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Reading Plotinus: a Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism

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Reading Plotinus: a Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism Philosophy C ORRIGAN Purdue University Press Series in the History of Philosophy The titles in this series present well-edited basic texts to be used in courses and seminars and for teachers looking for a succinct exposition of the results of recent research. Each READING volume in the series presents the fundamental ideas of a great philosopher by means of a very thorough and up-to-date commentary on one important text. The edition and PLOTINUS explanation of the text give insight into the whole of the oeuvre, of which it is an integral part. A Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism R Kevin Corrigan EADING Presently a visiting professor in the Humanities at Emory University, Atlanta, Corrigan is also Professor of Classics and Philosophy at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, where he has served as Dean (19911998) and as Director of the Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies Program. P Of Related Interest LOTINUS Platos Phaedrus: The Philosophy of Love by Graeme Nicholson Paperback, ISBN 1-55753-119-6 For other books in this series, see our website (www.thepress.purdue.edu). Kevin Corrigan D 1-55753-234-6 Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana D www.thepress.purdue.edu Reading Plotinus Purdue University Press Series in the History of Philosophy General Editors Adriaan Peperzak Robert Bernasconi Joseph J. Kockelmans Calvin O. Schrag Reading Plotinus A Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism Kevin Corrigan Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana Copyright 2005 by Purdue University. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Corrigan, Kevin. Reading Plotinus : a practical introduction to neoplatonism / Kevin Corrigan. p. cm. -- (Purdue University Press series in the history of philosophy) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-55753-233-8 (casebound) -- ISBN 1-55753-234-6 (pbk.) 1. Plotinus. I. Plotinus. Enneads. English. Selections. II. Title. III. Series. B693.Z7C67 2004 186'.4--dc22 2004006563 Contents Abbreviations ix List of Enneads xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: An Overview of Plotinus’ Thought 7 Texts 1. The hypostases and our relation to them: V, 1 (10) 10–12 7 2. Tracing degrees of unity back to the One. The nature of body, soul, and intellect, and the return to the One: VI, 9 (9) 1–3 9 3. The derivation of everything (from intellect to matter): IV, 8 (6); V, 2 (11) 1, 3–28 12 4. The nature of intellect and soul, and soul’s relation to bodies: IV, 1 (21) 14 5. World soul and individual souls: IV, 3 (27) 6 15 6. The descent and fall of soul: IV, 8 (5) 5 16 7. Matter: II, 5 (25) 5 17 8. Bodiliness: II, 7 (37) 3 18 9. Soul-body: The human being here: VI, 7 (38) 4–5 19 10. Eternity and time: III, 7 (45) 11 20 Commentary 23 1.1 The hypostases 23 1.2 Free spontaneous creativity: The One 26 1.3 The derivation of all things: Procession and conversion 28 1.4 The return to union 30 1.5 Intellect 34 1.6 Soul and the sensible world 38 1.7 The World soul and individual souls 41 1.8 Soul-body 42 1.9 Providence, freedom, and matter 43 1.10 The generation of matter 45 1.11 The descent and fall of soul 46 1.12 Nature, contemplation, eternity, and time 47 1.13 Plotinus, the reader 48 Chapter 2: Plotinus’ Anthropology 51 Text 51 I, 1 (53): What Is the Living Creature and What Is the Human Being? Commentary 60 2.1 Introduction 60 2.2 What does Plotinus mean by the impassibility or unaffectedness of soul? (I, 1 [53] 2 and III 6 [26]) 62 2.3 Do “we” really perceive and do we perceive directly or mediately? (I, 1 (53) 3–7 and other texts) 66 2.4 Do we perceive things or our impressions of things? 68 2.5 How do the affections fit into the overall picture? 70 2.6 Soul-body and beyond (I, 1, 4–7) 72 Chapter 3: The range of Plotinus’ thought: From nature and contemplation to the One 86 Text 86 III, 8 (30): On Nature and Contemplation and the One Commentary 97 3.1 Introduction 97 3.2 Play 102 3.3 Contemplation, action and production: The problem 104 3.4 An animated, freely dependent world (1, 11 ff.) 107 3.5 Activity (energeia) and power (dynamis) 108 3.6 Nature (III, 8, 2) 110 3.7 Logos and Logoi-brothers (III, 8, 2, 27–35) 112 3.8 Matter: From Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics to Plotinus 116 3.9 Logos and action, a way of understanding Neoplatonic contemplative production (III, 8, 3) 120 3.10 The silent speech of nature (III, 8, 4) 123 3.11 Synaesthêsis (III, 4, 15 ff.) 124 3.12 The nature of images and productive art: Plato and Plotinus (III, 8, 4, 39 ff.) 125 3.13 The problem of degrees of reality: Filling and being filled (III, 8, 4–5) 127 3.14 The landscape of soul (III, 8, 5) 129 3.15 Love and beauty (III, 8, 5, 34 ff.) 136 3.16 