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Select Works of Plotinus · 522 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 499

Section 7 7. Knowledge in the reasoning soul is on the one side concerned with objects of sense, though indeed this can scarcely be called knowledge and is better indicated as opinion or surface-knowing; it is of later origin than the objects since it is a reflection from them: but on the other hand there is the knowledge handling the intellectual objects and this is the authentic knowledge; it enters the reasoning soul from the Intellectual-Principle and has no dealing with anything in sense. Being true knowledge it actually is everything of which it takes cognisance; it carries as its own content the intellectual act and the intellectual object since it carries the Intellectual-Principle which actually is the primals and is always self-present and is in its nature an Act, never by any want forced to seek, never acquiring or traversing the remote- for all such experience belongs to soul- but always self-gathered, the very Being of the collective total, not an extern creating things by the act of knowing them. Not by its thinking God does God come to be; not by its thinking Movement does Movement arise. Hence it is an error to call the Ideas intellections in the sense that, upon an intellectual act in this Principle, one such Idea or another is made to exist or exists. No: the object of this intellection must exist before the intellective act [must be the very content not the creation of the Intellectual-Principle]. How else could that Principle come to know it: certainly not [as an external] by luck or by haphazard search.
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Themes
Body As Obstacleanthropology

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

[auto] The text depicts material existence as a weight that prevents flight, describing those bound to sense as weighted down by the earth.

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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 fundamental opposition between the realm of sense/material and the Intellectual realm.

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Divine Lighttheology

The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.

[auto] The highest state is described as having clear vision of the 'splendour above', indicating a luminous divine reality.

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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.

[auto] The distinction between the realm of sense and the Intellectual implies a hierarchical structure of reality descending from the higher.

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Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

[auto] Salvation or elevation is achieved through 'clear vision' and 'keenness of their sight' rather than ritual or mere reasoning.

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Inner Lightanthropology

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

The text mentions the 'better in their soul' urging them upward, suggesting an internal divine capacity.

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Pneumatic Electsoteriology

A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.

[auto] The passage categorizes humanity into three distinct orders, highlighting a 'third order' of godlike men with superior spiritual power.

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Rejection Of Hypocrisyethics

Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.

The passage critiques those who 'pretend to reasoning' but remain bound to material concerns.

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Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

[auto] The narrative arc involves souls attempting to escape lower actions and options to reach the higher Intellectual ground.

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Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

[auto] The passage explicitly describes the movement of souls lifting themselves above the earth to achieve vision of the splendour above.

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