Abstract

The author aims at providing a setting in which a modern reader can evaluate the meaning of what Plotinus has to say: it is more important to listen to Plotinus than to investigate the sources of his thought. Deck gives a careful description, even if largely in a negative approach, of the One, and turns next to the main characteristics of Nous, which represents an ideal of contemplation but also produces the universe. The difficulties inherent to Plotinus's concept of soul are discussed. The last of the products of contemplation is nature, the lower part of soul. Plotinus's answer to the question whether nature is real is elusive: it is fully real, yet what is real appears to be the reflection of a form upon matter, which is a mirror reflecting being. But even this presentation must be qualified. The last chapter deals with efficient causality: contemplation is at the same time production. Plotinus seems to consider matter a product of the Nous.