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Select Works of Plotinus · 658 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 632

Section 12 12. We may be told that unity and monad have no real existence, that the only unity is some definite object that is one thing, so that all comes to an attitude of the mind towards things considered singly. But, to begin with, why at this should not the affirmation of Being pass equally as an attitude of mind so that Being too must disappear? No doubt Being strikes and stings and gives the impression of reality; but we find ourselves just as vividly struck and impressed in the presence of unity. Besides, is this attitude, this concept itself, a unity or a manifold? When we deny the unity of an object, clearly the unity mentioned is not supplied by the object, since we are saying it has none; the unity therefore is within ourselves, something latent in our minds independently of any concrete one thing. [An objector speaks-] "But the unity we thus possess comes by our acceptance of a certain idea or impression from things external; it is a notion derived from an object. Those that take the notion of numbers and of unity to be but one species of the notions held to be inherent in the mind must allow to numbers and to unity the reality they ascribe to any of the others, and upon occasion they must be met; but no such real existence can be posited when the concept is taken to be an attitude or notion rising in us as a by-product of the objects; this happens when we say "This," "What," and still more obviously in the affirmations "Crowd," "Festival," "Army," "Multiplicity." As multiplicity is nothing apart from certain constituent items and the festival nothing apart from the people gathered happily at the rites, so when we affirm unity we are not thinking of some Oneness self-standing, unrelated. And there are many other such cases; for instance "on the right," "Above" and their opposites; what is there of reality about this "On-the-right-ness" but the fact that two different positions are occupied? So with "Above": "Above" and "Below" are a mere matter of position and have no significance outside of this sphere. Now in answer to this series of objections our first remark is that there does exist an actuality implicit in each one of the relations cited; though this is not the same for all or the same for correlatives or the same for every reference to unity. But these objections must be taken singly.
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Themes
Correspondencecosmology

The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.

The text describes forming a 'corresponding image of number' for each 'image of Being,' reflecting a structural mapping between levels of 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.

A distinction is drawn between the Intellectual realm and the sphere of sense objects, implying a hierarchy of being.

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Infinite Cosmoscosmology

The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.

The text explicitly debates the concept of infinity versus finitude regarding sense objects and the total of Being, engaging with the doctrine of boundlessness to qualify it.

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Kingdom Withinanthropology

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

The author states that when numbering years we 'draw on the numbers in our own minds' and they are 'our possession,' locating the source of number internally.

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Monadcosmology

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

The discussion of the Infinite and its relation to Number alludes to the first principle from which multiplicity flows.

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Numerical Mysticismtheology

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

[auto] The passage centrally examines the nature of Number in relation to the Infinite and Intellectual Beings as the structure of reality.

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Paradox As Teachingethics

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

[auto] The text opens with a paradoxical inquiry into how Number can be consistent with Infinity to drive philosophical exploration.

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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.

The passage refers to a 'totality' of Intellectual Beings corresponding to a defined Number.

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