Angilbert (fl. ca. 840/50), On the Battle Which was Fought at Fontenoy

The Law of Christians is broken,
Blood by the hands of hell profusely shed like rain,
And the throat of Cerberus bellows songs of joy.

Angelbertus, Versus de Bella que fuit acta Fontaneto

Fracta est lex christianorum
Sanguinis proluvio, unde manus inferorum,
gaudet gula Cerberi.
Showing posts with label Plotinus on the Eternal Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plotinus on the Eternal Law. Show all posts

Monday, April 19, 2010

Schubert on St. Augustine's Teaching on the Eternal Law, Part 11

Augustine's Lex Aeterna Teaching
Its Content and its Source

by: P. Alois Schubert, S.V.D.


Sculpture of the Philosopher Plotinus

Part II
What Sources Inform St. Augustine's Teaching on the Eternal Law?



3. According to Plotinus, the
Nous is the First Source of the Temporal Law, the Natural Law, the Moral Law, and the Law of the State .

In Plotinianism, the emanation of the world is unique. All things stem from the Nous, the Nous from the Hen. Being that things stem from the Nous through emanation, so also do their organization, their conformity to law stem from the Nous through emanation.

a) In individuals there are forms that are followed. The Nous surrounds the world of Ideas. It is embodied in the things that are. It covers all things, whether genera or species, or the whole or any part.(32)

The Nous, which is plenary and without flaw, shows itself as soul.(33) This is movement and life. It moves and lives in matter.(34) The Logos flows from Nous. (35) It is neither pure Nous nor pure Soul. It is neither pure Nous nor pure Soul. It is the emanation of both. It unifies both in their fullness.(36) As the principle of all the arrangement of things, the Logos stands above the Nous and the Psyche. It generates reality, the individual things of the world.(37) It gives matter its form and content; it constitutes and individualizes all things in the world. It provides the foundation of their inner organization and the laws which they follow.(38) The Logos is the plan and the form of all power. It acts in matter through the logoi spermatikoi or gennetikoi, the rational seeds of power (vernüftigen Keimkräfte).(39) It forms through the rational seeds of power all individual things as a world in miniature, a mikrokosmos.(40) The forming elements in these seeds is not the seminal fluid (Samenflüssigkeit) (hygoron), but the ideal measure, the figure of the rational Logos.(41) This law works throughout the entire cosmos as the natural law.(42) So is the natural law derived by means of the Nous from the Logos. Placing therefore the most important points in the derivation of the natural law from the eternal law in Augustine by those of Plotinus we obtain the following summary:

AUGUSTINEPLOTINUS
Augustine leads the inner order of things back to the divine Wisdom and Power. S. 9, Anm. 4.
Plotinus leads the order of things back to the Logos by means of the Nous. ἐξ ἑνὸς νοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ λόγου ἀνέστη τόδε τὸ πᾶν . . . τοῦ δὲ λόγου ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁρμονίαν καὶ μίαν τὴν σύνταξιν εἰς τὰ ὅλα ποιουμένου. Enn. III, 2, 2.
2. Augustine leads the rationes seminales back to the Wisdom and Power of God. S. 10, Anm. 5, 6, and 7.
Plotinus leads the logoi spermatikoi or gennetikoi back to the Logos. evil in the same manner: οἱ ἐν σπέρμασι λόγοι πλάττουσι καὶ μορφοῦσι τὰ ζῶια. ἐξ ἑνὸς νοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ λόγου ἀνέστη τόδε τὸ πᾶν . Enn. IV 3, 10 and Enn. III 2, 2.
3. Augustine sings a song of praise on the natural order of things and its creator. S. 10, Anm. 13.3. Plotinus praises the inner and outer harmony of things, the beauty of the world, and the Logos as its artisan. S. 41, Anm. 16.































