Select Works of Plotinus · 79 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 85 (part 2)

We teach that Virtue is not the Absolute Good and Beauty, because we know that These are earlier than Virtue and transcend it, and that it is good and beautiful by some participation in them.

Now as, going upward from virtue, we come to the Beautiful and to the Good, so, going downward from Vice, we reach Essential Evil: from Vice as the starting-point we come to vision of Evil, as far as such vision is possible, and we become evil to the extent of our participation in it.

We are become dwellers in the Place of Unlikeness, where, fallen from all our resemblance to the Divine, we lie in gloom and mud: for if the Soul abandons itself unreservedly to the extreme of viciousness, it is no longer a vicious Soul merely, for mere vice is still human, still carries some trace of good: it has taken to itself another nature, the Evil, and as far as Soul can die it is dead.

And the death of Soul is twofold: while still sunk in body to lie down in Matter and drench itself with it; when it has left the body, to lie in the other world until, somehow, it stirs again and lifts its sight from the mud: and this is our "going down to Hades and slumbering there."

Themes

◆Body As Obstacleanthropology

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

Describes Matter as contrary to Form and Vice as an impediment hindering the Soul's function.

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◆Emanation Hierarchycosmology

A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.

References the Intellectual-Principle and the Soul, implying a hierarchical structure of being without detailing the full chain.

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◆Inner Lightanthropology

The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.

States that the Soul carries a 'happy trace of the Intellectual-Principle' within it, indicating an internal divine quality.

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◇Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

[auto] The text establishes a strong ontological opposition between Matter (Evil) and Form (Good) as contraries.

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◇Evil As Privationtheology

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

[auto] The passage centrally argues that Evil is not a positive substance but a Privation or Negation of Good and Form.

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◇Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

[auto] The passage begins with a paradoxical question about Matter being devoid of quality yet evil, resolving it through negative definition.

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Related passages · 3 parallels

◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1~

“And such was the Incarnate Life of Christ and such is the Life of God in eternity. So too the wisdom of Christ is, from a worldly point of view, foolishness. For worldly wisdom = self-seeking, but the Wisdom of Christ = self-abandonment.…”

Both passages discuss the nature of good and evil, and the relationship between virtue and the divine. They explore the idea that evil is a deviation from the divine and that the soul can fall into a state of unlikeness to the divine, which is reminiscent of the concept of self-abandonment and the struggle between good and evil.

◆gnosticism|Pistis Sophia|Document SECOND

“This is the answer of the words after which ye seek. Now therefore also, Andreas, yet art thou being in unbelief and with ignorance? But whenever ye should come out of the body and go unto the Height, and arrive at the Place of the Rulers…”

Both passages discuss the concept of the soul's journey and its relationship with divine and evil realms. They describe the soul's descent into vice or ignorance and its potential ascent to divine realms, highlighting the transformation and purification of the soul.

◆hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 6: The All-Father|Section 1b

“So then, Asclepius, the name alone of Good is found in men, the thing itself nowhere [in them], for this can never be. For no material body doth contain It - a thing bound on all sides by bad, by labors, pains, desires and passions, by err…”

Both passages explore the nature of evil and good, discussing how evil is not a substantial entity but rather a lack or privation of good. They also touch on the idea that true goodness is found in the divine, not in the material world.