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
3. There is a third kind of virtues, which are superior to the civil
and purificatory virtues, the "virtues of the soul that contemplates
intelligence." "Here prudence and wisdom consist in contemplating
the "beings" or essences contained by intelligence; justice consists
in the soul's fulfilling of her characteristic function; that is, in
attaching herself to intelligence and to direct her activity thither.
Temperance is the intimate conversion of the soul towards Intelligence,
while courage is the impassibility by which the soul becomes
assimilated to what she contemplates, since the soul's nature is to be
impassible.[326] These virtues are as intimately concatenated as the
other (lower forms)."
4. There is a fourth kind of virtues, the "exemplary virtues," which
reside within intelligence. Their superiority to the virtues of the
soul is the same as that of the type to the image; for intelligence
contains simultaneously all the "beings" or essences which are the
types of lower things. "Within intelligence, prudence is the science;
wisdom is the thought, temperance is the conversion towards oneself;
justice is the accomplishment of one's characteristic function;
courage is the identity of intelligence, its perseverance in purity,
concentrated within itself, in virtue of its superiority."[327]
We thus have four kinds of virtues: 1, the exemplary virtues,
characteristic of intelligence, and of the "being" or nature to which
they belong; 2, the virtues of the soul turned towards intelligence,
and filled with her contemplation; 3, the virtues of the soul that
purifies herself, or which has purified herself from the brutal
passions characteristic of the body; 4, the virtues that adorn the
man by restraining within narrow limits the action of the irrational
part, and by moderating the passions. "He who possesses the virtues of
the superior order necessarily (potentially) possesses the inferior
virtues. But the converse does not occur."[328] "He who possesses
the superior virtues will not prefer to practice the lower virtues
because of the mere possession thereof; he will practice them only
when circumstances will invite (it). The objects, indeed, differ with
the kind of virtues. The object of the civil virtues is to moderate
our passions so as to conform our conduct to the laws of human nature.
That of the purificatory virtues is to detach the soul completely from
the passions. That of the contemplative virtues is to apply the soul
to intellectual operations, even to the extent of no longer having to
think of the need of freeing oneself from the passions. Last, that of
the exemplary virtues is similar to that of the other virtues. Thus
the practical virtues make man virtuous; the purificatory virtues
make man divine, or make of the good man, a protecting deity; the
contemplative virtues deify; while the exemplary virtues make a man
the parent of divinities. We should specially apply ourselves to
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