The manner of thinking and the termini show that Augustine relies upon Plotinus.

b) The Nous is the First Source of the Moral Law. The Hen is according to Plotinus the absolute good. The Logos orthos informs men what is good and what is evil. Only those acts are moral which the Logos itself does through the resolutions of men, through free and rational measure.(43) The scale of morality is the Logos orthos. It speaks through the entire law of Providence to us, as the Providence considers men who live in accordance with that law and Providence, that is, who do all things which the law of Providence says, in particular regard. He says, further, that whoever become good, will have a good life. The evil, however, confront the opposite.(44) The law of providence, the Logos, also states what is good and evil. It promises both reward and punishment. The moral goal is found in the becoming similar to the divinity.(45) In the divinity the mind of man sees the source of life, the first source of the mind, the principle of being, the ground of good, the root of the soul.(46) Given that the standard of morality in the Logos orthos comes, in its ultimate end, from the Hen, so does the moral law flow from that source.

Plotinus leads the moral law back to the Logos orthos. Augustine leads it back to the eternal law, as we have seen.

c) The Nous is the First Source of the Law of the State. Plotinus equates the world reason with the human reason of the lawgiver that firmly maintains an orderly State. This reason knows the behavior of its citizens and their motivation. This reason applies accordingly appropriate rules. It knows to take stock of all its laws to adjust those laws to the inclinations of its citizens, to their activities, both honorable and dishonorable, so that all things, as if by themselves, are guided into balanced unit.(47) For that reason, the law of nature can be made present by the law of the State because it goes back to divinity. So was Minos the lawgiver through contact with divinity qualified to issue laws. In forming his laws, he aimed at what he had learned from his relationship with Zeus. The laws of men are therefore nothing less than reflection of the heavenly statutes.(48) So does Plotinus lead the laws of the State back to the divinity.

This same reliance is found in Augustine.

4. The Knowability of the Eternal Law.

"Plato's image of the Sun," writes Hessen, "is by Plotinus heightened in meaning. Through amplification of the theory of emanations it is developed. The Good, the basic principle from all things, is equated with Light, the Nous with the sun, and the soul with the moon. The first being is for Plotinus Light. It is called the great Light by him. (Enn. IV 3, 17). According to him, the intelligible is in all respects a kind of light. The concept of radiation is the intellectual means by which he more closely understands the emanation."(49) The world soul has its effect, says the Enneads, in accord with Ideas. It receives these ideas from the Nous and furthers them on. The Nous gives these to the world soul, and the world soul, for itself, is charged with giving them to the subordinate souls through individual radiation and individual shaping.(50) The rational part of the soul is always filled and enlightened from above.(51) The images of the things in the mind, which is nothing less than true knowledge, are those, that come over to it from the Nous. The Nous guides the soul to the concepts, as Art puts the concepts in the soul of the artist.(53) Like the radiating sun enlightens the moon and the earth, so does the Nous enlighten the reason of man.(54) Man thereby knows the eternal law upon the way of enlightenment and irradiation.

Plotinus uses the same termini and images as Augustine.

AUGUSTINEPLOTINUS
illustrari. S. 19, Anm. 15
imprimis.
S. 17, Anm. 2
The simile of the sun and the moon and the earth. S. 19, Anm. 17.
ἐλλάμπεσθαι. S. 46, Anm. 49.
περιλάμπεσθαι, S. 46, Anm. 49.
τυποῦν, S. 46, Anm. 49.
The simile of ἡλίος. S. 47, Anm. 53.













5. Conclusion of the Teaching of the Logos of Plotinus.


Plotinus teaches the order in the All. He calls this order taxis, syntaxis, harmonia, hemarmene, pronoia. He identifies this order with Law, with Logos. Plotinus expresses this law as eternal, measured in reason, and all-encompassing. Even the evil themselves are under this law. The Logos , and accordingly the Nous, are the foundational grounds for the temporal laws: the law of nature, the moral law, the law of the State. The knowledge of the eternal law, the Logos, is given man by means of enlightenment. This is, in a nutshell, the Plotinian teaching of the Logos.

The above similarities with the teaching of Augustine, in the part of its concordance, in the part of its similarity of terminology and its essential thought, bespeak of the reliance of Augustine upon Plotinus.


