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Single Idea 21812

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / f. Primary being ]

Full Idea

Intellectual-Principle [Nous] by its intellective act establishes Being.

Gist of Idea

Being is the product of pure intellect

Source

Plotinus (The Enneads [c.245], 5.1.04)

Book Ref

Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.351

A Reaction

This is a surprising view - that there is something which is prior to Being - but I take it to be Plotinus giving primacy to Plato's Form of the Good (a pure ideal), ahead of the One of Parmenides (which is Being).

The 15 ideas with the same theme [concept of a mode of being prior to all others]:

21820 Parmenides at least saw Being as the same as Nous, and separate from the sensed realm [Parmenides, by Plotinus]
21822 Anaxagoras's concept of supreme Mind has a simple First and a multiple One [Anaxagoras, by Plotinus]
21821 Plato's Parmenides has a three-part theory, of Primal One, a One-Many, and a One-and-Many [Plato, by Plotinus]
21818 Being depends on the Good, which is not itself being, but superior to being [Plato]
11286 Primary being must be more than mere indeterminate ultimate subject of predication [Politis on Aristotle]
11234 The three main candidates for primary being are particular, universal and essence; essence is the answer [Aristotle, by Politis]
11279 Primary being is either universals, or the basis of predication, or essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
11293 Non-primary beings lack essence, or only have a derived essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
11297 Primary being is both the essence, and the subject of predication [Aristotle, by Politis]
11232 Primary being ('proté ousia') exists in virtue of itself, not in relation to other things [Aristotle, by Politis]
21812 Being is the product of pure intellect [Plotinus]
21817 The One does not exist, but is the source of all existence [Plotinus]
21824 The One is a principle which transcends Being [Plotinus]
22103 Being is basic to thought, and all other concepts are additions to being [Aquinas]
6920 Being posits essence, and my essence is my being [Feuerbach]