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Six Enneads • Plotinus

The Six Enneads were written by the Neo-Platonist Plotinus; it was edited and compiled by his last student Porphyry, in a short period c. 270 AD, after the death of Plotinus.

 

Plotinus was a Platonic philosopher, being possibly a 12th to 14th generation student of the Greek philosopher Plato and claimed his education was passed to him by the Platonist Ammonius Saccas of the Egyptian city of Alexandria and one of the founders of Neo-Platonism. It is divided into six chapters (called enneads) and each chapter is subdivided into nine subchapters (called tractates).

The Enneads serve as a comprehensive guide
for a soul's journey towards the One,
the first principle of all.

Through these teachings, we can gain insights into the nature of the soul, its descent into the physical body, and the subsequent ascent back to its true self. Additionally, the Enneads offer valuable guidance on leading a virtuous life and attaining spiritual enlightenment.

Delving into these writings enables one to attain a deeper understanding of the fundamental aspects of reality, including knowledge and intelligible reality.

{Index of Six Enneads is available below the pdf frame.
Click on the Titles & visit the respective pages with Descriptions of tractates.}

SIX ENNEADS INDEX

• First Ennead discusses the nature of virtue, happiness, and beauty.

i.1 [53]   The Animate and the Man
i.2 [19]   On virtues
i.3 [20]  On dialectic
i.4 [46]  On true happiness
i.5 [36]  Happiness and extension of time
i.6   [1]   On beauty
i.7 [54]  On the Primal Good and Secondary forms of Good (or 'on Happiness')
i.8 [51]  On the nature and source od Evil.
i.9 [16]  The reasoned dismissal

 • Second Ennead investigates the nature of matter, and describes the relation between potentiality and actuality.

ii.1 [40]  On the kosmos or on the heavenly system
ii.2 [14]  The heavenly circuit
ii.3 [52]  Are the stars causes?
i.4 [12]    Matter in its two kinds
ii.5 [25]  On potentiality and actuality
ii.6 [17]   Quality and form-idea
ii.7 [37]   On complete transfusion
ii.8 [35]  Why distant objects appear small.
ii.9 [33]  Against those that affirm the creator of the kosmos and the kosmos itself to be evil. [generally quoted as "against the gnostics"]

 • Third Ennead is concerned with spiritual matters on the human scale, discussing ideas such as fate, the human spirit, love, the nature of Providence and Free Will, and the nature of Time and Eternity.

iii.1 [3]    Fate
iii.2 [47] On providence i
iii.3 [48] On providence ii
iii.4 [15]  Our tutelary spirit.
iii.5 [50] Love
iii.6 [26] The impassivity of the unembodied.
iii.7 [45] Time and eternity
iii.8 [30] Nature contemplation and the one
iii.9 [13]  Detached considerations

• Fourth Ennead discusses the immortality of the Soul, and examines the relation of the Soul to the body.

iv.1 [21]  On the essence of the soul i
iv.2 [4]  On the essence of the soul ii
iv.3 [27] Problems of the soul (1)
iv.4 [28] Problems of the soul (2)
iv.5 [29] Problems of the soul (3). [also known as, "on sight"
iv.6 [41]  Perception and memory
iv.7 [2]   The immortality of the soul
iv.8 [6]   The soul's descent into body
iv.9 [8]   Are all souls one?

• Fifth Ennead discusses the three hypostases (or underlying principles) of reality: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul.

 v.1 [10]  The three initial hypostases
v.2 [11]   The origin and order of the beings. Following on the first
v.3 [49] The knowing hypostases and the transcendent
v.4 [7]    How the secondaries rise from the first: and on the one
v.5 [32]  That the intellectual beings are not outside the intellectual-principle: and on the nature of the good
v.6 [24]  That the principle transcending being has no intellectual act. What being has intellection primally and what being has it secondarily.
v.7 [18]   Is there an ideal archetype of particular beings?
v.8 [31]   On the intellectual beauty.
v.9 [5]    The intellectual-principle, the ideas, and the authentic existence

• Sixth Ennead discusses the kinds of Being which may be established by the Intellectual Principle, and describes the multiplicity of Ideas which may be found in the Intellect.

vi.1 [42]   On the kinds of being (1).
vi.2 [43]  On the kinds of being (2).
vi.3 [44]  On the kinds of being (3).
vi.4 [22]  On the integral omnipresence of the authentic existent (1)
vi.5 [23]  On the integral omnipresence of the authentic existent (2).
vi.6 [34]  On numbers.
vi.7 [38]  How the multiplicity of the ideal-forms came into being: and upon the good.
vi.8 [39]  On free-will and the will of the one.
vi.9 [9]    On the good, or the one.

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