__________________

(27) Enn. III, 2, 5. ἡ δὲ κακία εἰργάσατό τι χρήσιμον εἰς τὸ ὅλον παράδειγμα δίκης γενομένη καὶ πολλὰ ἐξ αὐτῆς χρήσιμα παρασχομένη.
(28) Enn. III, 2, 5. Τοῦτο δὲ δυνάμεως μεγίστης, καλῶς καὶ τοῖς κακοῖς χρῆσθαι δύνασθαι.
(29) Enn. II, 3, 8. καὶ [ἕπεται] τοῖς δρωμένοις ἐν τῶι παντὶ δίκη, εἴπερ μὴ [λυθήσεται] (= τὸ πᾶν). Μένει δ᾽ ἀεὶ (Δίκη) ὀρθουμένου τοῦ ὅλου τάξει καὶ δυνάμει τοῦ κρατοῦντος . . . [E.N. word replaced from original]
(30) Enn. III 2, 9. (νόμος προνοίας) λέγει δὲ τοῖς μὲν ἀγαθοῖς γενομένοις ἀγαθὸν βίον ἔσεσθαι καὶ . . . τοῖς δὲ κακοῖς τὰ ἐναντία . . .
(31) Enn. III 2, 13. αὕτη γὰρ ἡ διάταξις Ἀδράστεια ὄντως καὶ ὄντως Δίκη καὶ σοφία θαυμαστή.
(32) Enn. V 9, 6. Νοῦς μὲν δὴ ἔστω τὰ ὄντα, καὶ πάντα ἐν αὑτῶι . . . [ὁ] δὲ πᾶς νοῦς περιέχει ὥσπερ γένος εἴδη καὶ ὥσπερ ὅλον μέρη.
(33) Enn. V 1, 7. ψυχὴν γὰρ γεννᾶι νοῦς, [νοῦς] ὢν τέλειος. [E.N. bracketed text not in original]
(34) Enn. II 3, 8. ψυχὴ γὰρ πάντα ποιεῖ ἀρχῆς ἔχουσα λόγον.
(35) Enn. III 2, 2. οὗτος δὲ ὁ λόγος ἐκ νοῦ ῥυείς. Τὸ γὰρ ἀπορρέον ἐκ νοῦ λόγος . . .
(36) Enn. III 2, 16. τίς ὁ λόγος . . . ἔστι τοίνυν οὗτος οὐκ ἄκρατος νοῦς οὐδ᾽ αὐτονοῦς οὐδέ γε ψυχῆς καθαρᾶς τὸ γένος, ἠρτημένος δὲ ἐκείνης καὶ οἷον ἔκλαμψις ἐξ ἀμφοῖν, νοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς . . . . Ἥκων τοίνυν οὗτος ὁ λόγος ἐκ νοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ ζωῆς μιᾶς (= ψυχῆς) πλήρους ὄντος ἑκατέρου.
(37) Enn. III 2, 2. οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς νοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ λόγου ἀνέστη τόδε τὸ πᾶν. Cf. Enn. V 1, 2. Here does the development of the individual get told.
(38) Enn. III, 2, 2. τοῦ δὲ λόγου ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς (= μέρεσι τοῦ παντός) τὴν ἁρμονίαν καὶ μίαν τὴν σύνταξιν εἰς τὰ ὅλα ποιουμένου.
(39) Enn. IV 3, 10. Ἐκοσμεῖτο δὲ κατὰ λόγον ψυχῆς δυνάμει ἐχούσης ἐν αὐτῆι δι᾽ ὅλης δύναμιν κατὰ λόγους κοσμεῖν·
(40) Enn. IV 3, 10. οἷα καὶ οἱ ἐν σπέρμασι λόγοι πλάττουσι καὶ μορφοῦσι τὰ ζῶια οἷον μικρούς τινας κόσμους.
(41) Enn. V 1, 5. ἀριθμὸς δὲ ὡς οὐσία· ἀριθμὸς δὲ καὶ ἡ ψυχή . . . . Οὐδὲ ἐν σπέρμασι δὲ τὸ ὑγρὸν τὸ τίμιον, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὴ ὁρώμενον τοῦτο δὲ ἀριθμὸς καὶ λόγος.
