The subject of Plotinus’ ‘mysticism’ includes a further issue that requires attention. In pursuit of union with the One Plotinus advocates a rather ascetic, otherworldly attitude: we must turn away and escape from this material world, withdrawing ourselves from any involvement with it so as to be able to lead a transcendent life, that of intellect and that of the One. His is an ethics of escape from the world (see above, s. 2). In this respect, we might conclude, Plotinus is not faithful to Plato, who is concerned with improving our present lives, elaborating for this purpose a political philosophy in the Republic and in the Laws. However, Plotinus’ ethics of escape leaves no room for politics. Plotinus, W. Theiler has said, is Plato diminished, a ‘Plato without politics’.1
This is only partially true. It is true that we do not find in Plotinus, as we do in Plato and Aristotle, extensive discussion of political structures, real and ideal, as contexts in which the human good may be realized. Plotinus recalls the civic virtues of Plato’s Republic (above, s. 2). But the attention which he gives to political questions is minimal if compared, for example, to his discussion of issues in metaphysics and psychology. However, it does not follow from this that Plotinus’ attitude is purely otherworldly, having no political application. The following remarks might serve to show this more clearly.
We should keep in mind that Plotinus’ works are presumably directed towards a readership for whom an ethics of escape is appropriate and desirable, readers who are unclear about themselves, about their purpose in life, about the true object of their desire. If, having read the Enneads, such a reader successfully reaches union with the One, then another ethics becomes relevant, what we might call an ethics of giving:
abandoning external things (soul) must turn entirely to what is internal . . . ignoring . . . even itself, coming to be in the vision of it (the One), being with it, and having been sufficiently in company, as it were, with it, must come to tell, if it can, to another the life together there, a life perhaps such as Minos enjoyed, being said thus (Homer, Od. 19, 178—9) to be the ‘friend of Zeus’, a life he recalled making laws as images of it, inspired by the contact with the divine to legislate. Or thinking political affairs as not worthy of himself, he wishes to remain always above. (VI. 9. 7. 17-28)
The vision of the One (the Good) may (but need not) lead to the desire to communicate the Good and this can be done both on the political level (lawgiving in the image of the Good) and on the individual level through the example of wisdom and virtue that can be given to others (see I. 2 (19). 6. 8-12).
Porphyry refers to Plotinus’ unrealized project to found an ideal city, Platonopolis (see above, Introduction s. 1). But Porphyry’s Life suggests that Plotinus was active almost entirely on the individual level, as a model and guide for his friends and followers. We may regard his activity of teaching and of writing as aspects of this ethics of giving If the Enneads propose an ethics of escape to the reader, they are themselves the product of an ethics of giving.
We might note finally that these two ethics recall two movements which are fundamental in Plotinus, those of soul as a cosmic force which organizes and perfects things (‘giving’) in function of detachment from them and orientation to the One (‘escape’), and those of reality in general which is constituted by an activity of ‘overflowing’ from the One and turning back to the One. These two movements are not normally separated; they are two aspects of the one dynamic process which produces everything. They have become separated in some souls, however. These souls’, our souls’, loss of orientation towards the One requires a corrective movement, escape. This escape and the fulfilment of our desire of union with the One may be accompanied by a more balanced activity, the care and improvement of our lives and of the world in the light of wisdom.