Abstract

That the analysis of a complex object into its elements yields knowledge of it is a fundamental article of philosophical faith, which motivates the “analytic” dimension of the philosophical enterprise . On par with it, however, there is also the belief that knowledge of a complex object involves grasping it as a totality, over and beyond its constituent parts . The paradigmatic object of philosophical speculation inviting both these approaches is, of course, the universe itself. Already in Plato’s Timaeus, we encounter a fully elaborated philosophical exercise of this kind—the world is simultaneously dissected into its elements , and also explicitly conceived in terms of its totality .Plotinus engages with this cosmological tradition on many levels throughout his work, yet more systematically in the treatise II.1 , entitled On the Universe or On the Heaven . The treatise concentrates on the diachronic identity of the universe, and the