(42) Enn. IV 6, 3. Λόγος γάρ ἐστι πάντων, καὶ λόγος . . . πρῶτος δὲ τῶν ἐν τῶι αἰσθητῶι παντί.
(43) Enn. III 1, 10. Πραττούσας δὲ ψυχὰς ὅσα πράττουσι κατὰ μὲν λόγον ποιούσας ὀρθὸν παρ᾽ αὑτῶν πράττειν, ὅταν πράττωσι . . .
(44) Enn. III, 2, 9. . . . τοῦτο δέ ἐστι νόμωι προνοίας ζῶντα, ὃ δή ἐστι πράττοντα ὅσα ὁ νόμος αὐτῆς λέγει. Λέγει δὲ τοῖς μὲν ἀγαθοῖς γενομένοις ἀγαθὸν βίον ἔσεσθαι . . . τοῖς δὲ κακοῖς τὰ ἐναντία.
(45) Enn. I 2, 1. θεῶι, [φησιν,] ὁμοιωθῆναι. [Bracketed words not in original]
(46) Enn. VI 9, 9. Ἐν δὲ ταύτηι τῆι χορείαι καθορᾶι πηγὴν μὲν ζωῆς, πηγὴν δὲ νοῦ, ἀρχὴν ὄντος, ἀγαθοῦ αἰτίαν, ῥίζαν ψυχῆς.
(47) Enn. IV 4, 39. Ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἂν ἐοίκοι ὁ λόγος τοῦ παντὸς κατὰ λόγον τιθέντα κόσμον πόλεως καὶ νόμον, ἤδη εἰδότα ἃ πράξουσιν οἱ πολῖται καὶ δι᾽ ἃ πράξουσι, καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα πάντα νομοθετοῦντος καὶ συνυφαίνοντος τοῖς νόμοις τὰ πάθη πάντα αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ἔργα καὶ τὰς ἐπὶ τοῖς ἔργοις τιμὰς καὶ ἀτιμίας, πάντων ὁδῶι οἷον αὐτομάτηι εἰς συμφωνίαν χωρούντων.
(48) Enn. VI 9, 7. οἵαν ἴσως καὶ Μίνως ποιούμενος ὀαριστὴς τοῦ Διὸς ἐφημίσθη εἶναι, ἧς μεμνημένος εἴδωλα αὐτῆς (= συνουσιας Διὸς) τοὺς νόμους ἐτίθει τῆι τοῦ θείου ἐπαφῆι εἰς νόμων πληρούμενος θέσιν.
(49) Johannes Hessen, Beiträge aur Geschichte der Philosphie des Mittelalters, Mänster 1916, Band 19, Heft 2, S. 64-67.
(50) Enn. II 3, 17. Κατ᾽ εἴδη ἄρα ποιεῖ. Δεῖ τοίνυν καὶ αὐτὴν παρὰ νοῦ ἔχουσαν διδόναι. Νοῦς δὴ ψυχῆι δίδωσι τῆι τοῦ παντός, ψυχὴ δὲ παρ᾽ αὐτῆς ἡ μετὰ νοῦν τῆι μετ᾽ αὐτὴν ἐλλάμπουσα καὶ τυποῦσα, ἡ δὲ ὡσπερεὶ ἐπιταχθεῖσα ἤδη ποιεῖ. Cf. Enn. I 1, 8.
(51) Enn. III 8, 5. Τὸ πρῶτον. [Τὸ λογιστικὸν] οὖν αὐτῆς ἄνω πρὸς τὸ ἄνω ἀεὶ πληρούμενον καὶ ἐλλαμπόμενον μένει ἐκεῖ . . .
(52) Enn. V 8, 7. αἳ δὴ καὶ ὄντως ἐπιστῆμαι, παρὰ νοῦ εἰς λογικὴν ψυχὴν ἐλθοῦσαι . . .
(53) Enn. V 1, 6. Περίλαμψιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ μέν, ἐξ αὐτοῦ δὲ μένοντος, οἷον ἡλίου τὸ περὶ αὐτὸ λαμπρὸν ὥσπερ περιθέον, ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀεὶ γεννώμενον μένοντος.




