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2 - Out of the Father’s House

from Part I - Descent and Fall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2024

Mateusz Stróżyński
Affiliation:
Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Poland
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Summary

This chapter discusses the fall of the soul as the process in which a microcosmic being cuts himself off from the macrocosmic realms by self-limiting excessive emphasis on the potential elements of his own being: the indefinite “I”, the movement of loving and the difference of knowing. The result of the fall is our exclusive identification with our body, but the body is not necessarily either the cause of it or the embodiment is the result of the fall. In light of the third, triadic principle of selfhood, the fall is described by Plotinus in three ways, as (1) the limitation and fragmentation of the self, (2) the quasi-spatial externalisation of what is known, and (3) the temporalisation of what is loved. The fall of the self results in the sense of the deadness of reality and the reducing of ourselves to a thing among things. The fall of knowing results in seeing everything as external to the seer, while the fall of loving results in feeling that what we desire is not here, but has to be pursued in the future (or is lost forever in the past).

Type
Chapter
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Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World
Faces of Being and Mirrors of Intellect
, pp. 56 - 88
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Out of the Father’s House
  • Mateusz Stróżyński, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Poland
  • Book: Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World
  • Online publication: 03 September 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009494854.004
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  • Out of the Father’s House
  • Mateusz Stróżyński, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Poland
  • Book: Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World
  • Online publication: 03 September 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009494854.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Out of the Father’s House
  • Mateusz Stróżyński, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Poland
  • Book: Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World
  • Online publication: 03 September 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009494854.004
Available formats
×