equally on all sides till the extremities, we would say that the
soul is in no way in the body, but that on the contrary the accessory
is within its principle, the contained within the container, what flows
within the immovable.
THIS LEAVES THE QUESTION OF THE MANNER OF THE SOUL'S PRESENCE.
21. How would we answer a person who, without himself making any
statements in regard to the matter, should ask us how the soul is
present to the body; whether the whole soul is present to the body in
the same manner, or whether one of her parts is present in one way, and
another in some other way?
THE SOUL IN A BODY AS A PILOT IN A SHIP.
Since none of the comparisons that we have formerly examined seems
to express the relation of the soul to the body, properly we might
say that the soul is in the body as the pilot is in the ship.[131]
This illustration is satisfactory in that it emphasizes the soul's
being separable from the body; but it does not properly indicate the
presence of the soul in the body. If the soul be present in the body
as a passenger in a ship, it would be there only by accident, and the
illustration is not yet satisfactory if changed to the pilot's presence
in the ship he is steering; for the pilot is not present to the whole
of the ship as the whole soul is in the body.[132] One might illustrate
the soul's presence in the body as an art inheres in its instruments;
as, for instance, in the helm, which might be supposed to be alive,
containing the power of steering the ship skilfully. This is still
unsatisfactory, because such an art comes from without. The soul might
indeed be compared to a pilot who should be incarnated in his helm; and
the soul might be in the body as in some natural instrument,[133] so
that the soul would move it at pleasure. This however might still fail
to explain the manner in which the soul would exist in her instrument.
Therefore, though the latter illustration is an improvement on the
former, we must still seek one which closer approaches reality.
THE SOUL PRESENT IN THE BODY AS LIGHT IN AIR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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