Sunday, April 18, 2010

Schubert on St. Augustine's Teaching on the Eternal Law, Part 10

Augustine's Lex Aeterna Teaching
Its Content and its Source

by: P. Alois Schubert, S.V.D.


Sculpture of the Philosopher Plotinus

Part II
What Sources Inform St. Augustine's Teaching on the Eternal Law?



2. Attributes of the World Order.


Plotinus calls the order in the All eternal, in that the world is, to Plotinus, eternal.(20) The Nous brought forth the All. It is in the Mind of the enlightening Logos. That which is emitted by the Nous is the Logos. It emanates constantly forth. The eternal Logos determines the eternal order and harmony.(21)

The order is further measured by reason; in that the world soul conducts and administers the All following the laws of the Logos.(22) The order in the Cosmos is ultimately universal. It binds all things. Providence is the great guide beneath which all things stand. What could be disordered and draw away from the well-designed hanging together of all things?(23) There exists a Providence that sees all things through, from the beginning to the end, and which advances, not in numerical precision, but in a certain proportion. The evil themselves operate within this order. The evil act out their ways, their ways lacking good,(25) absent of good. "The difficulties associated with order are only possible because order exists. But it is not because of disorder that order exists, or because of unlawfulness that law exists. Rather, it is because of order that disorder exists, and because of law that reason exists, and from this there is lack of abiding in law and lack of reason.(26) According to Plotinus, order is not disturbed as a result of evil, as evil brings out in the view of the whole something useful, in that it can lend itself to be a pattern of lawfulness and something useful.(27) Yes, it is evidence of the highest power that from evil good can also be derived.(28) Providence demands that that which is evil be placed within the confines of the boundaries of order. It is with this that Dike (Δίκη), the Adrasteia (Ἀδράστεια) are concerned. Every bad action is followed by the judgment in the world, because it is not otherwise allowed. Right (Gerechtigkeit) triumphs in the All, because the Cosmos is ruled by the order and power of the highest governor.(29) The law of Providence is concerned with that: that the good are recompensed, and the evil are punished.(30). This order is in truth Adrasteia (the inescapable), in true justice and wonderful wisdom.(31) So is the order of the world according to Plotinus eternal, rational, and all-encompassing. Even the evil are dragged long under its influence, as it knows how to use it all for good.

Plotinus places therefore the same attributes upon the eternal law as Augustine.

AUGUSTINEPLOTINUS
Augustine calls this law a lex aeterna, sempiterna, ineffabilis. S. 6, Anm. 1 and 2. universalis S.7, Anm. 8; S. 8, Anm. 10
Plotinus says about the Logos: λόγος, καὶ ἀεὶ ἀπορρεῖ. S. 42, Anm. 21. πρόνοια ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἰς τέλος κατιοῦσα. S. 42, Anm. 24.
Augustine defines evil as the absence of good: malum non est nisi privatio boni. Aug. PL 46, col. 411. Mali causa est defectus boni. Aug. PL 46, col. 411.
Plotinus defines evil in the same manner: κακὸν είναι ἔλλειψις τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ στέρησις, απουσία ἀγαθοῦ. S. 42, Anm. 25.
The good and evil stand under the divine order of the world according to Augustine. Bona et mal ordine regi. S. 7, Anm. 8.ἡ δὲ κακία . . . παράδειγμα δίκης γενομένη. S. 43, Anm. 27.

















