more on this theme
|
more from this thinker
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
16 ideas
from 'The Enneads'
|
6922
|
Ecstasy is for the neo-Platonist the highest psychological state of man
[Plotinus, by Feuerbach]
|
|
5506
|
If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication
[Plotinus]
|
|
21809
|
Our soul has the same ideal nature as the oldest god, and is honourable above the body
[Plotinus]
|
|
21808
|
Soul is author of all of life, and of the stars, and it gives them law and movement
[Plotinus]
|
|
21811
|
Even the soul is secondary to the Intellectual-Principle [Nous], of which soul is an utterance
[Plotinus]
|
|
21812
|
Being is the product of pure intellect
[Plotinus]
|
|
21813
|
Number determines individual being
[Plotinus]
|
|
21816
|
Soul is the logos of Nous, just as Nous is the logos of the One
[Plotinus]
|
|
21814
|
How can multiple existence arise from the unified One?
[Plotinus]
|
|
21815
|
Because the One is immobile, it must create by radiation, light the sun producing light
[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]
|
|
21825
|
The soul is outside of all of space, and has no connection to the bodily order
[Plotinus]
|
|
21826
|
The Soul reasons about the Right, so there must be some permanent Right about which it reasons
[Plotinus]
|
|
21827
|
The movement of Soul is continuous, but we are only aware of the parts of it that are sensed
[Plotinus]
|
|
21828
|
A person is the whole of their soul
[Plotinus]
|