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

Does the "reason" of each individual contain both his "actions" and "reactions"215 in a way such that these are neither accidental nor fortuitous, but necessary?255 Are these produced by the reasons? Or do the reasons know them, without producing them? Or does the soul, which contains the generative "reasons,"256 know the effects of all her works by reasoning according to the following principle, that the concourse of the same circumstances must evidently produce the same effects? If so, the soul, understanding or foreseeing the effects of her works, by them determines and concatenates all the events that are to happen. She, therefore, considers all the antecedents and consequents, and foresees what is to follow from what precedes.257 It is (because the beings thus proceed from each other) that the races continually degenerate. For instance, men degenerate because in departing continually and unavoidably (from the primitive type) the ("seminal) reasons" yield to the "passions" of matter.258