Plotinus

<p><b >Plotinus</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >p</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >l</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɒ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >t</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >aɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >n</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a>; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language" >Greek</a>: Πλωτῖνος; c. 204/5 – 270) was a major <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy" >philosopher</a> of the ancient world. In his philosophy there are three principles: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henology" title="Henology" >the One</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nous" title="Nous" >the Intellect</a>, and the <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/psyche#English" class="extiw" title="wikt:psyche" >Soul</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup> His teacher was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonius_Saccas" title="Ammonius Saccas" >Ammonius Saccas</a> and he is of the Platonic tradition.<sup id="cite_ref-Stanford1_2-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus#cite_note-Stanford1-2" >[2]</a></sup> Historians of the 19th century invented the term <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism" title="Neoplatonism" >Neoplatonism</a><sup id="cite_ref-Stanford1_2-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus#cite_note-Stanford1-2" >[2]</a></sup> and applied it to him and his philosophy which was influential in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Antiquity" title="Late Antiquity" >Late Antiquity</a>. Much of the biographical information about Plotinus comes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyry_(philosopher)" title="Porphyry (philosopher)" >Porphyry</a>'s preface to his edition of Plotinus' <i ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneads" title="Enneads" >Enneads</a></i>. His <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics" title="Metaphysics" >metaphysical</a> writings have inspired centuries of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism" title="Paganism" >Pagan</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_philosophy" title="Christian philosophy" >Christian</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_philosophy" title="Jewish philosophy" >Jewish</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Islamic_philosophy" title="Early Islamic philosophy" >Islamic</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism" title="Gnosticism" >Gnostic</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics" title="Metaphysics" >metaphysicians</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism" title="Mysticism" >mystics</a>.

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<h2 >Major ideas[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plotinus&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Major ideas" >edit</a>]</h2>

<div class="hatnote boilerplate seealso" >See also: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_theory" title="Substance theory" >Substance theory</a></div>

<p >Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henology" title="Henology" >One</a>", containing no division, multiplicity or distinction; beyond all categories of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being" title="Being" >being</a> and non-being. His "One" "cannot be any existing thing", nor is it merely the sum of all things [compare the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism" title="Stoicism" >Stoic</a> doctrine of disbelief in non-material existence], but "is prior to all existents". Plotinus identified his "One" with the concept of 'Good' and the principle of 'Beauty'. [I.6.9]

His "One" concept encompassed thinker and object. Even the self-contemplating intelligence (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noesis" title="Noesis" class="mw-redirect" >noesis</a> of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nous" title="Nous" >nous</a>) must contain <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism" title="Dualism" >duality</a>. "Once you have uttered 'The Good,' add no further thought: by any addition, and in proportion to that addition, you introduce a deficiency." [III.8.11] Plotinus denies <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience" title="Sentience" >sentience</a>, self-awareness or any other action (<i>ergon</i>) to the One [V.6.6]. Rather, if we insist on describing it further, we must call the One a sheer potentiality (<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunamis" title="Dunamis" class="mw-redirect" >dynamis</a></i>) or without which nothing could exist. [III.8.10] As Plotinus explains in both places and elsewhere [e.g. V.6.3], it is impossible for the One to be Being or a self-aware Creator God. At [V.6.4], Plotinus compared the One to "light", the Divine <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nous" title="Nous" >Nous</a> (first will towards Good) to the "Sun", and lastly the Soul to the "Moon" whose light is merely a "derivative conglomeration of light from the 'Sun'". The first light could exist without any celestial body.

The One, being beyond all attributes including being and non-being, is the source of the world—but not through any act of creation, willful or otherwise, since activity cannot be ascribed to the unchangeable, immutable One. Plotinus argues instead that the multiple cannot exist without the simple. The "less perfect" must, of necessity, "emanate", or issue forth, from the "perfect" or "more perfect". Thus, all of "creation" emanates from the One in succeeding stages of lesser and lesser perfection. These stages are not temporally isolated, but occur throughout time as a constant process. Later Neoplatonic philosophers, especially Iamblichus, added hundreds of intermediate beings as emanations between the One and humanity; but Plotinus' system was much simpler in comparison.

The One is not just an intellectual conception but something that can be experienced, an experience where one goes beyond all multiplicity.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus#cite_note-8" >[8]</a></sup> Plotinus writes, "We ought not even to say that he will <i>see</i>, but he will <i>be</i> that which he sees, if indeed it is possible any longer to distinguish between seer and seen, and not boldly to affirm that the two are one."<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus#cite_note-9" >[9]</a></sup></p>

<h3 >Emanation by the One[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plotinus&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Emanation by the One" >edit</a>]</h3>

<p >Plotinus offers an alternative to the orthodox <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity" >Christian</a> notion of creation <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_nihilo" title="Ex nihilo" >ex nihilo</a></i> (out of nothing), which attributes to God the deliberation of mind and action of a will, although Plotinus never mentions Christianity in any of his works. Emanation <i>ex deo</i> (out of God), confirms the absolute transcendence of the One, making the unfolding of the cosmos purely a <i>consequence</i> of its existence; the One is in no way affected or diminished by these emanations. Plotinus uses the analogy of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun" title="Sun" >Sun</a> which emanates light indiscriminately without thereby diminishing itself, or reflection in a mirror which in no way diminishes or otherwise alters the object being reflected.

