prosbole

Therefore one must eliminate the cause of the puzzle by excluding from our immediate attention to it all place [Enéada VI, 8, 11]: The word epibole, whose root meaning is “casting” or “throwing upon,” we translate here as “immediate attention.” In Plotinus it is related to prosbole, “casting toward or upon” (as in V.5.7, 8: athroa prosbole or in III.8.9,19-22: epibole athroa, “immediate intuition or awareness”) and to paradoche (“reception” in VI.7.35, 19-22: epibole tini kai paradoche, “by an immediate awareness and reception”). It is a term used to specify a mode of immediate apprehension or intuition, that is beyond intellection and capable of attaining the Good/One (see Bussanich, 1988, 94; III.8.9, 19-22; VI.7.35, 19-22; and Emilsson, 2007, 92-95), but, as here, employed with a wider and more immediate application. Apparently epibole is an Epicurean term (17A, 87); LS suggest that it is a process of visualization or mental assessment of imagining something external by apprehending its image (LS 77-78 and 90). Armstrong translates epibole as “concentrated gaze,” while Bussanich (on III.8.9,19-22) translates it as “immediate intuition.”