__________________


(20) Enn. III [2], 1. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸ ἀεὶ [καὶ τὸ οὔποτε μὴ τῶι κόσμωι] τῶιδέ φαμεν παρεῖναι. [E.N. corrected in brackets]
(21) Enn. III, 2, 2. Νοῦς . . . τὰ πάντα εἰργάζετο· οὗτος δὲ ὁ λόγος ἐκ νοῦ ῥυείς. Τὸ γὰρ ἀπορρέον ἐκ νοῦ λόγος, καὶ ἀεὶ ἀπορρεῖ . . . τοῦ δὲ λόγου ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁρμονίαν καὶ μίαν τὴν σύνταξιν εἰς τὰ ὅλα ποιουμένου.
(22) Enn. II 3, 13. ψυχῆς δὴ τὸ πᾶν τόδε διοικούσης κατὰ λόγον . . .
(23) Enn. III 3, 2. εἰ δὲ δὴ (= ἡ προνοίαι)ὁ μέγας ἡγεμὼν εἴη, ὑφ᾽ ὧι πάντα, τί ἂν ἀσύντακτον, τί δὲ οὐκ ἂν συνηρμοσμένον εἴη
(24) Enn. III, 3, 5. Γίνεται τοίνυν ἡ πρόνοια ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἰς τέλος κατιοῦσα ἄνωθεν οὐκ ἴση οἷον κατ᾽ ἀριθμόν, ἀλλὰ κατ᾽ ἀναλογίαν ἄλλη ἐν ἄλλωι [τόπωι]. [E.N. word replaced in brackets]
(25) Enn. I 8, 5. [[ἔλλειψις]] τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ [στέρησις, απουσία ἀγαθοῦ]. [E.N. replaced quote in double brackets; single brackets in original, but not in my copy of Enneads]
(26) Enn. III, 2, 4. οὐ γὰρ μήποτε ἐκφύγηι μηδὲν τὸ ταχθὲν ἐν τῶι τοῦ παντὸς νόμωι. Ἔστι δὲ οὐ διὰ τὴν ἀταξίαν τάξις οὐδὲ διὰ τὴν ἀνομίαν νόμος . . . ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν τάξιν ἐπακτὸν οὖσαν· καὶ ὅτι τάξις, ἀταξία, καὶ διὰ τὸν νόμον καὶ τὸν λόγον καὶ ὅτι λόγος, παρανομία καὶ ἄνο[μ]ια. [E.N. bracketed letter in original]
(27) Enn. III, 2, 5. ἡ δὲ κακία εἰργάσατό τι χρήσιμον εἰς τὸ ὅλον παράδειγμα δίκης γενομένη καὶ πολλὰ ἐξ αὐτῆς χρήσιμα παρασχομένη.
(28) Enn. III, 2, 5. Τοῦτο δὲ δυνάμεως μεγίστης, καλῶς καὶ τοῖς κακοῖς χρῆσθαι δύνασθαι.
(29) Enn. II, 3, 8. καὶ [ἕπεται] τοῖς δρωμένοις ἐν τῶι παντὶ δίκη, εἴπερ μὴ [λυθήσεται] (= τὸ πᾶν). Μένει δ᾽ ἀεὶ (Δίκη) ὀρθουμένου τοῦ ὅλου τάξει καὶ δυνάμει τοῦ κρατοῦντος . . . [E.N. word replaced from original]
(30) Enn. III 2, 9. (νόμος προνοίας) λέγει δὲ τοῖς μὲν ἀγαθοῖς γενομένοις ἀγαθὸν βίον ἔσεσθαι καὶ . . . τοῖς δὲ κακοῖς τὰ ἐναντία . . .
(31) Enn. III 2, 13. αὕτη γὰρ ἡ διάταξις Ἀδράστεια ὄντως καὶ ὄντως Δίκη καὶ σοφία θαυμαστή.


Saturday, April 17, 2010

Schubert on St. Augustine's Teaching on the Eternal Law, Part 9

Augustine's Lex Aeterna Teaching
Its Content and its Source

by: P. Alois Schubert, S.V.D.


Sculpture of the Philosopher Plotinus

Part II
What Sources Inform St. Augustine's Teaching on the Eternal Law?



B. PLOTINUS (204-270 A.D.)(1)

We shall now investigate the dependence of Augustine on Plotinus in the matter of his teaching on the eternal law. Augustine was very familiar with Plotinus. In his works he cites Platonists somewhere around 42 times.(2) He bears self-witness to the influence of the Platonists, especially Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus.(3) Augustine frequently cites Plotinus's Enneads.(4) The bishop knew the Enneads more via its Latin version as translated by Victorinus than he did its greek original.(5) He himself said: "I have read some books of the Platonists in Latin translation by Victorinus, who died a Christian. Ambrose congratulated me that I did not come upon other Philosopher's books which were full of error."(7) In his writing Contra academicos, Augustine uses expressions of great enthusiasm and wonder in describing Plotinus. He places Plotinus upon a level with the great master Plato.(8) In his Enneads, Plotinus handles the eternal law, the Logos. Now we shall look at what there is to find regarding the eternal law in the Enneads.

