more on this theme     |     more from this thinker

Single Idea 21814

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / e. The One ]

Full Idea

The problem endlessly debated is how, from such a unity as we have declared the One to be, does anything at all come into substantial existence, any multiplicity, dyad or number?

Gist of Idea

How can multiple existence arise from the unified One?

Source

Plotinus (The Enneads [c.245], 5.1.06)

Book Ref

Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.353

A Reaction

This was precisely Aristotle's objection to the One of Parmenides, and especially the problem of the source of movement (which Plotinus also notices).

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]
21814 How can multiple existence arise from the unified One? [Plotinus]
21816 Soul is the logos of Nous, just as Nous is the logos of the 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]