Book contents
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Porphyry’s Arrangement of the Enneads
- Abbreviations of Other Ancient Works and Authors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical Context
- 1 Plato and Aristotle in the Enneads
- 2 Plotinus, Gnosticism, and Christianity
- 3 From Plotinus to Proclus
- 4 The One as First Principle of All
- Part II Metaphysics and Epistemology
- Part III Psychology
- Part IV Natural Philosophy
- Part V Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from page ii)
4 - The One as First Principle of All
from Part I - Historical Context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2022
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Porphyry’s Arrangement of the Enneads
- Abbreviations of Other Ancient Works and Authors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical Context
- 1 Plato and Aristotle in the Enneads
- 2 Plotinus, Gnosticism, and Christianity
- 3 From Plotinus to Proclus
- 4 The One as First Principle of All
- Part II Metaphysics and Epistemology
- Part III Psychology
- Part IV Natural Philosophy
- Part V Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from page ii)
Summary
With Plotinus, Neoplatonism was inaugurated with the positing of a radical transcendence: the first principle, the One, or the Good,1 is beyond the essence, epekeina tēs ousias. In book 6 of the Republic, Plato already designated the Good as beyond essence, which it surpasses in seniority and in power, ‘epekeina tēs ousias presbeiai kai dunamei huperekhontos’ (509b9–10), but whereas in Plato this formula is found only once, and its interpretation is, moreover, disputed,2 it is recurrent and systematized in Plotinus.3 It also allows a series of variations; beyond essence, the One-Good is also ‘beyond thought’, ‘beyond knowledge’, ‘beyond life’, and, again, ‘beyond act’.4
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- The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus , pp. 90 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022