The first emanation is <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nous" title="Nous" >Nous</a></i> (Divine Mind, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos" title="Logos" >Logos</a></i>, Order, Thought, Reason), identified metaphorically with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge" title="Demiurge" >Demiurge</a> in Plato's <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timaeus(dialogue)" title="Timaeus (dialogue)" >Timaeus</a></i>. It is the first <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will(philosophy)" title="Will (philosophy)" >Will</a> toward Good. From <i>Nous</i> proceeds the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_mundi_(spirit)" title="Anima mundi (spirit)" class="mw-redirect" >World Soul</a>, which Plotinus subdivides into upper and lower, identifying the lower aspect of Soul with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature" title="Nature" >nature</a>. From the world soul proceeds individual <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human" title="Human" >human</a> souls, and finally, matter, at the lowest level of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_being" title="Chain of being" class="mw-redirect" >being</a> and thus the least <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfection" title="Perfection" >perfected</a>level of the cosmos. Despite this relatively pedestrian assessment of the material world, Plotinus asserted the ultimately divine nature of material creation since it ultimately derives from the One, through the mediums of<i>nous</i> and the world soul. It is by the Good or through beauty that we recognize the One, in material things and then in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forms" title="Forms" class="mw-redirect" >Forms</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus#cite_note-10" >[10]</a></sup>

The essentially devotional nature of Plotinus' philosophy may be further illustrated by his concept of attaining ecstatic union with the One (<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henosis" title="Henosis" >henosis</a></i>). Porphyry relates that Plotinus attained such a union four times during the years he knew him. This may be related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_(spiritual)" title="Enlightenment (spiritual)" >enlightenment</a>, liberation, and other concepts of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism" title="Mysticism" >mystical union</a> common to many Eastern and Western traditions.

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<h3 >The true human and happiness[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plotinus&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: The true human and happiness" >edit</a>]</h3>

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<p >The philosophy of Plotinus has always exerted a peculiar fascination upon those whose discontent with things as they are has led them to seek the realities behind what they took to be merely the appearances of the sense.</p>

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<div ><i>The philosophy of Plotinus: representative books from the Enneads</i>, p. vii<sup id="cite_ref-Plotinus1950_11-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus#cite_note-Plotinus1950-11" >[11]</a></sup></div>

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<p >Authentic human happiness for Plotinus consists of the true human identifying with that which is the best in the universe. Because happiness is beyond anything physical, Plotinus stresses the point that worldly fortune does not control true human happiness, and thus “… there exists no single human being that does not either potentially or effectively possess this thing we hold to constitute happiness.” (Enneads I.4.4) The issue of happiness is one of Plotinus’ greatest imprints on Western thought, as he is one of the first to introduce the idea that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia" title="Eudaimonia" >eudaimonia</a> (happiness) is attainable only within consciousness.

The true human is an incorporeal contemplative capacity of the soul, and superior to all things corporeal. It then follows that real human happiness is independent of the physical world. Real happiness is, instead, dependent on the metaphysical and authentic human being found in this highest capacity of Reason. “For man, and especially the Proficient, is not the Couplement of Soul and body: the proof is that man can be disengaged from the body and disdain its nominal goods.” (Enneads I.4.14) The human who has achieved happiness will not be bothered by sickness, discomfort, etc., as his focus is on the greatest things. Authentic human happiness is the utilization of the most authentically human capacity of contemplation. Even in daily, physical action, the flourishing human’s “…Act is determined by the higher phase of the Soul.” (Enneads III.4.6) Even in the most dramatic arguments Plotinus considers (if the Proficient is subject to extreme physical torture, for example), he concludes this only strengthens his claim of true happiness being metaphysical, as the truly happy human being would understand that which is being tortured is merely a body, not the conscious self, and happiness could persist.

Plotinus offers a comprehensive description of his conception of a person who has achieved eudaimonia. “The perfect life” involves a man who commands reason and contemplation. (Enneads I.4.4) A happy person will not sway between happy and sad, as many of Plotinus’ contemporaries believed. Stoics, for example, question the ability of someone to be happy (presupposing happiness is contemplation) if they are mentally incapacitated or even asleep. Plotinus disregards this claim, as the soul and true human do not sleep or even exist in time, nor will a living human who has achieved eudaimonia suddenly stop using its greatest, most authentic capacity just because of the body’s discomfort in the physical realm. “…The Proficient’s will is set always and only inward.” (Enneads I.4.11)

Overall, happiness for Plotinus is "...a flight from this world's ways and things." (Theat 176AB) and a focus on the highest, i.e. Forms and The One.</p>

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Plotinus

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