Plotinos · Plotinus
FIRST ENNEAD, BOOK THREE.
Of Dialectic, or the Means of Raising the Soul to the Intelligible World. SEARCH FOR A DEMONSTRATION OF DIVINITY SUCH THAT THE DEMONSTRATION ITSELF WILL DEIFY. 1. What method, art or study will lead us to the goal we are to attain, namely, the Good, the first Principle, the Divinity,[343] by a demonstration which itself can serve to raise the soul to the superior world? METHODS DIFFER ACCORDING TO INDIVIDUALS; BUT THERE ARE CHIEFLY TWO. He who is to be promoted to that world should know everything, or at least, as says (Plato),[344] he should be as learned as possible. In his first generation he should have descended here below to form a philosopher, a musician, a lover. That is the kind of men whose nature makes them most suitable to be raised to the intelligible world. But how are we going to raise them? Does a single method suffice for all? Does not each of them need a special method? Doubtless. There are two methods to follow: the one for those who rise to the intelligible world from here below, and the other for those who have already reached there. We shall start by the first of these two methods; then comes that of the men who have already achieved access to the intelligible world, and who have, so to speak, already taken root there. Even these must ceaselessly progress till they have reached the summit; for one must stop only when one has reached the supreme term. RETURN OF THE SOUL OF THE PHILOSOPHER, MUSICIAN AND LOVER. The latter road of progress must here be left aside (to be taken up later),[345] to discuss here fully the first, explaining the operation of the return of the soul to the intelligible world. Three kinds of men offer themselves to our examination: the philosopher, the musician, and the lover. These three must clearly be distinguished, beginning by determining the nature and character of the musician.
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