Select Works of Plotinus · 591 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 564

Section 3 3. How then do we go to work? Let us begin by distinguishing Matter, Form, the Mixture of both, and the Attributes of the Mixture. The Attributes may be subdivided into those which are mere predicates, and those serving also as accidents. The accidents may be either inclusive or included; they may, further, be classified as activities, experiences, consequents. Matter will be found common to all substances, not however as a genus, since it has no differentiae- unless indeed differentiae be ascribed to it on the ground of its taking such various forms as fire and air. It may be held that Matter is sufficiently constituted a genus by the fact that the things in which it appears hold it in common, or in that it presents itself as a whole of parts. In this sense Matter will indeed be a genus, though not in the accepted sense of the term. Matter, we may remark, is also a single element, if the element as such is able to constitute a genus. Further, if to a Form be added the qualification "bound up with, involved in Matter," Matter separates that Form from other Forms: it does not however embrace the whole of Substantial Form [as, to be the genus of Form, it must]. We may, again, regard Form as the creator of Substance and make the Reason-Principle of Substance dependent upon Form: yet we do not come thereby to an understanding of the nature of Substance. We may, also, restrict Substance to the Composite. Matter and Form then cease to be substances. If they are Substance equally with the Composite, it remains to enquire what there is common to all three. The "mere predicates" fall under the category of Relation: such are cause and element. The accidents included in the composite substances ire found to be either Quality or Quantity; those which are inclusive are of the nature of Space and Time. Activities and experiences comprise Motions; consequents Space and Time, which are consequents respectively of the Composites and of Motion. The first three entities [Matter, Form, Composite] go, as we have discovered, to make a single common genus, the Sensible counterpart of Substance. Then follow in order Relation, Quantity, Quality, Time-during-which, Place-in-which, Motion; though, with Time and Space already included [under Relation], Time-during-which and Place-in-which become superfluous. Thus we have five genera, counting the first three entities as one. If the first three are not massed into a unity, the series will be Matter, Form, Composite, Relation, Quantity, Quality, Motion. The last three may, again, be included in Relation, which is capable of bearing this wider extension.

Themes

◆Inner Lightanthropology

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

The concept of 'effulgence' reaching spectators suggests an internal illumination or reception of divine light.

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◆Ladder Of Lovesoteriology

Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.

As part of Plotinus's On the Beautiful, the passage describes the orientation of the soul 'directed towards Absolute Beauty'.

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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.

The motion of knowledge is described as being 'directed towards Absolute Beauty,' hinting at the soul's orientation toward its origin.

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◆Spiritual Ascentpraxis

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

The text describes an orientation and motion directed towards a higher principle (Absolute Beauty).

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◇Active Contemplationpraxis

A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.

[auto] Knowledge is characterized as an 'Act, not a State' and a form of Motion, emphasizing dynamic contemplation over static being.

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◇Divine Lighttheology

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

[auto] The text uses the metaphor of 'effulgence' to describe the manifestation of primary Beauty into lower levels.

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◇Divine Simplicitytheology

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

[auto] The text implies the primary principle is simple by stating that if knowledge were a complex, it would be posterior.

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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 passage explicitly describes beauty flowing from a 'primary Beauty' as an 'effulgence' to participants, establishing a hierarchical descent.

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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] Knowledge is defined as 'the observation of Being,' implying direct experiential understanding rather than discursive reasoning.

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◇Monadcosmology

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

[auto] References to 'primary Beauty' and 'Absolute Beauty' function as the single transcendent source from which other forms derive.

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◇Self Knowledgesoteriology

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

[auto] The passage states that knowledge is 'Motion originating in the self,' linking epistemology to internal self-activity.

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◇Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

[auto] Intelligence is described as comprising 'the total of existence' and 'Being taken with all,' suggesting an underlying unity.

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Related passages · 2 parallels

◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 7 (part 4)

“28.) "In Paradise the substance of the divine world penetrated the substance belonging to time, comparable to the power of the sun penetrating a fruit growing on a tree, and endowing it with such qualities as render it lovely to the sight a…”

Both passages explore the nature of beauty and its relationship to higher realities. Passage A discusses primary Beauty and its effulgence, while Passage B describes divine beauty penetrating the substance of the world, both highlighting the transcendent nature of beauty.

◆taoism|Tao Te Ching|Chapter 2

“All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the want of skill is. So it is that existe…”

Both passages explore the nature of beauty and the interplay between opposites, such as existence and non-existence, beauty and ugliness. They also discuss the concept of intelligence or wisdom in relation to these opposites, showing a genuine conceptual parallel across different mystical traditions.