Select Works of Plotinus
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text · 1 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~180,000 words · 853 passages
Cite this work
- APAPlotinus. (n.d.). Select Works of Plotinus. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plotinus/select-works-of-plotinus
- MLAPlotinus. "Select Works of Plotinus." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plotinus/select-works-of-plotinus.
- ChicagoPlotinus. Select Works of Plotinus. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plotinus/select-works-of-plotinus.
What it is about
The selection from Plotinus translated by Thomas Taylor: one of the two editions in the corpus, and the older.
Context and history
Plotinus taught in Rome in the third century and did not write for publication; his pupil Porphyry gathered his writings after his death and arranged them in six groups of nine treatises — hence 'Enneads', 'nines' — an order that is not Plotinus's own. His philosophy starts from Plato and goes further: from the One, which is beyond being and beyond thought, the Intellect proceeds by emanation, and from that the Soul, and from that the sensible world; the human soul can retrace the way upwards, and Porphyry says his master achieved it four times. From this comes the whole of Neoplatonism, and through it pass Augustine, Dionysius, the Arabs, Ficino and the Renaissance. NOTE TO THE READER: the catalogue holds TWO English editions of the same material, 'Select Works of Plotinus' (Thomas Taylor's translation) and the four volumes of 'Plotinos Complete Works' (Kenneth Guthrie's), differently translated and differently arranged; and 'An Essay on the Beautiful' is Ennead I.6, which is inside both. This is not an error: they are different editions of the same author. A citation must always say which edition it uses, and had better give the Ennead and treatise number as well.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
I. Since evils are here, and revolve from necessity about this [terrestrial] place, but the soul wishes to fly from evils, it is requisite to fly from hence. What therefore is the fljg!^? To become similar, says Plato, to God. But thi^mlrnbe effected, if we become just and holy, in conjunction with [intellectual] prudence, and in short if we are [truly] virtuous. If therefore we are assimilated through virtue, is it to one who possesses virtue ? But to whom are we assimilated ? To divinity. Are we then assimilated to that nature which appears to possess the virtues in a more eminent degree, and also to the sovl of the world, and to the intellect which is the leader in it, in which there is an admirable wisdom? For it is reasonable to suppose that while we are here, we are assimilated to this intellect. Or is it not in the first place dubious, whether all the virtues are present with this intellect, such as temperance and fortitude, since there is nothing which can be dreadful to it ? For nothing externally happens to it, nor does any ^ See the additional notes at the end of this Volume, for a copious account of the political^ cathartic and theoretic virtues, the subject of the present treatise of Plotinus. SELECT WORKS OF PLOTINL'S. SELECT WORKS OF PLOTINL'S. thing pleasing approach to it, which when not present it may become desirous of poasessing, or apprehending. But if it also has an appetite directed to the intetligibles, after which our aoula aspire, it is evident that ornament and the virtues are from thence derived to us. Has therefore this intellect these virtues? Or may we not say, it is not reasonable to suppose, that it possesses what are called the p<^ttical virtues, viz. prudence indeed, about the part that deliberates and consults; fortitude about the irascible part; temperance, in the agreement and concord of the part that desires, with the reasoning power ; and justice, in each