INTRODUCTION

Plotinus was the founder of Neo-Platonism. He is the last ancient philosophers. He is an

earnest follower of Plato. He was born in Egypt and must have been a Hellenized Egyptian
rather than Greek. He turned to study of philosophy at the age of twenty eight. Later on he
conducted a school of philosophy in Rome. The philosophy of Plotinus is represented in the
complete collections of his treatises, collected and edited by his disciple Porphyry. Into six
books of nine treatises each called Enneads. They are preserved as whole. Plotinus is believed
to be founder of Neo-Platonism. Taking the lead from his reading of Plato, Plotinus
developed a complex spiritual cosmology involving three hypostases: the one, the
intelligence, and the soul. It is from the productive unity of these three beings that all
existence emanates. In addition to his cosmology, Plotinus also developed a unique theory of
sense-perception and knowledge. It was based on the idea that the mind plays an active role
in shaping the objects of its perception rather than passively receiving the data of sense
experience. Plotinus also composed the doctrine of soul having a higher part and a lower part.
The higher part is unchangeable and divine, while the lower part is the seat of the personality.
Philosophy of Plotinus was great help to the later Christian philosophers.

CHAPTER I
LIFE AND WORKS OF PLOTINUS

1.1 Early life of Plotinus

Plotinus was born in 205 AD in Lycopolis in Egypt now Asyut in Upper Egypt. His parents
were well to do. At the age of eight he attended a school of grammar. When he was twentyeight he discovered his vocation as a philosopher At Alexandria. He began attending the
schools and listening to the famous men of the city. But he did not find any satisfaction until
a friend, to whom he had unburdened himself took him to hear Ammonius saccas, known as
God-taught.1 For eleven years Plotinus was the disciple of Ammonius. The master and the
student led a common life. Ammonius himself left no writings and his teaching was
concerned more with establishing a way of life than in pursuing intellectual knowledge for its
own sake. Plotinus was the most influential among his disciples. His thirst for philosophy
was satisfied by Ammonius.

1.2 Later life of Plotinus

At the age of thirty nine Plotinus left Ammonius with the aim to obtain direct knowledge of
philosophy practiced among Persians and honoured among Indians. The emperor, Gordian,
was then preparing to lead an expedition into Persia and Plotinus arranged to travel with the
army. He reached Mesopotamia, but his plans for study were cut short when the emperor was
assassinated, and Plotinus with great difficulty escaped to Antioch and then to Rome, where
he arrived in 245.

1.3 Life as a philosopher

For the next twenty-five years he was a teacher of philosophy in Rome. He was approached
for advice on all kinds of question. Several wealthy people at their death confided the
material and spiritual of their children to him and he willingly took them in his house. The
emperor Gallienus and his wife Salonina held held him in particular esteem. Plotinus
persuaded them to establish a city in Campania modelled after Platos republic but this was
not successful. During his first ten years in Rome he imitated his master, Ammonius and
committed none of his teaching to writing.2 This may be because of his pledge to keep his
1

The Routlege Encyclopedia, v.7, 1995, Plotinus (AD 204\5-70), p. 462.

Lloyd P .Gerson ed. ; The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus Cambridge University Press 1996, p.3

masters teaching secret. After that pledge was broken by others he began to write. When
porphyry became his disciple in 263 Plotinus had already completed twenty one of his fifty
four treatises. Much of it was done when he was in the midst of other things. He paid little
attention to the Greek style and because of the weakness of his sight he did not re read his
composition. In the six years porphyry was with him he produced most of his writings; the
questioning and arguing of porphyry and other disciples led him to write another-twenty four
treatise. The final nine were written when he was seriously ill during his last two years. His
writings were collected after his death and arranged in groups of nine and given the name
Enneads by Porphyry.

1.4 Death of Plotinus

The mode of life followed by Plotinus was austere. He abstained completely from meat and
paid little attention to elementary hygienic precautions. When his health started falling and
almost became blind and suffering from complication of disorder Plotinus retired to a friend
in Campania where he died in 270. At the moment of his death he said now I shall
endeavour to make that which is divine in me rise up to that which is divine in universe. 3

1.5 Influence of Plotinus on other philosophers

Plotinus is one of the most influential of the ancient philosophy. He shaped the outlook of the
later pagan Neo-Platonism tradition, including such thinkers as porphyry and Proclus and he
left clear traces in Christian thinkers such as Gregory, Augustine and Boethius. He clearly
played a significant role in preparing for medieval philosophical theology. Plotinus also
exerted considerable influence on many sixteenth and seventeenth century intellectuals such
as Berkeley, Schelling and Bergson.

