Plotinus on the Good or the One (Enneads VI, 9 : An Analytical Commentary) (Amsterdam Classical Monographs) (English and Ancient Greek Edition)

Amazing as it may be, to this day few commentaries on the treatises of Plotinus' Enneads are written. The classic ninth treatise (VI,9 in Porphyrius' order), for example, has hardly been studied. This treatise, however, is of vital importance, because it is in this work that for the first time in the Enneads, the One in its superform emerges and Plotinus dwells on the remarkable phenomenon of a 'mystical union' of the soul with the One. A thorough analysis of the argument and its development next to philosophical and philo-logical support will be welcome to any reader of this in-triguing but difficult treatise. These aims are pursued in the main part of Meijer's work, the commentary. The first part of the book, preceding the commentary, examines the philosophical history of the concept of the One and its status in the first eight treatises. This new approach to the problem of the One leads to striking conclusions. It appears that while Plotinus was writing these first eight treatises, the concept of the One developed from that of a Supreme Entity of a Mesoplatonian character, viz. the upper part of the mind, to One of a Superone above mind. This casts an entirely new light on the position of the One in Plotinus and that of the ninth treatise itself. The third part not only examines the mystical union as pictured in the ninth treatise, but also provides a full scale discussion of Plotinus' descriptions of this union in his en-tire work. The degree of unification, viz. the question whether a part of the mystic self remains intact during the unification, is a matter of vigorous scholarly debate. Meijer shows that, in spite of some inconsistencies in his doctrine about the union, one must accept that Plotinus basically considered the union as a complete absorption of the soul into the Supreme Entity. Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents PREFACE PART ONE: PLOTINUS AND THE HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF THE ONE INTRODUCTION to Part I Plotinus and the History of the Concept of the One CHAPTER ONE The History of the Concept of the One 1) Was it Moderatus, who introduced a Superone? Dodds’ break-through and Krämer on Speusippus’ One and Xenocrates’ One 2) Ammonius Saccas and the One CHAPTER TWO Plotinus’ own way; the chronological trauma, Plotinus’ refutation of the charge of modernism CHAPTER THREE The notion ‘One’ in the early treatises of the Enneads 1) 2[IV,7] ‘On the immortality of the soul’ 2) 4[1V,2] ‘On the essence of the soul’ 3) 5[V,9] ‘On mind, the forms and being 4) 6[IV,8] ‘The descent of the soul into bodies’ 5) 7[V,4] ‘How that which comes after the first comes from the first and on the One’ 1) The One as Noeton 2) Further strange attributes assigned to the SE 3) The strange attributes rejected in later treatises CHAPTER FOUR New light on the position of 9[VI,9] CHAPTER FIVE The names or indications of the Supreme Entity (One, Good, God, Father, the First, Origin, It, He) PART TWO: COMMENTARY ON 9[VI,9] CHAPTER ONE Part I The preamble I) Complex I, Corporeal unity (Lines 1-14a) 1) The categories of corporeal unity 2) Stoic influence on complex I II) Complex II, second part of the preamble: transition to the level of soul (14b-17a); again Stoic influence Part II Lines 17 a-43: soul as a candidate for being the One Appendix I: Plotinus’ Stoicising 1) Introduction 2) Plotinus and Stoic terminology of unity 3) Final assessment; what did Stoicizing mean to Plotinus? 4) Plotinus’ knowledge of Stoic doctrines Appendix II: Plotinus’ employment of the examples of the categories A,B,C elsewhere in the Enneads Appendix III: The One and unity I One or unity? II) Plotinus on methexis 1) Participation in the realm of the sensible world 2) Participation in the transcendent world 3) Participation in the One 4) Plotinus on degrees of unity and existence. The origin of unity in beings 5) Back to 9[VI,9],1 CHAPTER TWO 2, 1-8 Is the One to be identified with total being? 