The ''Enneads'' ( grc-gre, Ἐννεάδες), fully ''The Six Enneads'', is the collection of writings of the philosopher
Plotinus
Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher wa ...
, edited and compiled by his student
Porphyry (270). Plotinus was a student of
Ammonius Saccas, and together they were founders of
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...
. His work, through
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
, the
Cappadocian Fathers
The Cappadocian Fathers, also traditionally known as the Three Cappadocians, are Basil the Great (330–379), who was bishop of Caesarea; Basil's younger brother Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – c. 395), who was bishop of Nyssa; and a close friend, ...
,
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite) was a Greek author, Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, who wrote a set of works known as the ''Corpus Areopagiticum'' or ...
and several subsequent
Christian and
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
thinkers, has greatly influenced
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
and
Near-Eastern thought.
Contents
Porphyry edited the writings of Plotinus in fifty-four
treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Trea ...
s, which vary greatly in length and number of chapters, mostly because he split original texts and joined others together to match this very number. Then, he proceeded to set the fifty-four treatises in groups of nine (Greek. ''ennea'') or ''Enneads''. He also collected ''The Enneads'' into three volumes. The first volume contained the first three ''Enneads'' (I, II, III), the second volume has the ''Fourth'' (IV) and the ''Fifth'' (V) ''Enneads'', and the last volume was devoted to the remaining ''Ennead''. After correcting and naming each treatise, Porphyry wrote a biography of his master, ''Life of Plotinus'', intended to be an Introduction to the ''Enneads''.
Porphyry's edition does not follow the chronological order in which ''Enneads'' were written (see ''Chronological Listing'' below), but responds to a plan of study which leads the learner from subjects related to his own affairs to subjects concerning the uttermost principles of the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. A ...
.
Although not exclusively, Porphyry writes in chapters 24-26 of the ''Life of Plotinus'' that the ''First Ennead'' deals with human or ethical topics, the ''Second and Third Enneads '' are mostly devoted to
cosmological
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
subjects or
physical reality. The ''Fourth'' concerns
the Soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...
, the ''Fifth''
knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...
and intelligible reality, and finally the ''Sixth'' covers
Being and what is above it,
the One or first principle of all.
Citing the ''Enneads''
Since the publishing of a modern critical edition of the Greek text by Paul Henry and
Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (''Plotini Opera''. 3 volumes. Paris-Bruxelles, 1951–1973; H-S
1 or ''editio major'' text) and the revised one (''Plotini Opera''. 3 volumes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964–1984; referred to as the H-S
2 or ''editio minor'' text) there is an academic convention of citing the ''Enneads'' by first mentioning the number of ''Ennead'' (usually in Romans from I to VI), the number of treatise within each ''Ennead'' (in arabics from 1 to 9), the number of chapter (in arabics also), and the line(s) in one of the mentioned editions. These numbers are divided by periods, commas, or blank spaces.
E.g. For ''Fourth Ennead'' (IV), treatise number seven (7), chapter two (2), lines one to five (1-5), we write:
* IV.7.2.1-5
E.g. The following three mean ''Third Ennead'' (III), treatise number five (5), chapter nine (9), line eight (8):
* III, 5, 9, 8
* 3,5,9,8
* III 5 9 8
It is important to remark that some translations or editions do not include the line numbers according to P. Henry and H.-R. Schwyzer's edition. In addition to this, the chronological order of the treatises is numbered between brackets or parentheses, and given below.
E.g. For the previously given:
* IV.7 (2).2.1-5 since treatise IV.7 was the second written by Plotinus.
* III, 5
0 9, 8 since III.5 was the fiftieth written by Plotinus.
Table of contents
The names of treatises may differ according to translation. The numbers in square brackets before the individual works refer to the chronological order they were written according to Porphyry's ''Life of Plotinus''.
''First Ennead''
* I.1
3- "What is the Living Being and What is Man?"
* I.2
9- "On Virtue"
* I.3
0- "On Dialectic
he Upward Way"
* I.4
6- "On True Happiness (Well Being)"
* I.5
6- "On Whether Happiness (Well Being) Increases with Time."
* I.6
- "On Beauty"
* I.7
4- "On the Primal Good and Secondary Forms of Good
therwise, 'On Happiness'
* I.8
1- "On the Nature and Source of Evil"
* I.9
6- "On Dismissal"
''Second Ennead''
* II.1
0- "On Heaven"
* II.2
4- "On the Movement of Heaven"
* II.3
2- "Whether the Stars are Causes"
* II.4
2- "On Matter"
* II.5
5- "On
Potentiality and Actuality
In philosophy, potentiality and actuality are a pair of closely connected principles which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his ''Physics'', ''Metaphysics'', ''Nicomachean Ethics'', and ''De Anima''.