1. Concept of Order, Law, and the Eternal Law According to Plotinus.


Plotinus distinguishes between the intelligible world and the sensible world. The latter derives from the former (the to Hen, τὸ Ἕν) through emanation. Plotinus therefore ties the visible world to a living organism. In this organism abides a wonderful order and harmony of all parts together and as a whole.(9) He writes in this regard: "One can see how the One (to Hen) diffuses itself, in that it extends itself over all things, and holds all things together in its order, so that there is also the One is a variedly-dressed organism, in which every part is designed so that it is in accord with its nature, and thereby all things hang together into one whole."(10) Plotinus's emphasis here is that the order that is in all things is similar to the order in which one finds in a visible organism. The One is the ultimate end and reason for the order in the world (syntaxis mia, σύνταξις μία). Plotinus uses the word "order" in the sense of the natural order and order of the world. Tied up within the order of nature there are natural laws and in the order of the world there are world laws. Order is also manifested in the world of the stars. The planets help to form the universe. They hang tightly together with the universe. Within these one may find a sort of impulsion wherein they long for the interest of the universe, similar to what one finds in the parts of an organism. Only in this way is achieved a total and complete harmony.(11)

The science of divination is based upon the very order of the stars. In the stars are written heavenly signs, which move in unperturbed order, a revelation of eternal order.(12) This order can only be founded by a God, but they reveal themselves to the diviner.(13) Such revelation would not possible if the movements of the heaven did not occur in proper order.(14) Where is the foundation of this order? In that principle which makes a multifarious organism one despite the variety of its parts.(15)

Sometimes Plotinus ties in the concept of order with the concept of the beautiful. God has made all things beautiful. This beauty exists in the self-sufficiency and the consistency of the parts to the whole.(16)

The beauty is here considered as order and harmony of the parts. In referring to this order sometimes as necessity (Notwendigkeit), Plotinus ties this concept to the Stoic concept, heimarmene (εἱμαρμένη), a concept that we will later see again.(17) He understands thereby a natural cause of the hanging together of things in their becoming, in their waxing and in their waning (Ursachenzusammenhang der Dinge im Werden, Wirken und Welken). At the foundation of this foundational cause of the hanging together of things (
Ursachenzusammenhangs) stands the the Hen, the Aitia kyriotate, the highest cause. Plotinus adjusts the Stoic conception in this manner, however: that this necessary order only in the lower realms is called heimarmene, but in the higher realms it is called pronoia (προνοια), Providence. The heimarmene relates to the lesser things. The higher is exclusively Providence. In the intelligible world only the Logos rules alone.(18) Ultimately, Plotinus names the order of all things a strategic order. Through this strategic Providence, all the world is ordered, irrespective of whether actions, suffering, demands are considered. When Providence is the great Guide under which all things stand, what could be disordered and what would could withdraw from the joinder and gathering of itself together?(19) The pronoia is here the strategy of the Guide that traverses through and over the All and is concerned with order.

Plotinus teaches therefore that a certain order dominates all things. He calls this order taxis, syntaxis, harmonia, pronoia, heimarmene. This order is identical with the law in All.

The concepts of taxis, syntaxis, harmonia fit into Augustine's concepts of ordo, the covenientia partium; the concept of pronoia is known as providentia, and the heimarmene as the ordo causarum. (S. 3-5)

