RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
Plotinus is extremely important for Christian theology in that he provided a grammar that Trinitarians would use (though not always without problems). Enneads demonstrates Plotinus to be a remarkably sophisticated thinker. We must demur from him at times as he does create problems and if pressed to an extreme he must see evil and creation as necessary.
His methodology is the dialectic. It is “The power of pronouncing upon things how they are and differ with others” (I.III.4). It is combining and Dividing until one reaches perfect Intellection. It reminds one of a mystical Ramism.
Towards the end of the first Ennead we see the outlines of his metaphysics. All living things proceed from one principle but possess life in different degrees. The Intellect contains the soul (soul is a lower part; I.IV.10). The soul reflects and refracts--as a mirror of sorts--the higher images from the Intellect.
When Plotinus deals with matter I don’t think he means mere corporeality. It seems to be the chaotic substratum of flux and difference. It is the manifestation of flux and disorder.
What accounts for unity within the flux of the cosmos? How can matter serve the immortality of the cosmos (II.1.3) Answer: the flux is not outgoing. Does Plotinus mean that the flux doesn’t emanate like the higher orders of being do? Matter is undetermined, void of shape (II.IV.2). Matter suggests movement and differentiation. By motion, it is a cleavage. Matter only has real being in the intelligible realm. Yet, how can the realm of form have matter? Plotinus suggests that the matter there is a type of complete unity. But this seems like too easy an answer.
How does Plotinus get out of this problem? He gives a heroic attempt and in it we see just how powerful his thought is. Let’s look at his epistemology. Likeness knows by likeness. The indeterminate knows the indeterminate. How can soul know matter? The indeterminate must have some footing in the realm of form. “In knowing matter it must have an experience, the impact of the shapeless” (II.IV.10).
Matter = Indeterminacy = The Void = Nonbeing (?).
To clarify, matter isn’t corporeality, but the base of the identity to all that is composite.
While his metaphysics fails at points, he does see the futility in a strict materialism. A cause penetrates all things. This cause cannot be material in origin, since matter = disorder. All things are brought to eventuation through causes. Unfortunately, he falls short of a robust creational metaphysics. Matter is correlative with evil. Conflict and destruction are inevitable (III.II.4).
What is God for Plotinus? (Here I am following Rowan Williams’ Arius: Heresy and Tradition). Can the One have self-understanding, since he would be both subject and object--an active mind working on a passive object (Williams 199ff). The problem here is that the Form of the one is not simply a structure, but a structuring principle. Thinking and understanding involve distance and duplication. Understanding is complex because it seeks itself in Otherness (201). Therefore, apparently, when the nous knows itself, it produces multiplicity of the world of ideas, which separates itself from the one.
Conclusion:
Plotinus is a powerful thinker of the first order. As a philosopher, he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Plato and Augustine. Further, he provides the context surrounding much Nicene reflection, even if only as a foil.
His methodology is the dialectic. It is “The power of pronouncing upon things how they are and differ with others” (I.III.4). It is combining and Dividing until one reaches perfect Intellection. It reminds one of a mystical Ramism.
Towards the end of the first Ennead we see the outlines of his metaphysics. All living things proceed from one principle but possess life in different degrees. The Intellect contains the soul (soul is a lower part; I.IV.10). The soul reflects and refracts--as a mirror of sorts--the higher images from the Intellect.
When Plotinus deals with matter I don’t think he means mere corporeality. It seems to be the chaotic substratum of flux and difference. It is the manifestation of flux and disorder.
What accounts for unity within the flux of the cosmos? How can matter serve the immortality of the cosmos (II.1.3) Answer: the flux is not outgoing. Does Plotinus mean that the flux doesn’t emanate like the higher orders of being do? Matter is undetermined, void of shape (II.IV.2). Matter suggests movement and differentiation. By motion, it is a cleavage. Matter only has real being in the intelligible realm. Yet, how can the realm of form have matter? Plotinus suggests that the matter there is a type of complete unity. But this seems like too easy an answer.
How does Plotinus get out of this problem? He gives a heroic attempt and in it we see just how powerful his thought is. Let’s look at his epistemology. Likeness knows by likeness. The indeterminate knows the indeterminate. How can soul know matter? The indeterminate must have some footing in the realm of form. “In knowing matter it must have an experience, the impact of the shapeless” (II.IV.10).
Matter = Indeterminacy = The Void = Nonbeing (?).
To clarify, matter isn’t corporeality, but the base of the identity to all that is composite.
While his metaphysics fails at points, he does see the futility in a strict materialism. A cause penetrates all things. This cause cannot be material in origin, since matter = disorder. All things are brought to eventuation through causes. Unfortunately, he falls short of a robust creational metaphysics. Matter is correlative with evil. Conflict and destruction are inevitable (III.II.4).
What is God for Plotinus? (Here I am following Rowan Williams’ Arius: Heresy and Tradition). Can the One have self-understanding, since he would be both subject and object--an active mind working on a passive object (Williams 199ff). The problem here is that the Form of the one is not simply a structure, but a structuring principle. Thinking and understanding involve distance and duplication. Understanding is complex because it seeks itself in Otherness (201). Therefore, apparently, when the nous knows itself, it produces multiplicity of the world of ideas, which separates itself from the one.
Conclusion:
Plotinus is a powerful thinker of the first order. As a philosopher, he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Plato and Augustine. Further, he provides the context surrounding much Nicene reflection, even if only as a foil.