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
it, to feel passions that are its consequence, can refer only to the
composite of soul and body. Nothing similar could happen to the soul;
for she is not something compounded out of life and lifelessness;
she is life itself, because her "being" or nature is simple, and is
automatic.
THIRD ENNEAD, BOOK EIGHT.
Of Nature, Contemplation, and of the One.
OF THOUGHT.
12. (1) Thought is not the same everywhere; it differs according to the
nature of every "being." In intelligence, it is intellectual; in the
soul it is rational; in the plant it is seminal; last, it is superior
to intelligence and existence in the principle that surpasses all these.
OF LIFE.
13. (7) The word "body" is not the only one that may be taken in
different senses; such is also the case with "life." There is a
difference between the life of the plant, of the animal, of the soul,
of intelligence, and of super-intelligence. Indeed, intelligible
entities are alive though the things that proceed therefrom do not
possess a life similar to theirs.
OF THE ONE.
14. (8) By (using one's) intelligence one may say many things about the
super-intellectual (principle). But it can be much better viewed by an
absence of thought, than by thought. This is very much the same case as
that of sleep, of which one can speak, up to a certain point, during
the condition of wakefulness; but of which no knowledge of perception
can be acquired except by sleeping. Indeed, like is known only by like;
the condition of all knowledge is for the subject to be assimilated to
the subject.[330]
FOURTH ENNEAD, BOOK TWO.
Of the Nature of the Soul.
15. (1) Every body is in a place; the incorporeal in itself is not in a
place, any more than the things which have the same nature as it.
16. (1) The incorporeal in itself, by the mere fact of its being
superior to every body and to every place, is present everywhere
without occupying extension, in an indivisible manner.
17. (1) The incorporeal in itself, not being present to the body in a
local manner, is present to the body whenever it pleases, that is, by
inclining towards it so far as it is within its nature to do so. Not
being present to the body in a local manner, it is present to the body
by its disposition.
18. (1) The incorporeal in itself does not become present to the body
in "being" nor in hypostatic form of existence. It does not mingle with
the body. Nevertheless, by its inclination to the body, it begets and
communicates to it a potentiality capable of uniting with the body.
Indeed the inclination of the incorporeal constitutes a second nature
(the irrational soul), which unites with the body.
19. (1) The soul has a nature intermediary between the "being" that is
indivisible, and the "being" that is divisible by its union with the
bodies. Intelligence is a "being" absolutely indivisible; the bodies
alone are divisible; but the qualities and the forms engaged in matter
are divisible by their union with the bodies.
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