Enneads

The "Six Enneads" is a book whose title is sometimes abbreviated to "The Enneads" or "Enneads," and was written by the Neo-Platonists Plotinus, and edited and compiled by his last student Porphyry, in the short period after circa 253A.D, after the death of Plotinus. Plotinus was a Platonists philosopher, being possibly a 12th to 14th generation student of the Greek philosopher Plato. Plotinus claimed his Platonist education was passed to him by the Platonist Ammonius Saccas of the Egyptian city of Alexandria and one of the founders of Neo-Platonism. "The Enneads" was written circa 250 A.C.E. This "Six Enneads" entry refers to the version translated into modern english, by Stephen Mackenna and B. S. Page.

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/plotinus. This edition is the Mackenna and Page translation.">

A full transcript of the english translation of "The Six Enneads" can be found at on the webpage of http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/plotinus. This edition is the Mackenna and Page translation.

NOTE:

The copy found at http://classics.mit.edu/Plotinus/enneads.html., is a badly abridged version of the Mackenna and Page translation.

It is interesting to notice that the "The Six Enneads" is divided into six chapters (called an ennead) and each chapter is subdivided into nine subchapters (each called a Tractate, and that these numbered enneads and tractates are all multiples of the mystical number "3" (three), being that the Ennead were the nine most important gods and goddesses in Egyptian mythology, .

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Title: "The Enneads" and variously titled "Enneads" or "The Six Enneads".

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[based on the complete copy posted at " class="external">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/plotinus]

• The First Ennead:
  • First Tractate - "THE ANIMATE AND THE MAN."
  • Second Tractate - "ON VIRTUE."
  • Third Tractate - "ON DIALECTIC [THE UPWARD WAY]."
  • Fourth Tractate - "ON TRUE HAPPINESS."
  • Fifth Tractate - "HAPPINESS AND EXTENSION OF TIME."
  • Sixth Tractate - "BEAUTY."
  • Seventh Tractate - "ON THE PRIMAL GOOD AND SECONDARY FORMS OF GOOD [OTHERWISE, 'ON HAPPINESS']"
  • Eighth Tractate - "ON THE NATURE AND SOURCE OF EVIL."
  • Ninth Tractate - "THE REASONED DISMISSAL."

• The Second Ennead:
  • First Tractate - "ON THE KOSMOS OR ON THE HEAVENLY SYSTEM."
  • Second Tractate - "THE HEAVENLY CIRCUIT."
  • Third Tractate - "ARE THE STARS CAUSES?"
  • Fourth Tractate - "MATTER IN ITS TWO KINDS."
  • Fifth Tractate - "ON POTENTIALITY AND ACTUALITY."
  • Sixth Tractate - "QUALITY AND FORM-IDEA."
  • Seventh Tractate - "ON COMPLETE TRANSFUSION."
  • Eighth Tractate - "WHY DISTANT OBJECTS APPEAR SMALL."
  • Ninth Tractate - "AGAINST THOSE THAT AFFIRM THE CREATOR OF THE KOSMOS AND THE KOSMOS ITSELF TO BE EVIL: [GENERALLY QUOTED AS "AGAINST THE GNOSTICS"].

• The Third Ennead:
  • First Tractate - "FATE."
  • Second Tractate - "ON PROVIDENCE (1)."
  • Third Tractate - "ON PROVIDENCE (2)."
  • Fourth Tractate - "OUR TUTELARY SPIRIT."
  • Fifth Tractate - "ON LOVE."
  • Sixth Tractate - "THE IMPASSIVITY OF THE UNEMBODIED."
  • Seventh Tractate - "TIME AND ETERNITY."
  • Eighth Tractate - "NATURE CONTEMPLATION AND THE ONE."
  • Ninth Tractate - "DETACHED CONSIDERATIONS."

• The Fourth Ennead:
  • First Tractate - "ON THE ESSENCE OF THE SOUL (1)."
  • Second Tractate - "ON THE ESSENCE OF THE SOUL (2)."
  • Third Tractate - "PROBLEMS OF THE SOUL (1)."
  • Fourth Tractate - "PROBLEMS OF THE SOUL (2)."
  • Fifth Tractate - "PROBLEMS OF THE SOUL (3). [ALSO KNOWN AS, "ON SIGHT"].
  • Sixth Tractate - "PERCEPTION AND MEMORY."
  • Seventh Tractate - "THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL."
  • Eighth Tractate - "THE SOUL'S DESCENT INTO BODY."
  • Ninth Tractate - "ARE ALL SOULS ONE?."

• The Fifth Ennead:
  • First Tractate - "THE THREE INITIAL HYPOSTASES."
  • Second Tractate - "THE ORIGIN AND ORDER OF THE BEINGS. FOLLOWING ON THE FIRST."
  • Third Tractate - "THE KNOWING HYPOSTASES AND THE TRANSCENDENT."
  • Fourth Tractate - "HOW THE SECONDARIES RISE FROM THE FIRST: AND ON THE ONE."
  • Fifth Tractate - "THAT THE INTELLECTUAL BEINGS ARE NOT OUTSIDE THE INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLE: AND ON THE NATURE OF THE GOOD."
  • Sixth Tractate - "THAT THE PRINCIPLE TRANSCENDING BEING HAS NO INTELLECTUAL ACT. WHAT BEING HAS INTELLECTION PRIMALLY AND WHAT BEING HAS IT SECONDARILY."
  • Seventh Tractate - "IS THERE AN IDEAL ARCHETYPE OF PARTICULAR BEINGS?"
  • Eighth Tractate - "ON THE INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY."
  • Ninth Tractate - "THE INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLE, THE IDEAS, AND THE AUTHENTIC EXISTENCE."

• The Sixth Ennead:
  • First Tractate - "ON THE KINDS OF BEING- (1)."
  • Second Tractate - "ON THE KINDS OF BEING (2)."
  • Third Tractate - "ON THE KINDS OF BEING (3)."
  • Fourth Tractate - "ON THE INTEGRAL OMNIPRESENCE OF THE AUTHENTIC EXISTENT (1)."
  • Fifth Tractate - "ON THE INTEGRAL OMNIPRESENCE OF THE AUTHENTIC EXISTENT (2)."
  • Sixth Tractate - "ON NUMBERS."
  • Seventh Tractate - "HOW THE MULTIPLICITY OF THE IDEAL-FORMS CAME INTO BEING: AND UPON THE GOOD."
  • Eighth Tractate - "ON FREE-WILL AND THE WILL OF THE ONE."
  • Ninth Tractate - "ON THE GOOD, OR THE ONE."