1.6 works of Plotinus

Plotinus wrote fifty four treatises which were later collected by Porphyry and arranged in the
order and named enneads. Each ennead contains nine treaties.
First Ennead on ethics and allied questions
Second Ennead on the world
Third Ennead on specialised topics concerning the world e.g.: fate.
Fourth Ennead on the soul
3

Robert Myanard Hutchins ed. ; Plotinus the six ennands the university of chicago 1987, p 5-6.

Fifth Ennead on the Nous or Intellectual principle of the world

Sixth Ennead on the good or one.

CHAPTER II
PHILOSOPHY OF PLOTINUS

2.1 Plotinus idea of God and World

God is transcendent, eternal, unchanging and absolute. He is the infinite cause, the first cause
of the world. The world emanates from God. He however does not create since all creation is
limitation. The universe is not the result of a voluntary action or idea on the part of God,
since idea and will cannot be attributed to him. The world is not an evolution from God since
the category of evolution cannot be attributed to him. Thus the universe is an emanation and
overflow of his infinite power.4 This has been explained by means of several examples. For
example, God is a spring from which the world flows like a stream without exhausting the
infinite souls. Similarly, God is the sun from which the universe emanates in the form of light
without loss of sun.

2.1.1 The idea of God

Plotinus declared God to be one, in the tradition of oriental monism. God is transcendental,
infinite and beyond all phenomenon. In him there is neither variety nor motion. He is beyond
thought since all thought involves a distinction of a knower, known and knowledge. The
ultimate reality is not subjected to desire, will or action since all this involves dualism. Desire
involves subject and object of desire. Similarly action involves actor and activity. The
ultimate reality, therefore, is beyond all thought and existence. He is indeterminate. Plotinus
calls God the one and good, but admits at the same time that even this predicates do not
describe the real nature of God. While the predicate one delimits, the predicate good
presupposes dualism since doing good has been done. Therefore, one and good do not
describe the nature of god but only indicate to him. In fact, we cannot affirm anything about
him. We can only say that he exists.5

2.1.2 The idea of World

According to Plotinus God is seen in two aspects. On the one hand he is transcendental,
unique, motionless and detached. On the other hand, he is infinite root cause of all things.
Thus, world in his philosophy lands us in contradictions. Plotinus however was a mystic.
4

Ramnath Sharma, Great Philosophers of The World , Gurgaon-India 2013, p. 72

Ramnath Sharma, Great Philosophers of The World , Gurgaon-India 2013, p. 73

Failing to explain phenomena by means of noumenal God he took recourse to Eastern

philosophical method of poetry and symbolism. He maintained that God overflows due to his
perfection. This inevitable overflow is the world. Just as fire creates light and snow creates
coldness, similarly the divine ray creates the universe. Like the sun whose emanations of rays
do not affect it, God emanates the world without himself being affected by it. Thus, God is
immanent in the world. The universe owes its existence to him. There is nothing in the world
which has not been created by him.

2.2 Theory of Emanation

The creation is seen as a fall from perfect to the imperfect. In this process the highest is the
sun, the source of light and the lowest, is the matter, the darkness. In between these two there
are stages of being, in which we move from imperfect to perfect. Every later stage is the
result of the preceding one. Every next stage is a copy, a shadow, an accident of the former
stage. In the process of emanation there are three stages.6

2.2.1 Emanation of Pure thought or Mind or Nous or Logos

The first to emanate from the one is the Nous or logos. It is the most perfect image of the one
and yet it is subordinate and less perfect than one, because the effect can never be equal to the
cause, nor there any two identical perfect, supreme beings. Hence in the first emanation from
the one there is both perfection and imperfection. It is like the one and yet less than one. The
Nous is identified with demiurge of Plato. It is eternal and beyond all time. It contains in
itself the intelligibility of everything that is in the world.

