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---
title: Plotinus
---
**THIS FILE IS NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN.**
### The coordination argument
Plotinus argues that Platonic Forms are not first principles.
> From where did [intelligible] matter [i.e. the Dyad] come to be and get its
> existence? For if it came to be, then it was generated by something. But if
> it is eternal, then the principles are many, and the primary beings [i.e. the
> Forms] are by chance.” (Enn. 2.4.2.9-11)
The plauralist view: If there is no explanation of the Forms, then they are by
chance.
## Plotinus on Creation and Divine Craftsmanship
1. By what causal mechanisms do all other existents derive from the first
principle?
2. How does Plotinus understand the Platonic theory of the creation of the
cosmos by a divine craftsman in the Timaeus?
### Creation
#### The Great Chain of Being
1. The One, The Good (is the cause that produces...)
2. Intellect (is the cause that produces...)
3. Soul (is the cause that produces...)
4. Body
How can the One produce?
* It does not have a mind/intention
* It is the best thing, so it cannot attain by producing anything
* It cannot produce by acting on something
Emanation / "Double Activity" fits these constrants:
* Fire's internal heat -> radiated heat
* Sun's internal luminosity -> radiated light
He believed that these radiation don't cost anything.
According to Plato's Timaeus, the cosmos is a product of a wise and
benevolent divine Craftsman. The cosmos is modelled as something eternal.
Plato attempts to create a soul for the Craftsman and argues that
they engage in means-end reasoning about how to create a world that
is as good as possible.
* Plato's story of creation: The maker had an ideal template that he
was trying to imitate and emulate, in creating the physical world.
* Instead of just using this form, this Craftsman engages in *means-end
reasoning*
1. Among sensible things, anything intelligent is better than anything
unintelligent
2. It is better that the cosmos be intelligent than unintelligent.
(from 1)
3. Soul is a prerequisite for acquiring intelligence.
4. If the cosmos is to be as good as possible, then it must have a soul.
(from 2, 3)
5. [If something has a soul, then it is a living being.]
6. If the cosmos is to be as good as possible, then it must be a living
being. (from 4, 5)
Craftsman delegates decisions about the design of mortal bodies to lesser
gods.
Plotinus's arguments against divine planning
* There can be no principles and goals to any divine planning, as principles
and goals are based on intellect and sense.
> * "The divine intellect is not in a position to entertain thoughts about
> sensible reality that could figure in deliberative planning about the
> cosmos."
> * The divine intellect is not in the epistemically deficient position of a
> planner.
> * The divine Intellect cannot consider as yet unrealized possibilities to
> choose between (X or Y), since it only thinks actual beings, i.e. Platonic
> Forms.
> * The divine Intellect cannot consider prospective states of affairs because
> everything in Intellect (i.e. Platonic Forms or primary beings) is always
> fully actual.
> * The divine Intellect cannot plan in advance features of the cosmos that
> always exist, as there would need to be a to be time before the existence
> of the cosmos
>
> * Two-Worlds Epistemology: Only Forms are objects of knowledge; physical
> realties are objects of belief and perception.
> * Actual Intellect: The divine intellect is a fully actual self-knower that
> is identical with primary beings, i.e. Forms.
> * Eternity of the World: The physical cosmos had no beginning in time; rather
> it is the eternal product of Intellect’s activity.
# Plotinus on Oneness and Goodness
* Plato holds that there is a pair of principles, the One and the Dyad, which
are the causes of Platonic Form-numbers.
* The One plays the role of a formative principle and the Dyad plays the role
of the material principle.
* The One is to be identified with the Good.
* Preservative utility
* Perfective utility
* Eternal activity
* An activity that involves no temporal succession
* An activity that is timeless, as there is no change or transition
* Intellectual activity is eternal?
* Temporal activity
* Prior simplicity:
* Everything that is not purely F depends for its F-ness on what is purely F.
* Being one is a condition for existence.
* Everything that exists is either purely one or depends for its existence on
what is purely one.
* What is purely one cannot be many, i.e., a simple.
* Therefore, everything else depends for tis existence on what is simple.
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