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Single Idea 21811

[from 'The Enneads' by Plotinus, in 29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / b. Soul ]

Full Idea

Soul, for all the worth we have shown to belong to it, is yet a secondary, an image of the Intellectual-Principle [Nous]; reason uttered is an image of reason stored within the soul, and similarly soul is an utterance of the Intellectual-Principle.

Gist of Idea

Even the soul is secondary to the Intellectual-Principle [Nous], of which soul is an utterance

Source

Plotinus (The Enneads [c.245], 5.1.03)

Book Reference

Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.350


A Reaction

It then turns out that Nous is secondary to the One, so there is a hierarchy of Being (which only enters at the Nous stage).

Related Ideas

Idea 21810 The Stoics distinguished spoken logos from logos within the mind [Stoic school, by Plotinus]

Idea 21808 Soul is author of all of life, and of the stars, and it gives them law and movement [Plotinus]