Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus
If we wanted to group around questions some of the main nuclei of Plotinus' philosophy, those questions could be the following: "who are we?", "where do we come from?" and "where are we going?". Throughout the Enneads the Lycopolitan uses locative and temporal meta...
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| Formato: | Artículo publishedVersion |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
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Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/CdF/article/view/12803 https://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=cufilo&d=12803_oai |
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Universidad de Buenos Aires |
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Repositorio Digital de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) |
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Español |
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spa |
| topic |
Plotinus; contemplation; unity; soul; virtue Plotino; contemplación; unidad; alma; virtud |
| spellingShingle |
Plotinus; contemplation; unity; soul; virtue Plotino; contemplación; unidad; alma; virtud Torres Ressa, Nicolás Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus |
| topic_facet |
Plotinus; contemplation; unity; soul; virtue Plotino; contemplación; unidad; alma; virtud |
| description |
If we wanted to group around questions some of the main nuclei of Plotinus' philosophy, those questions could be the following: "who are we?", "where do we come from?" and "where are we going?". Throughout the Enneads the Lycopolitan uses locative and temporal metaphors to account for the unity underlying all souls and the search that the human soul must undertake to return to that unity. Our philosopher points out that unity is neither "fragmented" nor "trimmed" (like that of a wax that can be divided into several pieces or that of a wine that can be poured into different glasses) but is indivisible (améristos) and also diversified, comparable to that of the different theorems of a science, which account each in its own way for the totality of the discipline. At the same time it also makes a differentiation between capacities (dýnamis) of the soul that refer to the body and another that is separated from the corporeal and exercises the contemplation (noesis) of Intelligence. In the particular case of the human being it would happen that he has no record of the contemplation that his own "higher soul" carries out, so he needs to replenish it. Therein lies the purpose of philosophy, which is clothed with a theoretical dimension (dialectics) and a practice (the cultivation of the lower and higher virtues to the extent that it is perfected in dialectics). The sage would then be the one who has managed to adapt his thoughts and actions to his noetic activity, has achieved happiness and is in a position to experience mystical union with the One. We can then point to contemplation, virtue, and happiness as three important motivations behind Plotinus' thought. |
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Artículo publishedVersion |
| author |
Torres Ressa, Nicolás |
| author_facet |
Torres Ressa, Nicolás |
| author_sort |
Torres Ressa, Nicolás |
| title |
Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus |
| title_short |
Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus |
| title_full |
Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus |
| title_fullStr |
Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus |
| title_sort |
contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to plotinus |
| publisher |
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires |
| publishDate |
2023 |
| url |
https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/CdF/article/view/12803 https://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=cufilo&d=12803_oai |
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I28-R145-12803_oai2025-11-17 Torres Ressa, Nicolás 2023-10-12 If we wanted to group around questions some of the main nuclei of Plotinus' philosophy, those questions could be the following: "who are we?", "where do we come from?" and "where are we going?". Throughout the Enneads the Lycopolitan uses locative and temporal metaphors to account for the unity underlying all souls and the search that the human soul must undertake to return to that unity. Our philosopher points out that unity is neither "fragmented" nor "trimmed" (like that of a wax that can be divided into several pieces or that of a wine that can be poured into different glasses) but is indivisible (améristos) and also diversified, comparable to that of the different theorems of a science, which account each in its own way for the totality of the discipline. At the same time it also makes a differentiation between capacities (dýnamis) of the soul that refer to the body and another that is separated from the corporeal and exercises the contemplation (noesis) of Intelligence. In the particular case of the human being it would happen that he has no record of the contemplation that his own "higher soul" carries out, so he needs to replenish it. Therein lies the purpose of philosophy, which is clothed with a theoretical dimension (dialectics) and a practice (the cultivation of the lower and higher virtues to the extent that it is perfected in dialectics). The sage would then be the one who has managed to adapt his thoughts and actions to his noetic activity, has achieved happiness and is in a position to experience mystical union with the One. We can then point to contemplation, virtue, and happiness as three important motivations behind Plotinus' thought. Si quisiéramos agrupar en torno a preguntas algunos de los principales núcleos de la filosofía de Plotino, esas preguntas podrían ser las siguientes: “¿quiénes somos?”, “¿de dónde venimos?” y “¿hacia dónde vamos?”. A lo largo de las Enéadas el Licopolitano se vale de metáforas locativas y temporales para dar cuenta de la unidad subyacente a todas las almas y de la búsqueda que el alma humana debe emprender para regresar a esa unidad. Nuestro filósofo puntualiza que la unidad no se encuentra ni “fragmentada” ni “recortada” (como la de una cera que se puede dividir en varios trozos o la de un vino que se puede verter en distintas copas) sino que es indivisible (améristos) y también diversificada, parangonable a la de los distintos teoremas de una ciencia, los cuales dan cuenta cada uno a su manera de la totalidad de la disciplina. A su vez también realiza una diferenciación entre capacidades (dýnamis) del alma que remiten al cuerpo y otra que se halla separada de lo corpóreo y ejerce la contemplación (nóesis) de la Inteligencia. En el caso particular del ser humano ocurriría que no posee registro de la contemplación que su propia “alma superior” lleva a cabo, por lo cual necesita reponerla. Allí radica la finalidad de la filosofía, que se reviste de una dimensión teórica (la dialéctica) y de una práctica (el cultivo de las virtudes inferiores y de las superiores en la medida que vaya perfeccionándose en la dialéctica). El sabio sería entonces quien ha conseguido adecuar sus pensamientos y sus acciones a su actividad noética, ha alcanzado la felicidad y está en condiciones de experimentar la unión mística con lo Uno. Podemos entonces señalar la contemplación, la virtud y la felicidad como tres importantes motivaciones detrás del pensamiento de Plotino. application/pdf https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/CdF/article/view/12803 10.34096/cf.n79.12803 spa Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/CdF/article/view/12803/12161 Derechos de autor 2023 Cuadernos de filosofía Cuadernos de filosofía; Núm. 79 (2022): julio-diciembre 2362-485X 0590-1901 Plotinus; contemplation; unity; soul; virtue Plotino; contemplación; unidad; alma; virtud Contemplation, virtue and happiness: the soul’s quest according to Plotinus Contemplación, virtud y felicidad: La búsqueda del alma según Plotino info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion https://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=cufilo&d=12803_oai |