8-24 No, the One is not to be identified with total being Survey on number Return to the text 24-32 The plurality of being (Ideas) 32-47 Mind is not the first: its thinking ends up in epistrophè CHAPTER THREE 3, 1-14 What is the One? First stage on the way to it 14-22 Being free from evil as a condition 22-36 Necessity of soul’s becoming mind 36-45 The One is neither mind, nor graspable by any ‘category’ whatsoever 45-54 The One is not ‘at rest’. The One conditionally typified as cause, although being in fact unsayable Appendix on 9[VI,9],3,10-14 CHAPTER FOUR 4,1-7 ’Eπιστήμη is insufficient for reaching the One 7-16 One has to go beyond έπιστήμη. Beauty a stage on the road to the One 16-35 Failure to go to the One is one’s own fault Appendix on μóυοζ; (see line 22) CHAPTER FIVE 5,1-5 Plotinus adressing the philosophers who recognize what is beyond the corporeal 5-24 Above soul mind emerges. The status of the knowledge of the soul and that of mind Excursus on the relations of mind and soul Back to the text 24-38 Although the One is almost unknowable and unexpressible, it is knowable via its offspring 38-46 Naming the One Excursus about the problem of naming the One (including some observations on the via negationis, the via remotionis, the via analogiae (the “via per inferiora”), the via eminentiae) Return to the text of 9[VI,9], 5, 38, 39 CHAPTER SIX 6,1-7 Methods to accomodate the notion of the One to one’s thought. ‘Oning’ 7-12 The One the greatest. Its power 12-16 Imagining the oneness of the One as God is insufficient 16-35 A new approach 35-46 If the One would need anything, it would need not being (absurd). Rejection of want, and thinking 46-55 The One having no ignorance about itself 55-57 The One is not even Good. It is the Good CHAPTER SEVEN 7, 1-5 Despite all troubles, it is possible to touch the One 5-16 The soul must be blank 16-23 The soul must tum inwards 23-34 The Minosscene CHAPTER EIGHT 8, 1-10 Centripetal motion of the soul 10-16 Problems concerning limitations of the centre-image 16-35 What does coincidence of the centre of the soul with the centre that is the One, mean? 35-45 The dance of the souls round the SE Appendix Centrology in Plotinus (circle, centre, radii) CHAPTER NINE 9, 1-7 What we see during the dance 7-13 We are not cutt of from the One 13-25 The happiness of being with the SE 25-38 Souls and Eros, two Aphrodites 38-55 Experience of the true love 55-60 The right manner of seeing oneself during the Union with the SE CHAPTER TEN 10, 1-9 Why is the unification interrupted? 9-21 ‘Seeing’ is not a satisfactory term to describe the union CHAPTER ELEVEN 11, 1-4 Comparison with the mysteries 4-16 Status of the mystic, ‘enthousiasm’ of the mystic during the unification 16-35 A comparison with the God in the temple 35-51 The soul does not arrive at not-being, but touches the Highest PART THREE: THE MYSTICAL UNION CHAPTER ONE Problems CHAPTER TWO The premystical stage (soul’s preliminary activities) CHAPTER THREE The mystical stage Summary 1) Sudden advent of the One 2) What happens during the stay with the One a) Seeing, touching b) Unification: what does it entail for Plotinus? 1) The ‘as far as possible’-formula (καθ’ ‘òσου δὺυαται). 2) Multiple union c) Photology (becoming light) 3) The inner life of the mystic’s soul during the union (having still a form of consciousness, no emotions, state of well-being) 4) The continuity of the stay with the Supreme Entity (continuous stay, hampered by the body, repetition of the ascent) 5) After the union (having an image, returning to the sensible world) 6) Activity on the part of the Supreme Entity (an automatic event? rapture of the self) 7) Prayer has nothing to do with the union of the soul and the One CHAPTER FOUR The historical background of the perfect union 1) Unification and Philo, Numenius and Albinus 2) Unification and óμοíωσιζ BIBLIOGRAPHY INDICES Index nominum et rerum Index verborum Graecorum Index locorum Deviations from the text of Henry - Schwyzer