Select Works of Plotinus · 248 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 244 (part 2)

This reasoning would force the destructibility of Matter upon us: "the body is dissolved; then the Matter is dissolved." We would have to allow Matter to be a thing of quantity, a magnitude.

But since it is not a magnitude it could not have the experiences that belong to magnitude and, on the larger scale, since it is not body it cannot know the experiences of body.

In fact those that declare Matter subject to modification may as well declare it body right out.

Themes

◆Cosmic Dualismtheology

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

The text analyzes the ontological opposition between Matter (Evil) and Ideas/The Good, maintaining their distinct natures despite interaction.

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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.

The passage references 'Images of Real Existents' entering Matter, implying a hierarchical flow from higher principles to lower material reality.

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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 Matter is evil not by positive being but by its inability to receive modification from The Good, defining evil as a lack of capacity for the Good.

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Related passages · 2 parallels

◆hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 4: The Epistles|Section 1c

“It is Itself Its Source, since It may have no other Source. The Oneness then being Source, containeth every number, but is contained by none; engendereth every number, but is engendered by no other one. 11. Now all that is engendered is…”

Both passages explore the relationship between a fundamental principle (Ideas in Plotinus, The Oneness in the second passage) and the material world. They discuss how the material world interacts with or participates in the higher principle without being fundamentally changed, highlighting the nature of participation and the immutability of the fundamental principle.

◆platonism|Plato: Phaedo|Section 1q

“Then reflect, Cebes: is not the conclusion of the whole matter this?-that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable; and the body is in the very likeness…”

Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to the body, emphasizing the distinction between the two. Plotinus argues that Matter is not subject to the same experiences as the body, while Plato describes the soul as divine, immortal, and intelligible, contrasting it with the mortal and changeable body.