"Six Enneads" - читать интересную книгу автора (Plotinus)

250 AD

THE SIX ENNEADS

by Plotinus

translated by Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page

THE FIRST ENNEAD.

FIRST TRACTATE.

THE ANIMATE AND THE MAN.

1. Pleasure and distress, fear and courage, desire and aversion,
where have these affections and experiences their seat?

Clearly, either in the Soul alone, or in the Soul as employing the
body, or in some third entity deriving from both. And for this third
entity, again, there are two possible modes: it might be either a
blend or a distinct form due to the blending.

And what applies to the affections applies also to whatsoever
acts, physical or mental, spring from them.

We have, therefore, to examine discursive-reason and the
ordinary mental action upon objects of sense, and enquire whether
these have the one seat with the affections and experiences, or
perhaps sometimes the one seat, sometimes another.

And we must consider also our acts of Intellection, their mode and
their seat.

And this very examining principle, which investigates and
decides in these matters, must be brought to light.

Firstly, what is the seat of Sense-Perception? This is the obvious
beginning since the affections and experiences either are sensations
of some kind or at least never occur apart from sensation.

2. This first enquiry obliges us to consider at the outset the
nature of the Soul- that is whether a distinction is to be made
between Soul and Essential Soul [between an individual Soul and the
Soul-Kind in itself]. *

* All matter shown in brackets is added by the translator for
clearness' sake and, therefore, is not canonical. S.M.

If such a distinction holds, then the Soul [in man] is some sort
of a composite and at once we may agree that it is a recipient and- if