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Plotinus: Greek Literature
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The great unsolved aenigma for Plotinus was why the One does not stay this pure, simple and solitary light, but something else begins to originate from him. He considered many answers, neither probably satisfactory enough, and among them was an explanation based on the observable fact that everything that is perfect naturally gives birth to something less perfect than itself, by virtue of some natural tendency to spread its own fullness. What is born out of the One in this process Plotinus calls nous in Greek, which is difficult to translate, but it means something like "the mind", "awareness", "cognition" or "spirit" rolled into one word. In some places Plotinus says that this divine Mind would not really become something other than the One, were it not for its "pride" or "egoism". The Mind wants to be separate... subtly, from its Source, and thus becomes a second hypostasis in the hierarchy. So, on the one hand, the fact that the many arises from the One is good, because there is some natural overflowing of fullness, but, on the other hand, it is not so good, since there is this tendency to separate from the One.
Source:
The Enneades of Plotinus were first made known in the Latin translation of Marsilio Ficino (Florence, 1492) which was reprinted at Basel in 1580, with the Greek text of Petrus Perna. Later editions by Creuzer and Moser ("Didot Series," 1855), A. Kirchhoff (1856), H. F. Miller (1878-1880), R. Volkmann (1883-1884). There is an English translation of selected portions by Thomas Taylor, re-edited in Bohn's Philosophical Library (1895, with introduction and bibliography by G. R. S. Mead).
Source:
Plotinus (c.ad 205-66) Enneads, trans. A.H. Armstrong, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press and London: Heinemann, 1966-88. (Based on the authoritative editions of P. Henry and H.-R. Schwyzer, with minor modifications; Greek text with English translation.)
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