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Chapter 2 One and Unity 2.1 THE ONE IN PLOTINUS The One is the fundamental principle in Plotinus’ philosophy; it is the transcendent source of being, intelligence, life beyond substance, and form.1 The One is the First Hypostasis of Being, the supreme non-composite metaphysical principle prior to any plurality, multiplicity, and opposition. It is the ultimate cause of every subsequent reality, the supreme incorporeal element of all existences, and the ineffable object of desire for every spiritual life. The Plotinian One is everywhere and nowhere, everything and nothing, omnipresent to all existences without being any of them. Plotinus himself points out that the true nature of the One is extremely difficult to be apprehended through thought and therefore defined or expressed through language. Nevertheless, it is named “the One” (το { ε &ν) as the derivative and unitary principle of everything and “the Good” (το { α > γαθο } ν) as the perfect goal of all aspirations and spiritual ascent. The former is related to the Phase of Procession where the One produces the Intellect and then through Intellect the Soul, while the latter to the Phase of Reversion where the Good inspires the Intellect and the Soul to return to their primary source. Plotinus’ theory of the One is mainly presented in his early but influential treatise VI.9 [9], On the Good or the One.2 This treatise may be supplemented by the two preceding Enneads: VI.7 [38], How the Multitude of the Forms came into Being, and on the Good, and VI.8 [39] On Free Will and the Will of the One. Porphyry places these treatises at the very end of the Enneads to emphasize the importance of the One as the ultimate goal of the human mind and the “end of the journey” for every philosophical ascent. In fact all the treatises which are included in Ennead VI refer, according to the thematic classification of Porphyry (Life, 24–26), to the nature of the One. Furthermore, an introduction to the One and its causal relationship to the other Hypostases can be found in Ennead V.1.4–7, and there are other important comments in Enneads V.2.1 and V.5.6–11. According to J. R. Bussanich, the Plotinian One is represented (1) as the transcendental absolute unity beyond being and all predication, and (2) as omnipresent .3 These two aspects correspond respectively to the negative and positive concepts of the One. Fundamentally, Plotinus’ understanding of the One 23 derives from two major Platonic dialogues: the Republic, and the Parmenides. The Plotinian One is, on the one hand, identified with the absolute supratranscendent nature of the Platonic Good “beyond being” in the Republic (509b), and, on the other, defined according to the negations of the “one” in the first hypothesis of the Parmenides (137c–142a).4 In the latter dialogue, Plato poses a metaphysical question that seems to be of great importance in Plotinus’ conception of the One (133b–134b):5 is it possible through the perceptible realm to have knowledge of the transcendent intelligible realm and finally succeed in our ultimate ascent to the divine world of the Forms? Plotinus ’ One is an attempt to answer this Platonic question and has its origins in the Presocratic One as first principle of unity (V.1.9), and the Pythagorean One as negation of plurality (V.5.6.26–8), as well as the early Platonic theories of Speusippus and Xenocrates.6 On this basis, Plotinus places the One beyond being, life, intelligence, beauty, form, and substance as the unique principle of all things (V.2.1.1–5), the principle that exists at every ontological level and makes the ascent to the Forms possible (VI.7.32–40; VI.8.12). Fundamentally, Plotinus’ theoretical innovation is to be found in the concept that the supreme principle transcends being: the “marvel of the One, which is not being” (VI.9.5.30) (θαυμα του ε &ν, ο & μη { ο ^ ν ε > στιν); being is just a “trace” (ι %χνος) of the One (V.5.5.12). Within this framework, Plotinus justi fies the supra-transcendence of the One with the following argument: since multiplicity is always inferior to unity and the producer superior to its product , there must be an ultimate, unified, non-composite principle prior to any multiple posterior which is the productive cause of all composite and complex realities.7 Thus, the One is the supreme universal source, unified and unifying, which connects and makes coherent all the Hypostases of Being from the...

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