Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four PeriodsPlotinus
Philosophy
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods
Plotinus
Plotinus
5. The "living organism" must mean either the thus organized body,
or the common mixture of soul and body, or some third thing which
proceeds from the two first. In either of these three cases the soul
will have to be considered impassible, while the power of experiencing
passions will inhere in something else; or the soul will have to share
the body's passions, in which case the soul will have to experience
passions either identical or analogous to those of the body, so that to
a desire of the animal there will correspond an act or a passion of the
concupiscible appetite.
REFUTATION OF THE (JAMES-LANGE) THEORY OF EMOTIONS.
We shall later on consider the organized body; here we must find how
the conjunction of soul and body could experience suffering. The
theory that the affection of the body modifies it so as to produce a
sensation which itself would end in the soul, leaves unexplained the
origin of sensation. To the theory that suffering has its principle in
this opinion or judgment, that a misfortune is happening to ourselves
or some one related to us, whence results disagreeable emotion first
in the body, and then in the whole living organism,[292] there is this
objection, that it is yet uncertain to which opinion belongs; to the
soul, or to the conjunction of soul and body. Besides, the opinion
of the presence of an evil does not always entail suffering; it is
possible that, in spite of such an opinion, one feels no affliction;
as, for instance, one may not become irritated at believing oneself
scorned; or in experiencing no desire even in the expectation of some
good.
NOT ALL AFFECTIONS COMMON TO SOUL AND BODY.
How then arise these affections common to the soul and the body? Shall
we then say that desire derives from the desire-appetite,[293] anger
from the anger-appetite, or in short, every emotion or affliction from
the corresponding appetite? But even so, they will not be common, and
they will belong exclusively to the soul, or to the body. There are
some whose origin needs the excitation of blood and bile, and that the
body be in some certain state which excites desire, as in physical
love. On the contrary, however, the desire of goodness is no common
affection; it is an affection peculiar to the soul, as are several
others. Reason, therefore, does not allow us to consider all affections
as common to soul and body.
DESIRE, NOT SIMULTANEOUS WITH APPETITE.
Is it possible, however, that for example, in physical love, the
man[294] may experience a desire simultaneously with the corresponding
appetite? This is impossible, for two reasons. If we say that the man
begins to experience the desire, while the corresponding appetite
continues it, it is plain the man cannot experience a desire without
the activity of the appetite. If on the other hand it be the appetite
that begins, it is clear that it cannot begin being excited unless the
body first find itself in suitable circumstances, which is unreasonable.
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