The c ...
"
* II.6
7- "On Quality or on Substance"
* II.7
7- "On Complete Transfusion"
* II.8
5- "On Sight or on how Distant Objects Appear Small"
* II.9
3- "Against Those That Affirm The Creator of the Kosmos and The Kosmos Itself to be Evil"
enerally quoted as "Against the Gnostics"
''Third Ennead''
* III.1
- "On Fate"
* III.2
7- "On Providence (1)."
* III.3
8- "On Providence (2)."
* III.4
5- "On our Allotted Guardian Spirit"
* III.5
0- "On Love"
* III.6
6- "On the Impassivity of the Unembodied"
* III.7
5- "On
Eternity
Eternity, in common parlance, means infinite time that never ends or the quality, condition, or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas sempite ...
and Time"
* III.8
0- "On Nature, Contemplation and the One"
* III.9
3- "Detached Considerations"
''Fourth Ennead''
* IV.1
1- "On the Essence of the Soul (1)"
* IV.2
- "On the Essence of the Soul (2)"
* IV.3
7- "On Problems of the Soul (1)"
* IV.4
8- "On Problems of the Soul (2)"
* IV.5
9- "On Problems of the Soul (3)”
lso known as, "On Sight"
* IV.6
1- "On Sense-Perception and Memory"
* IV.7
- "On the Immortality of the Soul"
* IV.8
- "On the Soul's Descent into Body"
* IV.9
- "Are All Souls One"
''Fifth Ennead''
* V.1
0- "On the Three Primary
Hypostases"
* V.2
1- "On the Origin and Order of the Beings following after the First"
* V.3
9- "On the Knowing Hypostases and That Which is Beyond"
* V.4
- "How That Which is After the First comes from the First, and on the One."
* V.5
2- "That the Intellectual Beings are not Outside the Intellect, and on the Good"
* V.6
4- "On the Fact that That Which is Beyond Being Does not Think, and on What is the Primary and the Secondary Thinking Principle"
* V.7
8- "On whether There are Ideas of Particular Beings"
* V.8
1- "On the Intellectual Beauty"
* V.9
- "On Intellect, the Forms, and Being"
''Sixth Ennead''
* VI.1
2- "On the Kinds of Being (1)"
* VI.2
3- "On the Kinds of Being (2)"
* VI.3
4- "On the Kinds of Being (3)"
* VI.4
2- "On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole (1)"
* VI.5
3- "On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole (2)"
* VI.6
4- "On Numbers"
* VI.7
8- "How the Multiplicity of Forms Came Into Being: and on the Good"
* VI.8
9- "On Free Will and the Will of the One"
* VI.9
- "On the Good, or the One"
Plotinus's Original Chronological Order
The chronological listing is given by Porphyry (''Life of Plotinus'' 4–6). The first 21 treatises (through IV.1) had already been written when Porphyry met Plotinus, so they were not necessarily written in the order shown.
* I.6, IV.7, III.1, IV.2, V.9, IV.8, V.4, IV.9, VI.9
* V.1, V.2, II.4, III.9, II.2, III.4, I.9, II.6, V.7
* I.2, I.3, IV.1, VI.4, VI.5, V.6, II.5, III.6, IV.3
* IV.4, IV.5, III.8, V.8, V.5, II.9, VI.6, II.8, I.5
* II.7, VI.7, VI.8, II.1, IV.6, VI.1, VI.2, VI.3, III.7
* I.4, III.2, III.3, V.3, III.5, I.8, II.3, I.1, I.7
In table format, the chronological order of Porphyry corresponding each of the Ennead treatises is:
Note on the ''Plotiniana Arabica'' or ''Arabic Plotinus''
After the fall of
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...
and during the period of the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
Empire, the authorship of some Plotinus' texts became clouded.
Many passages of ''Enneads'' IV-VI, now known as ''Plotiniana Arabica'', circulated among
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
ic scholars (as
Al-Kindi,
Al-Farabi
Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a renowned early Is ...
and
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic ...
) under the name ''
The Theology of Aristotle
''The Theology of Aristotle'', also called ''Theologia Aristotelis'' ( ar, أثولوجيا أرسطو, Athulujiya Aristu) is a paraphrase in Arabic of parts of Plotinus' '' Six Enneads'' along with Porphyry's commentary. It was traditionally att ...
'' or quoted as "''Sayings of an old
ise Ise may refer to:
Places
*Ise, Mie, a city in Japan
**Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie
*Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria
* Ise, Norway, a village in Norway
*Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan
* River Ise, a tributary of the ...
man''".
The writings had a significant effect on
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa (literally: "philosophy"), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, ...