2.2.2 Emanation of soul

The second stage of divine emanation is the soul. It proceeds from pure thought. It is effect,
image or copy of pure thought, though less perfect than the original. The nature of soul as
explained by Plotinus is very much similar to that of Plato.7 Thus soul is of two types:
noumenal and phenomenal. The former is like the rational self. It is the creature of the divine
world. It is pure rational transcendental and free. It has immediate experience of nous. The
other lower form of soul has an irresistible internal impulse to take birth. It is the bond of

Ramnath Sharma, Great Philosophers of The World , Gurgaon-India 2013, p. 74

Ramnath Sharma, Great Philosophers of The World , Gurgaon-India 2013, p. 74

6

attachment with the material world. It is the cause of birth in a body, which in turn leads to
the birth of ego and lower self. These are the causes of bondage. The soul is of two kinds
world soul and individual human soul.

2.2.2.1 World soul

The world is an emanation from world soul. From one soul proceeds a multiplicity of
different souls, as from one and the same genus proceed species of different ranks some of
which are more rational others are less rational. The world soul thus has an inclination to
plurality. The multiplicity of souls takes place at first in the pure intelligible realm. The
individual souls comes from world soul therefore each soul has a lower part and a higher part.
The higher part relates to the divine in each individual.

2.2.2.2 The human soul

The human soul is the part of the world soul. It is super-sensuous and free. Before coming to
this world it contemplates the eternal nous in mystical intuition. The human soul is pointed
towards God. It knew the good, but when turned to the earth and body, there was a fall. This
fall is necessary consequence of the world soul. After being born on this earth soul looses its
freedom. Spiritual freedom consists in turning away from sensuous world towards God. The
material body is only a shadow of the real soul.

2.3 Emanation of matter

Matter is the absolute impotence and privation. In the hierarchy of evolution, God is highest
and matter is the lowest. As contrasted to light of God matter is the darkness. It is only
conceived as the substratum behind the changing phenomena of the world. It is the matte
which the uniting link of our sensual perception.8 The souls act upon this matter. They
impress themselves upon matter and produce particular sensual object in space and time. The
arrangement of the objects is solely due to matter. The beauty, order and unit of the universe,
however is due to world soul which is directed towards God.

Ramnath Sharma, Great Philosophers of The World , Gurgaon-India 2013, p. 74

CONCLUSION
Plotinus is both an end and a beginning an end as regards the Greeks a beginning as regards
to Christianity. Plotinus turned aside from the spectacle of ruin and misery in the actual
world, to contemplate an eternal world of goodness and beauty. To all Christians as well as
pagans alike the world of practical affairs seemed to offer no hope, and only other world
seemed of allegiance. To the Christians the other world is the kingdom of heaven, to be
enjoyed after death. To the Platonist it was the eternal world of ideas, the real world as
opposed to that of illusory appearance.9 Plotinus has a very vivid sense of a certain kind of
abstract beauty. In describing the position of intellect as intermediate between one and soul
he says:
The Supreme in its progress could never be borne forward upon some soulless vehicle nor
even directly upon the soul: it will be heralded by some ineffable beauty: before the Great
King in his progress there comes first the minor train, then rank by rank the greater and more
exalted, closer to the King the Kinglier; next his own honoured company until, last among all
these grandeurs, suddenly appears the Supreme Monarch himself, and all-unless indeed for
those who have contented themselves with the spectacle before his coming and gone awayprostrate themselves and hail him (V,5,3).10

Philosophy of Plotinus was inspiration for many early church fathers. Most of the early
church doctrines were formulated using the teachings of Plotinus.

Bertrand Russel, History of Western Philosophy, Routledge, London, 2006. p.551

Bertrand Russel, History of Western Philosophy, Routledge, London, 2006. p.551

10

Bibliography
1. SHARMA Ramnath, Great Philosophers of the World. India. Surbhi Publication,
1994.
2. RUSSEL Bertrand: History of Western Philosophy. London. Routledge, 2006.
3. Gerson P . Lloyd ed. ; The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus Cambridge University
Press 1996.
4. Hutchins Robert Myanard Hutchins ed. ; Plotinus the six ennands the university of
chicago 1987.
5. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Vol 5, Ed. by Edward Craig, New York,
Routledge.