GOOD CANNOT BE A DESIRE OF THE SOUL.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Plotinus and Guthrie, Kenneth Sylvan
19. Shall the decision of what is good be entrusted to the desire of the soul?110 If we are to trust this affection of the soul, we shall be declaring that whatever is desirable for her is good; but we would not be seeking why the Good is desired. Thus, while we use demonstrations to explain the nature of every entity, we would be trusting to desire for the determination of the Good. Such a proceeding would land us in several absurdities. First, the Good would only be an attribute. Then, since our soul has several desires, and each of the latter has different objects, we would not be able to decide which of these objects would be the best, according to desire. It would be impossible to decide what would be better before we know what is good.