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Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4 In Chronological Order,...

RIGHT THOUGHTS POSSESS REAL EXISTENCE.

Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition Plotinus and Guthrie, Kenneth Sylvan
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In general, we might admit that the true goods which are possessed by the soul when she acts conformably to her nature, by applying herself to things determined (by reason), constitute real being; that the others, on the contrary, are not engendered by the very action of the soul, and are only passions.144 Likewise, false intellections lack real being, such as belongs to true intellections, which are eternal and determinate, possessing simultaneously the intellectual act, the intelligible existence and essence; and this latter not only in general, but in each real intelligible being (manifesting?) Intelligence in each idea. As to us, we must acknowledge that we possess only intellection and the intelligible; we do not possess them together (or completely), but only in general; and hence comes our love for generalities. Our conceptions, indeed, usually trend towards the general. It is only by accident that we conceive something particular; when, for instance, we conceive that some particular triangle's angles amount to two right angles, it is only as a result of first having conceived that the triangle in general possesses this property.

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Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4 In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods, Project Gutenberg eBook #42933

GUARDIANS, AS WELL AS MEN, ARE URGED BY DIVINE DISCONTENT. JUPITER, THE GREAT CHIEF, OR THIRD GOD, IS THE SOUL, OR VENUS.