Tratado 27 (IV, 3) – Psychological Questions. (Guthrie)

FOURTH ENNEAD, BOOK THREE.

Psychological Questions.

A. ARE NOT ALL SOULS PARTS OR EMANATIONS OF A SINGLE SOUL ?

psychology obeys the precept “know thyself,” and shows how we are temples of the divinity.
are individual souls emanations of the universal soul?
conformity to the universal soul implies that they are not parts of her.
limitations to the use of the term “parts,” in physical things.
when applied to incorporeal things, “parts” have different senses.
such mathematical senses cannot be applied to the soul.
actual division into parts would be tantamount to a denial of the whole.
nor is the soul a part in the sense that one proposition is a part of a science.
the difference of functions of the world-soul and individual souls makes entire division between them impossible.
are individual souls part of the world-soul as is the local consciousness of some part of the body to the whole consciousness?
study of the question by observation of the human organism.
intellectual difficulty of the soul being one and yet in all beings.
the healthy soul can work, the sick soul is devoted to her body.
souls retain both their unity and differences on different levels.
souls develop manifoldness just as intelligence does.
why should creation be predicated of the universal soul and not of the human?
the world-soul alone creates because she remains nearest the intelligible world.
difference between individual and universal souls.
sympathy between individual and universal soul comes from common source.
difference between souls.
like the divinity, the soul is always one.
soul powers remain the same throughout all changes of body.

B. WHY AND HOW DO SOULS DESCEND INTO BODIES?

two kinds of transmigration.
study of first incarnation.
how the universe is animated by the world soul.
the world-soul progressively informs all things.
the universal soul as model of reason, as intermediary and interpreter.
souls are not cut off from intelligence during their descent and ascent.
why souls take on different kinds of bodies.
how souls come to descend.
by a pun on “world” and “adornment,” plotinos shows men add to the beauty of the world.
by a pun on “prometheus” and “providence,” plotinos employs the myth of pandora.
why many souls succumb to the law of the order of the universe.
the significance of misfortunes and punishments.
from the intelligible world, souls first go into heaven.
the descending graduations of existence.

C. DOES THE SOUL EMPLOY DISCURSIVE REASON WHILE DISCARNATE?

the soul does not use discursive reason except while hindered by the obstacles of the body.
the soul can reason intuitionally without ratiocination.

D. HOW CAN THE SOUL SIMULTANEOUSLY BE DIVISIBLE AND INDIVISIBLE?

a decision will depend on the meaning of the terms.
the body needs the soul for life.
sense, growth and emotion tend towards divisibility.
the soul as a whole of two distinct divisible and indivisible parts.

E. RELATIONS BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY.

if functions are not localized the soul will not seem entirely within us.
space is corporeal; the body is within the soul.
nor is the body a vase, for proximate transmission of the soul.
many metaphysical objections to the conception of soul as localized.
nor is the soul in the body as a quality in a substrate.
nor is the soul in the body as a part in the whole.
nor is the soul in the body as a whole in a part.
nor will the soul be in the body as form in matter.
the soul is said to be in the body because the body alone is visible.
this leaves the question of the manner of the soul’s presence.
the soul in a body as a pilot in a ship.
the soul present in the body as light in air.
while the soul-power is everywhere, the principle of action is localized in the special organ.
reason is in the head, but not in the brain, which is the seat of the intermediary, the power of sensation.
growth is localized in the liver, anger in the heart.

F. WHERE GOES THE SOUL AFTER DEATH?

the soul after death goes to the place suited to it by retribution.
pure incorporeal souls dwell within intelligence in divinity.

G. WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS OF THE OPERATION OF MEMORY AND IMAGINATION?

cosmic questions about memory depend on exact definition of what memory is.
memory inapplicable except to beings subject to limitations of time.
there is a timeless memory consisting of self-consciousness.
definition of memory depends on whether it belongs to the soul or organism.
the psychology of sensation.
in any case memory is peculiar to the soul and body
memory belongs to the soul alone.
memory belongs both to the divine soul, and to that derived from the world-soul.
what the rational soul, if separated, would remember of life.
memory does not belong to appetite, because it may be reduced to sensation.
what appetite keeps is an affection, but not a memory.
memory does not belong to the faculty of sensation.
memory does not belong exclusively to the power of perception.
memory is not identical with feeling or reasoning.
memory belongs to imagination.
intellectual conceptions are not entirely preserved by imagination.
the two kinds of memory imply two kinds of imagination.
of the two imaginations one always predominates or overshadows the other.
partition of the fund of memory between the two souls.