PLOTINUS

Neoplatonic philosopher; b. probably in Upper Egypt, a.d. 205; d. Rome, 270. Plotinus's race is not known, but by education and cultural background he was thoroughly Greek, as the evidence of his own writings shows. He came to Alexandria to study philosophy in

232, but could find no one to hold his interest until someone took him to hear Ammonius Saccas, a former Christian, with whom he remained 11 years. Fellow pupils of his were the two Origens, one a pagan Neoplatonist, and the other a future Christian theologian. Thus, Christianity was in some way associated with the very beginnings of neoplatonism, but too little is known of Ammonius Saccas to ascertain how much his Christian upbringing may have influenced his teaching and, indirectly, the works of his more famous pupil, Plotinus. At any rate, Ammonius seems to have reconciled the teachings of plato and aristotle, perhaps after the manner of the Middle Platonists (see platonism).

Character of Thought. In 243 Plotinus joined an expedition by the Emperor Gordian to the East, in the hope of making contact with Persian and Indian philosophers; but Gordian was murdered and Plotinus escaped to Antioch. He never made any contact with Eastern thought, and the balance of opinion among modern Neo-platonic scholars seems to find his entire system readily intelligible in terms of Greek philosophy, without postulating the introduction of Eastern elements. Plotinus came to Rome in 244 and taught philosophy until his death from a painful form of disease. From 254 onward he wrote, not a complete system, but tentative discussions of central points in his system, which have been rather arbitrarily arranged by his pupil porphyry into six groups of nine treatises called Enneads.

The thought of Plotinus is a final synthesis of various elements of greek philosophy. It expressly claims to follow the philosophy of Plato and merely to make explicit what was already implicit in his Dialogues and Letters (cf. 5.1.8), but it incorporates a great deal from Aristotle (especially through his great 2d-century commentator, Alexander of Aphrodisias), and from stoicism, Neo-Pythagoreanism, and Middle Platonism. In fact, it may be regarded as the culmination of a movement toward the conflation of the various Greek schools of thought that began in the 1st century b.c., and gradually developed over the 1st and 2d centuries a.d. Hence Plotinus is not in the literal sense a Platonist, but in the wider sense of tradition, influence, and general viewpoint he most certainly is.

Teaching. For Plotinus the first substantial principle or hypostasis is the One or the Good. The double title reflects the influence of both Neo-Pythagoreanism and Middle Platonism, and ultimately of Plato himself, whose preoccupations were both ethical and mathematical. This first principle is also termed God and is beyond Being (following the Republic 509B).

Emanation. Next, by a process of necessary emanation, comes nous or intellect, also referred to as divine, in which the whole world of ideas or forms is contained. It is on this level that being, which always entails some multiplicity, and life appear. From intellect, in turn, comes soul, which at its highest level belongs to the world of intellect. The world-soul forms and rules the material universe, and at its lower level, where it acts as a principle of life and growth, receives the name of nature, which is almost a distinct fourth hypostasis. Each of these principles has proceeded from the previous, and then turned back in contemplation of it in order to be fully constituted, according to a law of abiding, procession, and reversion. But the last principle is too weak to produce anything further than the forms immanent in bodies, beneath which exists only formless matter.

Matter. This material visible world is therefore good, as emanating ultimately from the Good, but unformed matter is evil, in the ontological sense of lacking form, definition, or shape (1.8.3). Moral evil consists in the assimilation of the soul to matter, with all that this entails in terms of deficiency. Evil is simply the complete lack of good (1.8.5; 2.4.16). Some critics have taken matter in Plotinus to be a separate principle of evil that almost introduces a Manichaean dualism into his system, but a careful reading of the relevant texts does not seem to justify this conclusion (e.g., 4.8.6, 18–24).

Soul. Individual human souls are one with the universal soul, but with distinct identity, and descend by destiny into the body. Plotinus harmonizes the seemingly opposed views that the soul's entry into the body is somehow a fall, and yet at the same time for the benefit of the universe (4.8.5). But human souls are only expressions on the level of Soul of particular intellects within the sphere of intellect, and so man's highest and most real point never descends into union with the body. Each human soul has three levels—the transcendent intellect, the intermediate soul, and the lowest soul that immediately gives life to the body. Whether one's life is to be virtuous or not depends upon the decision of the intermediate soul, either to return in contemplation to the sphere of intellect, or to devote itself to the needs and cravings of the body.

Contemplation. The process of return to contemplation is much as Plato described it, the most suitable souls being those of the musician, the lover, and the philosopher. The first two still need to learn detachment from particular images of beauty, but the last can go straight on to the study of mathematics and then dialectic—the complete knowledge of the world of forms within the unity of intellect. One is led to this state of intellectual contemplation by the practice of the virtues—practical wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. In their normal exercise these are civic virtues, but as specially directed toward detachment from the body they become higher virtues or purifications (1.2.3). The purified soul can rise still higher and be united to the One by the intellect, although only intermittently while it is still in this life (4.8.1). This union is beyond thought or expression in word; it is a unity of love in which the lover is no longer conscious of any distinction between him and the beloved. It is the simplicity of a single glance, and once attained all else seems worthless in comparison with it (6.7.34–36).

Influence. The philosophy of Plotinus immediately became dominant in the Greco-Roman world of the later Empire. Its terminology was used in the definitions of the Trinity at Constantinople in a.d. 381 with this difference: that for Plotinus procession entails inferiority, whereas the Christian Trinity is a procession of equals. St. augustine found his inspiration in Plotinian thought, which led him out of the despair of manichaeism and skepticism. Perhaps most important of all, the psychology of Plotinus became, via the medium of proclus and pseudo-dionysius, the accepted framework of mystical theology, again with a difference. For Plotinus, the human soul at its highest level never descends into union with the body (a point upon which Proclus, following iamblichus, disagreed with him); thus it can by its own efforts return to the contemplative life of Intellect and even to union with the One, whereas, for the Christian mystic, the mind may be raised to the contemplation of God only by the freely bestowed grace or gift of union. However, the faculty of Nous was widely accepted as the nurtural vehicle of this grace by such authors as hugh of saint-victor and richard of saint-victor, St. bonaventure, J. tauler, and the Flemish and Spanish mystics.

See Also: neoplatonism; emanationism; monism.

Bibliography: Opera, ed, p. henry and h. r. schwyzer, 2 v. (Paris 1951–59); The Enneads, tr. s. mackenna (3d ed. New York 1962); The Enneads, tr. a. h. armstrong (Loeb Classical Library; London-New York-Cambridge, Mass. 1912–). h. r. schwyzer, Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. g. wissowa et al. (Stuttgart 1893–) 21:471–592. a. h. armstrong, Plotinus (London 1953); The Architecture of the Intelligible Universe in the Philosophy of Plotinus (Cambridge, Eng. 1940). É. brÉhier, The Philosophy of Plotinus, tr. j. thomas (Chicago 1958). m. p. de gandillac, La Sagesse de Plotin (Paris 1952). j. trouillard, La Procession Plotinienne (Paris 1956); La Purification Plotinienne (Paris 1956). p. merlan, From Platonism to Neo-platonism (2d ed. The Hague 1960); Monopsychism, Mysticism, Metaconsciousness (The Hague 1963). e. r. dodds et al., Les Sources de Plotin (Geneva 1960).

[w. h. o'neill]