Freedom and Praxis in Plotinus’s Ennead 6.8.1-6

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_30_31

Keywords:

Plotinus, Freedom, Soul, Action, Practical Ethics

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that Plotinus does not limit the sphere of free human agency simply to intellectual contemplation, but rather extends it all the way to human praxis. Plotinus’s goal in the first six chapters of Ennead 6.8 is, accordingly, to demarcate the space of freedom within human practical actions. He ultimately concludes that our external actions are free whenever they actualize, in unhindered fashion, the moral principles derived from intellectual contemplation. This raises the question of how the freedom of practical actions might relate to the freedom of intellectual contemplation. After considering two previously offered models – a model of double activity, and an Aristotelian model of practical syllogism – I offer a third alternative, namely a model of moral attunement, according to which our rational desires assume a kind of ‘care of the soul’ through active supervision. Practical life is thus imbued with freedom to the extent that the soul supervises its actions to conform to its will and choice of the good.

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Author Biography

Bernardo Portilho Andrade, Emory University

Doctoral Student, Department of Philosophy, Emory University

References

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Published

2020-10-04

How to Cite

Andrade, B. P. (2020). Freedom and Praxis in Plotinus’s Ennead 6.8.1-6. Revista Archai, (30), e03031. https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_30_31