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."

§ Ask Guru about this passage →

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.

All passages →

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.

All passages →

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.

All passages →

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.

All passages →

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.

All passages →

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.

All passages →

Related passages · 7 parallels

christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 5, Section 1i

“364 The ultimate Godhead is reached only by the Negative Path, and known only by Unknowing. The Affirmative Path of philosophical knowledge leads only to the differentiated manifestations of the Godhead: e.g. the Trinity, in Its creative…”

Shared concept: Evil As Privation — 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. (derived)

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

“For things of the same kind cannot 333 333 Exuberant vitality is per se a good thing and the more exuberant the better, though, like all good things, it is dangerous, and unless properly directed is disastrous. be wholly contradictory to o…”

western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XVI (part 8)

“188 So writes Schopenhauer in his Counsels and Maxims , and indeed it is very effectively expressed, but we have no foundation whatsoever for regarding man as the summit of that which nature has created. This is only THE HIGHEST THAT WE KN…”

Shared concept: Cosmic Dualism — Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality. (derived)

christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 6 (part 8)

“They are fire-flames, illumined by the light of God, but we attain the great fountain of meekness and love which is welling up within the holy essentiality of God." 1 ( Menschwerdung , i. 5.) Man comprises all three principles: the princip…”

Shared concept: Cosmic Dualism — Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality. (derived)

christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 12 (part 12)

“255:1 However gratifying it may be for the curious seeker in history to know whether or when such an event has actually occurred in the history of the Jewish nation, such a historical belief would be of little benefit to him if he could not…”

Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)

western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Human Body in Symbolism-e

“And as in the most holy of the mysteries, they say, that the mystics at first meet with the multi form, and many-shaped genera, which are hurled forth before the gods, but on entering the temple, unmoved, and guarded by the mystic rites, th…”

Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)

christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology|Chapter V-a

“That He Who is the Pre-eminent Cause of everything intelligibly perceived is not Himself any one of the things intelligibly perceived. Once more, ascending yet higher we maintain 537 537 It is not (1) a Thinking Subject; nor (2) an Act or…”

Shared concept: Paradox As Teaching — Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight. (derived)