← Home
Select Works of Plotinus · 690 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 658

Section 19 19. Are we to rest all on pursuit and on the soul? Is it enough to put faith in the soul's choice and call that good which the soul pursues, never asking ourselves the motive of its choice? We marshal demonstration as to the nature of everything else; is the good to be dismissed as choice? Several absurdities would be entailed. The good becomes a mere attribute of things; objects of pursuit are many and different so that mere choice gives no assurance that the thing chosen is the best; in fact, we cannot know the best until we know the good. Are we to determine the good by the respective values of things? This is to make Idea and Reason-Principle the test: all very well; but arrived at these, what explanation have we to give as to why Idea and Reason-Principle themselves are good? In the lower, we recognise goodness- in its less perfect form- by comparison with what is poorer still; we are without a standard There where no evil exists, the Bests holding the field alone. Reason demands to know what constitutes goodness; those principles are good in their own nature and we are left in perplexity because cause and fact are identical: and even though we should state a cause, the doubt still remains until our reason claims its rights There. But we need not abandon the search; another path may lead to the light.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →
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 reasoning relies on the structural reflection between the human interior and the cosmic exterior to validate metaphysical claims.

All passages →
Divine Hiddennesstheology

The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.

[auto] The text notes that the soul within elements is concealed by their flowing nature and must be inferred.

All passages →
Divine Providencetheology

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

The text asserts that natural elements like blood are not subject to blind force but are ordered by an indwelling soul.

All passages →
Inner Lightanthropology

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

The passage argues that even seemingly lifeless fluids like blood possess an indwelling soul or spiritual nature.

All passages →
Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

[auto] It portrays the universe as animated by a soul rather than blind force, emphasizing an active divine presence.

All passages →
Logoscosmology

The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.

The soul animating the universe functions as an ordering principle distinct from blind material forces.

All passages →
Microcosm Macrocosmcosmology

The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.

[auto] The passage explicitly argues for the ensoulment of cosmic elements by drawing a direct analogy to fluids within the human body.

All passages →
Paradox As Teachingethics

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

The text states that air eludes the soul and, in another sense, does not, employing contradiction to describe metaphysical reality.

All passages →
Unity Of Beingtheology

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

[auto] The passage describes all elements as parts of a 'living total' where life is inferred throughout existence.

All passages →
Related passages · 1 parallel
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…”
Shared concept: Logos — The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world. (derived)