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

1 It is significant that the subject of the first treatise of Plotinos, after the departure of Porphyry, should treat of happiness as the object of life. These may have been the arguments he advanced to persuade Porphyry to abstain from suicide (to which he refers in sections 8, 16), and, rather, to take a trip to Sicily, the land of natural beauty. He also speaks of losing friends, in section 8. The next book, on Providence, may also have been inspired by reflections on this untoward and unexpected circumstance. We see also a change from abstract speculation to his more youthful fancy and comparative learning and culture.

2 Diog. Laert. x.; Cicero, de Fin. i. 14, 46.

3 Cicero, de Fin. 11, 26.

4 See Arist. Nic. Eth. vii. 13; Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyp. Pyrrhon, iii. 180; Stob. Ecl. ii. 7.

5 Arist. Nic. Eth. i. 10, 14.

6 Stob. Floril. i. 76.

7 See vi. 8.

8 In Plutarch, of Wickedness, and in Seneca, de Tranquil, Animi, 14.

9 De Providentia, 3.

10 De Provid. 5.

11 Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, 327.

12 The vegetative soul, the power that presides over the nutrition and growth of the body; see iv. 3.23.

13 See i. 8; also Numenius, 16.

14 i. 2.4.

15 Cicero, Tusculans. ii. 7.

16 The animal; see i. 1.10.

17 See i. 1.8, 10.

18 See the Theataetus, p. 176. Carv. 84; the Phaedo. p. 69, Cary, 37; the Republic, vi. p. 509; Cary, 19; x. p. 613, Cary, 12; the Laws, iv. p. 716, Cary, 8; also Plotinos i. 2.1.

19 See i. 9.

20 A Stoic confutation of Epicurus and the Gnostics. As soon as Porphyry has left him, Plotinos harks back to Amelius, on whose leaving he had written against the Gnostics. He also returns to Numenian thoughts. Bouillet notices that here Plotinos founded himself on Chrysippus, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, and was followed by Nemesius. This new foundation enabled him to assume a rather independent attitude. Against Plato, he taught that matter derived existence from God, and that the union of the soul and body is not necessarily evil. Against Aristotle, he taught that God is not only the final, but also the efficient cause of the universe. Against the Stoics, he taught that the human soul is free, and is a cause, independent of the World Soul from which she proceeded. Against the Gnostics, he insisted that the creator is good, the world is the best possible, and Providence extends to mundane affairs. Against the Manicheans, he taught that the evil is not positive, but negative, and is no efficient cause, so that there is no dualism.

21 Diog. Laert. x. 133.

22 See iv. 2.4; vi. 7; see Plato, Philebus, p. 30, Cary, 56; Philo, Leg. Alleg, vi. 7.

23 Lactantius, de Ira Dei, 13.

24 Ireneus, Ref. Her. ii. 3.

25 As in vi. 7.1.

26 Philo, de Creatione Mundi, 6.

27 As the Gnostics taught; see ii. 9.1.

28 As was held by the Gnostics, who within the divinity distinguished potentiality and actuality, as we see in ii. 9.1.

29 See ii. 9.3. 8.

30 Numenius, 32.

31 Plato, Timaeus, p. 48, Cary, 21. Statesman, p. 273, Cary, 16; Laws, x. p. 904, Cary, 12.

32 See ii. 9.2.

33 From Aristotle, de Anima, 2.

34 This is the Aristotelian psychological scheme.

35 Clem. Al.; Strom. v. p. 712; Stobaeus, Ecl. Phys. i. p. 372, 446.

36 iv. 8.12; Plato, Tim. p. 41. 69; Cary, 16, 44.

37 Stob. Ecl. Eth. ii. 7.

38 iii. 2.13.

39 p. 253; Cary, 74.

40 Sen. 526.