Cha Greek Heritage
Cha Greek Heritage
You would say, would you not, that the sun is not only
the author of visibility in all visible things, but of generation
and nourishment and growth, though he himself is not
generation? In like manner the good may be said to be not
only the author of knowledge to all things known, but of
their being and essence, and yet the good is not essence,
but far exceeds essence in dignity and power.
In the hands of the NEOPLATONISTS, Plato’s idea of
the good, which is the source of all beings, becomes
identified with the One and the Beautiful.This is the ultimate
reality, which is the oneness that will give rise to the
multiplicity of everything else in the cosmos. All these have
a single goal, which is to return to that unity.
THE GOOD AND THE ONE
EXCERPT FROM ENHEADS
PLOTINUS
Still, do not, I urge you, look for THE GOOD through any of
these other things; if you do, you will see not itself but its trace;
you must form the idea of that which is to be grasped cleanly to
standing to itself not in any combination, the unheld in which all
have hold; for no other is such, yet one such there must be.
Now it is clear that we cannot possess ourselves of the power
of this principle in its concentrated fullness; so to do must be
identical with it; but some partial attainment is what our reach.
THE GOOD AND THE ONE
EXCERPT FROM ENHEADS
PLOTINUS
You who make the venture will throw forward all your being but you will
never tell it entire-for that, you must yourself be the divine Intellect in Act-and at
your utmost success it will still pass from you or, rather, you from it. In ordinary
vision you may think to see the object entire; in this intellective act, all, less or
more, that you can take to mind you may set down as THE GOOD.
It is THE GOOD since, being power, it is the cause of the intelligent and
intellective life as of life and intellective; for these grow from the source of
essence and existence, the Source as being One, simplex and first because it
was nothing. All derives from this; it is the
THE GOOD AND THE ONE
EXCERPT FROM ENHEADS
PLOTINUS
origin of the primal movement which is does not possess and of the
repose which is but its absence of need; for neither rest nor movement
can belong to that which has no place in which either could occur;
center object, ground, all are alike unknown to it, for it is before all. Yet
its being is not limited; what is there to set bounds to it? Nor, on the
other hand, is it infinite in the sense of magnitude; what place can there
be to which it must extend, or why should there be movement where
there is no lacking? All its infinitude resides in its power, it does not
change and will not fail; and in it all that is unfailing finds duration.
ARISTOTELIAN BEING AND
BECOMING
In Aristotle’s exploration of how to discuss
beings, he proposes four concepts which
provide a way of understanding any particular
being under consideration. Any being,
according to Aristotle, can be said to have four
causes.
ARISTOTLE’S FOUR CAUSES
MATERIAL CAUSE: the matter our of
which it is made. E.g., the material cause
of a house bricks, wood, steel etc. (Rain:
water) The materialists were exclusively
concerned with this cause.
ARISTOTLE’S FOUR CAUSES