Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four PeriodsPlotinus
Philosophy
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods
Plotinus
Plotinus
6. However, could we not say that the soul does not have all that she
has through her being, in this sense, that in her we must distinguish
on one hand essence, and on the other some kind of essence? If the soul
possess such a kind of essence, and if this kind of essence come to her
from without, the whole will no longer be the being of the soul so far
as she is soul; only partially will it be the being of the soul, and
not in totality. Besides, what would be the essence of the soul without
the other things which constitute her being? Will the essence be the
same for the soul as for the stone? Will we not rather have to insist
that this essence of the soul derives from her very being; that this
essence is her source and principle; or rather, that it is all that the
soul is, and consequently is life; and finally that in the soul life
and essence fuse?
SOUL UNITY DOES NOT RESEMBLE THE UNITY OF A REASON, INCLUDING PLURALITY.
Shall we say that this unity resembles that of a "reason" (of a
form)? No. The substance of the soul is one; but such unity does not
exclude duality or even plurality; for it admits of all the attributes
essential to the soul.
THE SOUL IS BOTH BEING AND LIFE.
Should we say that the soul is both being and life, or that she
possesses life? To say that the soul possesses life would mean that the
possessor is not inherently alive, or that life does not inhere in her
"being." If then we cannot say that one of the two possesses the other,
we shall have to recognize that both are identical, or that the soul is
both one and manifold, in her unity embracing all that appears in her;
that in herself she is one, but manifold in respect to other things;
that, although she be one by herself, she makes herself multiple by
her movement; that, while forming a whole which is one, she seeks to
consider herself in her multiplicity. So Essence also does not remain
unitary, because its potentiality extends to all it has become. It is
contemplation that makes it appear manifold, the necessary thought has
multiplied it. If it appear as one only, it is only because it has not
yet thought, and it really is still only one.
THE FIRST TWO GENERA ARE BEING AND MOVEMENT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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