The Enneads (), fully The Six Enneads, is the collection of writings of the philosopher Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry (270). Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas, and together they were founders of Neoplatonism. His work, through Augustine of Hippo, the Cappadocian Fathers, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and several subsequent Christian and Muslim thinkers, has greatly influenced Western and Near-Eastern thought.
Contents
Porphyry edited the writings of Plotinus in fifty-four treatises, which vary greatly in length and number of chapters, mostly because he split original texts and joined others together to match this very number. Then, he proceeded to set the fifty-four treatises in groups of nine (Greek. ennea) or Enneads. He also collected The Enneads into three volumes. The first volume contained the first three Enneads (I, II, III), the second volume has the Fourth (IV) and the Fifth (V) Enneads, and the last volume was devoted to the remaining Ennead. After correcting and naming each treatise, Porphyry wrote a biography of his master, Life of Plotinus, intended to be an Introduction to the Enneads.
Porphyry's edition does not follow the chronological order in which Enneads were written (see Chronological listing below), but responds to a plan of study which leads the learner from subjects related to his own affairs to subjects concerning the uttermost principles of the universe.
Although not exclusively, Porphyry writes in chapters 24–26 of the Life of Plotinus that the First Ennead deals with human or ethical topics, the Second and Third Enneads are mostly devoted to cosmological subjects or physical reality. The Fourth concerns the Soul, the Fifth knowledge and intelligible reality, and finally the Sixth covers Being and what is above it, the One or first principle of all.
Citing the Enneads
Since the publishing of a modern critical edition of the Greek text by Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Paris-Bruxelles, 1951–1973; H-S1 or editio major text) and the revised one (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964–1984; referred to as the H-S2 or editio minor text) there is an academic convention of citing the Enneads by first mentioning the number of Ennead (usually in Romans from I to VI), the number of treatise within each Ennead (in arabics from 1 to 9), the number of chapter (in arabics also), and the line(s) in one of the mentioned editions. These numbers are divided by periods, commas, or blank spaces.
E.g. For Fourth Ennead (IV), treatise number seven (7), chapter two (2), lines one to five (1-5), we write:
IV.7.2.1-5
E.g. The following three mean Third Ennead (III), treatise number five (5), chapter nine (9), line eight (8):
III, 5, 9, 8
3,5,9,8
III 5 9 8
It is important to remark that some translations or editions do not include the line numbers according to P. Henry and H.-R. Schwyzer's edition. In addition to this, the chronological order of the treatises is numbered between brackets or parentheses, and given below.
E.g. For the previously given:
IV.7 (2).2.1-5 since treatise IV.7 was the second written by Plotinus. III, 5 [50], 9, 8 since III.5 was the fiftieth written by Plotinus.
Table of contents
The names of treatises may differ according to translation. The numbers in square brackets before the individual works refer to the chronological order they were written according to Porphyry's Life of Plotinus.
First Ennead
I.1 [53] - "What is the Living Being and What is Man?" I.2 [19] - "On Virtue" I.3 [20] - "On Dialectic [The Upward Way]." I.4 [46] - "On True Happiness (Well Being)" I.5 [36] - "On Whether Happiness (Well Being) Increases with Time." I.6 [1] - "On Beauty" I.7 [54] - "On the Primal Good and Secondary Forms of Good [Otherwise, 'On Happiness']" I.8 [51] - "On the Nature and Source of Evil" I.9 [16] - "On Dismissal"
Second Ennead
II.1 [40] - "On Heaven" II.2 [14] - "On the Movement of Heaven" II.3 [52] - "Whether the Stars are Causes" II.4 [12] - "On Matter" II.5 [25] - "On Potentiality and Actuality" II.6 [17] - "On Quality or on Substance" II.7 [37] - "On Complete Transfusion" II.8 [35] - "On Sight or on how Distant Objects Appear Small" II.9 [33] - "Against Those That Affirm The Creator of the Kosmos and The Kosmos Itself to be Evil" [generally quoted as "Against the Gnostics"]