Walk-about, bending back, and trust (III, 8, 6) 136 3.17 The dialectic of play and seriousness: From the inertia of indifference to kinship of soul (III, 8, 6, 15 ff.) 137 3.18 Plotinus’ theory of creation in context (III, 8, 7, 1–15) 140 3.19 The problem of intellect (III, 8, 8) 143 3.20 Four puzzles: From the drunken circle to haphazard heap (III, 8, 8, 30–48) 151 3.21 The problem of substance in the Enneads 158 3.22 Speaking about the One: The character of a simplicity beyond intellect 163 3.23 Infinity and number (III, 8, 9, 1–6) 174 3.24 Neither intellect nor intelligible object nor ignorant (III, 8, 9, 6–16) 174 3.25 Simple, instantaneous awareness (III, 8, 9, 16–24) 175 3.26 Sound and omnipresence (III, 8, 9, 24–29) 177 3.27 A “backward” intellect (III, 8, 9, 29 ff.) 178 3.28 A power for all things (III, 8, 10, 1–26) 180 3.29 Negative theology and dialectic (III, 8, 10, 26–35) 182 3.30 The simplicity and playfulness of the image (III, 8, 11) 183 3.31 Conclusion: Some answers to frequently asked questions about Plotinian Neoplatonism 185 Chapter 4: A world of beauty, from beautiful things to intelligible shapelessness 189 Text 189 V, 8 (31): On the Intelligible Beauty Commentary 202 4.1 Introduction: The importance and major issues of V, 8 202 4.2 What does “the beautiful” mean? 205 4.3 Why is good proportion and structure not “the beautiful”? 207 4.4 Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? 208 4.5 What is the beauty of art? (V, 8, 1–2) 209 4.6 Why is intelligible beauty bound up with the perception of natural things? (V, 8, 2) 210 4.7 How are beauty, science, and wisdom related? 214 4.8 The Form of the beautiful? 216 4.9 Intelligible beauty and concrete physical things (V, 8, 4–8) 217 4.10 Elements of a reflexive aesthetic theory (V, 8, 1–11) 219 4.11 How does evil fit into this picture? (V, 8, 11) 222 4.12 The limitations of beauty: What role does the One play? 225 Chapter 5: Conclusion: Assessment and Afterlife 228 5.1 Assessment 228 5.2 Afterlife 233 Appendix A: Some key passages from Plato and Aristotle 241 Appendix B: Suggestions for further reading 249 Bibliography 253 Index of Names 277 Index of Subjects 282 Abbreviations AGPh Archiv für Geschichte ANRW: Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt CAG: Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca CQ: Classical Quarterly DK: Diels-Kranz (Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker) EN: Ethica Nicomachea (Aristotle) JHI: Journal of the History of Ideas JHP: Journal of Hellenic Philosophy IPQ: International Philosophical Quarterly LSJ: A Greek-English Lexicon, H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, rev. and aug. H. S. Jones LthPh: Laval Théologique et Philosophique PA: The Parts of Animals (Aristotle) RHR: Revue de l’Histoire des Religions Rmeta: Review of Metaphysics SVF: Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Fragments of the Ancient Stoics) ix The Enneads The following is a list of the treatises that make up the Enneads with their titles. The chronological order is indicated in brackets. I.1 (53) what is the living being and what is the human being? I.2 (19) on virtues I.3 (20) on dialectic I.4 (46) on well-being I.5 (36) on whether well-being increase with time I.6 (1) on beauty I.7 (54) on the first Good and the other goods I.8 (51) on what are evils and from where they come I.9 (16) on the reasonable departure from life II.1 (40) on the universe II.2 (14) on the circular motion II.3 (52) whether the stars are causes II.4 (12) on the two matters II.5 (25) on what exists potentially and what actually II.6 (17) on substance or on quality II.7 (37) on complete transfusion II.8 (35) on sight or on how distant objects appear small II.9 (33) against the gnostics III.1 (3) on destiny III.2 (47) on providence (I) III.3 (48) on providence (II) III.4 (15) on our allotted guardian spirit III.5 (50) on love III.6 (26) on the impassibility of things without body III.7 (45) on eternity and time III.8 (30) on nature and contemplation and the one III.9 (13) various considerations IV.1 (21) on the essence of the soul (I) IV.2 (4) on the essence of the soul (II) IV.3 (27) on difficulties about the soul (I) IV.4 (28) on difficulties about the soul (II) IV.5 (29) on difficulties about the soul (III, or on sight) IV.6 (41) on sense-perception and memory IV.7 (2) on the immortality of the soul IV.8 (6) on the descent of the soul into bodies IV.9 (8) if all souls are one V.1 (10) on the three primary hypostases V.2 (11) on the origin and order of the beings which come after the first V.3 (49) on the knowing hypostases and that which is beyond V.4 (7) how that which is after the first comes from the first, and on the one V.5 (32) that the intelligibles are not outside the intellect, and on the good xi xii The Enneads V.6 (24) on the fact that that which is beyond being does not think, and on what is the primary and what the secondary thinking principle V.7 (18) on the question
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