, due to Islamic interest in
Aristotle. A Latin version of the so-called ''Theology'' appeared in Europe in 1519. (Cf. O'Meara, ''An Introduction to the Enneads''. Oxford: 1995, 111ff.)
Bibliography
;Critical editions of the Greek text
*
Bréhier, Émile, ''Plotin: Ennéades'' (with French translation),
Collection Budé
The ''Collection Budé'', or the ''Collection des Universités de France'', is an editorial collection comprising the Greek and Latin classics up to the middle of the 6th century (before Emperor Justinian). It is published by Les Belles Lettres, ...
, 1924–1938.
* Henry, Paul, and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer. ''Plotini Opera''. (''Editio maior'' in 3 vols. including English translation of ''Plotiniana Arabica'' or ''The Theology of Aristotle'') Bruxelles and Paris: Museum Lessianum, 1951–1973.
* Henry, Paul, and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer. ''Plotini Opera''. (''Editio minor'' in 3 vols.) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964–1982.
;Complete English translations
*
Taylor, Thomas, ''Collected Writings of Plotinus'', Frome, Prometheus Trust, 1994. (contains approximately half of the Enneads)
*
Guthrie, Kenneth Sylvan''Plotinos, Complete Works''in 4 vols., Comparative Literature Press, 1918.
* ''Plotinus. The Enneads'' (translated by
Stephen MacKenna), London, Medici Society, 1917–1930 (a
online versionis available at
Sacred Texts
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...
); 2nd edition, B. S. Page (ed.), 1956.
*
Armstrong, A. H., ''Plotinus. Enneads'' (with Greek text),
Loeb Classical Library, 7 vol., 1966–1988.
*
Gerson, Lloyd P. (ed.); George Boys-Stones, John M. Dillon, Lloyd P. Gerson, R.A. King, Andrew Smith and James Wilberding (trs.). ''The Enneads''. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
;Commentaries
* ''The Enneads of Plotinus Series.'' Edited by
John M. Dillon and Andrew Smith. Parmenides Publishing. 2012–Ongoing.
* Atkinson, Michael. ''Plotinus' Ennead V.1: On the Three Principal Hypostases'' Oxford: OUP, 1983.
* Bussanich, John. ''The One and Its Relation to Intellect'' (Translation and commentary of selected treatises). Leiden: Brill, 1988.
* Fleet, Barrie. ''Plotinus Ennead III.6''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
* Kalligas, Paul. ''The Enneads of Plotinus: A Commentary'' (Volume 1: Enneads I–III). Princeton University Press, 2014.
;Lexicons and bibliographies
* Sleeman, J. H. and Pollet, G. ''Lexikon Plotinianum''. Leiden: Brill, 1980.
* Dufour, R. ''Plotinus. A Bibliography: 1950-2000''. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
* Radice. R. and Bombacigno, R. ''Lexicon II: Plotinus''. (Includes a CD containing the entire Greek text) Milan: Biblia, 2004.
See also
*
Allegorical interpretations of Plato
Many interpreters of Plato held that his writings contain passages with double meanings, called allegories, symbols, or myths, that give the dialogues layers of figurative meaning in addition to their usual literal meaning.
These allegorical int ...
*
Henosis
Henosis ( grc, ἕνωσις) is the classical Greek word for mystical "oneness", "union" or "unity". In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, henosis is unification with what is fundamental in reality: the One ( Τὸ Ἕν), the Source, ...
*
Henology
Henology () refers to the philosophical account or discourse on The One that appears most notably in the philosophy of Plotinus. Reiner Schürmann describes it as a "metaphysics of radical transcendence" that extends beyond being and intellecti ...
References
External links
*
''The Six Enneads''(complete
Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page translation) in PDF, HTML, Microsoft Word, Plain Text, Theological Markup Language (XML), and 'Palm Doc' versions.
''The Six Enneads''– Mackenna and Page translation divided into six sections in HTML.
*''The Enneads''
Greek textpage scans of Kirchhoff's edition.
''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Plotinus''''Plotinian Bibliography 2001- ''by Richard Dufour (French and English versions), continues his research presented in ''Plotinus: a Bibliography 1950-2000'', referred above.
in English, Greek, and French for quick reference.
– The Henry and Schwyzer 1951 edition (Greek text) at Bibliotheca Augustiana.
*
Enneads– Alternate version of the LibriVox audiobook with Sections following the Translator Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie's Chronological Organization of the Books.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enneads
3rd-century books
Aesthetics literature
Ancient Greek works
Epistemology literature
Ethics literature
Hellenistic philosophical literature
Metaphysics literature
Neoplatonic texts
Neoplatonism
Pagan anti-Gnosticism
Philosophy books
Plotinus
de:Plotin#Werk