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
SOUL AND BODY, BY UNITING, FORM AN INDIVIDUAL AGGREGATE.
6. It would, however, probably be better to put the matter thus: by
their presence, the faculties of the soul cause reaction in the organs
which possess them, so that while they themselves remain unmoved, they
give them the power to enter into movement.[295] In this case, however,
when the living organism experiences suffering, the life-imparting
cause must itself remain impassible, while the passions and energies
belong wholly to that which receives life. In this case, therefore, the
life will not belong exclusively to the soul, but to the conjunction
of the soul and body; or, at least, the latter's life will not be
identical with the soul's, nor will it be the faculty of sensation,
which will feel, but the being in whom that faculty inheres.
SENSATION IMPLIES FEELING SOUL.
If, however, sensation, which is no more than a corporeal emotion,
finds its term in the soul, the soul must surely feel sensation;
therefore it does not occur as an effect of the presence of the faculty
of sensation, for this ignores the feeling agent back of it. Nor is it
the conjunction of soul and body, for unless the faculty of sensation
operate, that aggregate could not feel, and it would then no longer
include as elements either the soul, or the faculty of sensation.
SOUL-LIGHT FORMS ANIMAL NATURE.
7. The aggregate results from the presence of the soul, not indeed that
the soul enters into the aggregate, or constitutes one of its elements.
Out of this organized body, and of a kind of light furnished by
herself, the soul forms the animal nature, which differs both from soul
and body, and to which belongs sensation, as well as all the passions
attributed to the animal.[296]
RELATION OF ANIMAL TO HUMAN NATURE.
If now we should be asked how it happened that "we" feel, we answer:
We are not separated from the organism, although within us exist
principles[297] of a higher kind which concur in forming the manifold
complex of human nature.
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL SENSATION.
As to the faculty of sensation which is peculiar to the soul, it cannot
be the power of perceiving the sense-objects themselves, but only
their typical forms, impressed on the animal by sensation. These have
already somewhat of the intelligible nature; the exterior sensation
peculiar to the animal is only the image of the sensation peculiar to
the soul; which, by its very essence is truer and more real, since it
consists only in contemplating images while remaining impassible.[298]
Ratiocination, opinion and thought, which principally constitute
us,[299] deal exclusively with these images, by which the soul has the
power of directing the organism.
DISTINCTION IN THE WHOLE ORGANISM.
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