The ''Enneads'' (;
), fully ''The Six Enneads'', is the collection of writings of the philosopher
Plotinus
Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...
, edited and compiled by his student
Porphyry (270). Plotinus was a student of
Ammonius Saccas
Ammonius Saccas (; ; 175 AD243 AD) was a Hellenistic Platonist self-taught philosopher from Alexandria, generally regarded as the precursor of Neoplatonism or one of its founders. He is mainly known as the teacher of Plotinus, whom he taught f ...
, and together they were founders of
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is a version 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 series of thinkers. Among the common id ...
. His work, through
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
, the
Cappadocian Fathers
The Cappadocian Fathers, also traditionally known as the Three Cappadocians, were a trio of Byzantine Christian prelates, theologians and monks who helped shape both early Christianity and the monastic tradition. Basil the Great (330–379) wa ...
,
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'' ...
and several subsequent
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
and
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
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 Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...
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. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...
.
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 cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
subjects or
physical reality. The ''Fourth'' concerns the
Soul
The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
, the ''Fifth''
knowledge
Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...
and intelligible reality, and finally the ''Sixth'' covers
being
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one do ...
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''.
Th ...
"
* 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 Cosmos and the Cosmos 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, is an Infinity, infinite amount of 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 tim ...
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
In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...
and during the period of the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
Empire, the authorship of some Plotinus' texts became clouded.
Many passages of ''Enneads'' IV-VI, now known as ''Plotiniana Arabica'', circulated among
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic scholars (as
Al-Kindi,
Al-Farabi
file:A21-133 grande.webp, thumbnail, 200px, Postage stamp of the USSR, issued on the 1100th anniversary of the birth of Al-Farabi (1975)
Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi (; – 14 December 950–12 January 951), known in the Greek East and Latin West ...
and
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...
) under the name ''
The Theology of Aristotle'' or quoted as "''Sayings of an old
iseman''".
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'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and p ...
, due to Islamic interest in
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
. 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, 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 often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...
); 2nd edition, B. S. Page (ed.), 1956.
*
Armstrong, A. H. ''Plotinus. Enneads'' (with Greek text),
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...
, 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
John Myles Dillon (; born 15 September 1939) is an Irish classicist and philosopher who was Regius Professor of Greek (Trinity), Regius Professor of Greek in Trinity College, Dublin between 1980 and 2006. Prior to that he taught at the Universit ...
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
*
Henosis
Henosis () is the classical Greek word for mystical "oneness", "union" or "unity". In Neoplatonism, henosis is unification with what is fundamental in reality: the One ( Τὸ Ἕν), the Source, or Monad. The Neoplatonic concept has precedent ...
*
Henology
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 (incomplete copy: the pages are truncated).
*''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
Epistemology literature
Ethics literature
Metaphysics literature
Ancient Greek Neoplatonic texts
Pagan anti-Gnosticism
Plotinus
de:Plotin#Werk