THE SOUL USES THE BODY AS TOOL.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Plotinus and Guthrie, Kenneth Sylvan
3. Whether the soul, according to her being, be located in the body, above or within this latter, the soul forms with the body an entity called (a "living being" or) organism.280 In this case, the soul using the body as a tool is not forced to participate in its passions, any more than workmen participate in the experiences of their tools. As to sensations, of course, the soul must perceive them, since in order to use her instrument, the soul must, by means of sensation, cognize the modifications that this instrument may receive from without. Thus seeing consists of using the eyes; and the soul at the same time feels the evils which may affect the sight. Similar is the case with griefs, pains and any corporeal exigency; also with the desires which arise from the soul's need to take recourse to the ministry of the body. But how do passions from the body penetrate into the soul? For a body could communicate her own properties to some other body; but how could she do so to a soul?