more on this theme | more from this text
Full Idea
Man is not merely a part (the higher part) of the Soul but the total.
Gist of Idea
A person is the whole of their soul
Source
Plotinus (The Enneads [c.245], 5.1.12)
Book Ref
Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.360
A Reaction
The soul is psuche, which includes the vegetative soul. The higher part is normally taken to be reason. This seems pretty close to John Locke's view of the matter.
Related Ideas
Idea 1650 For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates]
Idea 1378 My little finger is part of me if I am conscious of it [Locke]
| 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] |