"Some Existents (Absolute Unity and Intellectual Principle) remain at rest while their Hypostases, or Expressed Ideas, come into being; but, in our view, the Soul generates by its motion--generates by the sensitive faculty as Expression-Form and the faculty of growth in which soul extends to the vegetable order. Even as it is present in human beings, the Soul carries this faculty of growth with it, but it is not the dominant since it is not the whole man: in the vegetable order it is highest since there is nothing to rival it ; but at this phase it is no longer reproductive, or, at least , what it produces is of quite another order; here life ceases; all other production is lifeless .
"What does this imply ?
"Everything the Soul engenders down to this point (of sheer lifelessness) comes into being shapeless , and takes form by orientation towards its author and supporter; therefore (and even more certainly ) the thing engendered on the further side can be no image of the Soul, since it is not even alive; it must be an utter Indetermination. No doubt even in things of the nearer order there was indetermination, but within a form; they were undetermined not utterly but only in contrast with their perfect state: at this extreme point we have the utter lack of determination. Let it be raised to its highest degree and it becomes body by taking such shape as serves its scope ; then it becomes the recipient of its author and sustainer: this presence in body is the only example of the boundaries of Higher Existents running into the boundary of the lower."
P. 166-167, "Our Tutelary Spirit," THE ENNEADS by Plotinus (1991)
[Upon my second reading of this piercingly deep conception of the African philosopher, Plotinus , of 3rd Century Alexandria, Egypt, I thought of stem cells adaptability.
Reading further, I was reminded of what I had written in my short 2011 book, THE COLORED GREEN TREE, @Amazon.com
, a metonymy, the figure of speech, that I used to compare and to contrast yellowed collards with aimless youth raised by aimless adults, rescuing each.]
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
PLOTINUS AND COLLARD GREENS
"Some Existents (Absolute Unity and Intellectual Principle) remain at rest while their Hypostases, or Expressed Ideas, come into being; but, in our view, the Soul generates by its motion--generates by the sensitive faculty as Expression-Form and the faculty of growth in which soul extends to the vegetable order. Even as it is present in human beings, the Soul carries this faculty of growth with it, but it is not the dominant since it is not the whole man: in the vegetable order it is highest since there is nothing to rival it ; but at this phase it is no longer reproductive, or, at least , what it produces is of quite another order; here life ceases; all other production is lifeless .
"What does this imply ?
"Everything the Soul engenders down to this point (of sheer lifelessness) comes into being shapeless , and takes form by orientation towards its author and supporter; therefore (and even more certainly ) the thing engendered on the further side can be no image of the Soul, since it is not even alive; it must be an utter Indetermination. No doubt even in things of the nearer order there was indetermination, but within a form; they were undetermined not utterly but only in contrast with their perfect state: at this extreme point we have the utter lack of determination. Let it be raised to its highest degree and it becomes body by taking such shape as serves its scope ; then it becomes the recipient of its author and sustainer: this presence in body is the only example of the boundaries of Higher Existents running into the boundary of the lower."
P. 166-167, "Our Tutelary Spirit," THE ENNEADS by Plotinus (1991)
[Upon my second reading of this piercingly deep conception of the African philosopher, Plotinus , of 3rd Century Alexandria, Egypt, I thought of stem cells adaptability.
Reading further, I was reminded of what I had written in my short 2011 book, THE COLORED GREEN TREE, @Amazon.com
, a metonymy, the figure of speech, that I used to compare and to contrast yellowed collards with aimless youth raised by aimless adults, rescuing each.]