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(1) The sources are not chonologically, but by value addressed.
(2) Cf. Grandgeorge, St. Augustin et le Néoplatonisme, Paris 1896, p. 32.
(3) Aug., De civ. Dei VIII, 12. Ex quibus (Platonicis), sunt valde nobilitate Graeci, Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus.
(4) Vgl. die Zusammenstellung der Zitate bei Bouillet, Les Ennéades du Plotin, t. 2, p. 561, Paris 1859, t. 3, p. 661.
(5) Augustini vita PL 32, lib. 1, c. 2, col. 69. Augustinum mediocriter graecum scivisse constat. Litteras latinas amavit, graeces odit. Cogebatur ad haec studia. Augustinus ipse dixit: se leviter imbutum esse hisce litteris. Cf. Augu., Conf. 8, 2; 7, 9.
(6) Augustinus et Victorinus PL 46, col. 67, sub titulo Victorinus. Victoriunus vertit in linguam latinam libros platonicorum. PL 32, col. 750.
(7) Aug. Conf. 8, 2. Ubi autem commemoravi legisse me quosdam libros platonicorum, quos Victorinus, quondam rhetor urbis Romae, quem christianum defunctum esse audieram, in latinam linguam transtulisset, gratulatus est mihi Ambrosius, quod non in aliorum philosophorum scdripta incidissem, plean fallaciarum et deceptionum secundum elementa mund. Aug., Conf. VII, 9. Procurasti mihi . . . libros ex graeca lingua in latinam versos et ibi legi . . .
(8) Aug., Contra ac. III, 18. Osque illud Platonis, quod in philosophia purgatissimum et lucidissimum, dimotis nubibus erroris, emicuit maxime in Plotino, qui Platonicus philosophus ita eius similis iudicatus est, ut simul eos vixisse, tantum autem interesse temporis ut in hoc ille revixisse putandus est.
(9) cf. Überweg, Grundriß der Geschichte der Philosophie des Altertums, I Bd., Berlin 1920, S. 620-637.
(10) Müller, Fr. Herm., Plotini Enneades, Berolini 1888. Enn. III, 3, 1. καὶ σκιδνάμενον τὸ ἓν ὁρῶν τῷ ἐπὶ πάντα φθάνειν καὶ ὁμοῦ περιλαμβάνειν συντάξει μιᾷ, ὡς διακεκριμένον ἓν εἶναι ζῷον πολὺ ἑκάστου πράττοντος τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ ὅλῳ ὅμως ὄντος.
(11) Plotini Enn. II 3, 5. Πάντες (ἁστέρες) δὲ πρὸς τὸ ὅλον σύμφοροι, ὥστε πρὸς ἀλλήλους οὕτως, ὡς τῷ ὅλῳ συμφέρει, ὡς ἐφ´ ἑνὸς ζῴου ἕκαστα τῶν μερῶν ὁρᾶται . . . οὕτω καὶ ἓν καὶ μία ἁρμονία.
(12) Enn. III 3, 6. καὶ ἡ τέχνη (= τῆς μάντεως) ἀνάγνωσις φυσικῶν γραμμάτων καὶ τάξιν δηλούντων.
(13) Ibidem c. 6.
(14) Plotini Enn. II 3, 7. Οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐσημαίνετο τεταγμένως μὴ ἑκάστων γιγνομένων.
(15) Ibidem. Τίς οὖν ἡ σύνταξις ἡ μία . . . καὶ μίαν ἀρχὴν ἓν πολὺ ζῷον ποιῆσαι καὶ ἐκ πάντων ἕν.
(16) Enn. III, 2, 3. γάρ τι ἐποίησεν (θεός) πάγκαλον καὶ αὔταρκες καὶ φίλον αὑτῷ καὶ τοῖς μέρεσι τοῖς αὐτοῦ τοῖς τε κυριωτέροις καὶ τοῖς ἐλάττοσιν ὡσαύτως προσφόροις.
(17) Enn. III, 1, 2. [Οἱ δὲ Στωικοι] διὰ πάντων φοιτήσασαν αἰτίαν καὶ ταύτην οὐ μόνον κινοῦσαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ποιοῦσαν ἕκαστα λέγοντες, εἱμαρμένην ταύτην καὶ κυριωτάτην αἰτίαν θέμενοι, αὐτὴν οὖσαν . . . [Χρύσιππος . . . εἱμαρμένη φυσική σύνταξις τῶν ὅλων, ἐξ αιδίου τῶν ἑτέρων τοῖς ἑτέροις επακολουθουντων]. (E.N. I did not find the bracketed portion in the Enneads, III, 1, 2.]
(18) Enn. III 3, 5. εἱμαρμένη δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ χείρονος ἀρξαμένη, τὸ δὲ ὑπεράνω πρόνοια μόνον. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῶι κόσμωι τῶι νοητῶι πάντα λόγος.
(19) Enn. III 3, 2. Ἐτάχθη δὲ τὸ πᾶν προνοίαι στρατηγικῆι ὁρώσηι καὶ τὰς πράξεις καὶ τὰ πάθη καὶ ἃ δεῖ παρεῖναι . . . εἰ δὲ δὴ (= ἡ προνοίαι) ὁ μέγας ἡγεμὼν εἴη, ὑφ᾽ ὧι πάντα, τί ἂν ἀσύντακτον, τί δὲ οὐκ ἂν συνηρμοσμένον εἴη.