Plotinus (c. 205–270 ce)

Plotinus was born in the Nile Delta region of Egypt; he studied philosophy in Alexandria and later, Rome. He did not see himself as an original philosopher in the modern sense, but rather as interpreter of the truth that was first elucidated by Plato. Thus he became the founder of Greek Neoplatonism. Central issues of Plotinus's thinking are these: The first principle is the one; that is identical with the good; from the one, the intellect proceeds, which can be identified with being, and from the intellect proceeds the soul. These are the three principles or hypostases of reality.

In his treatise on eternity and time (Enneade III 7), Plato's theory of time developed in the Timaeus is the framework for Plotinus's own inquiry, but Aristotle's views intensively stimulate his notion of time in this world. Plato's definition of time as the “moving image of eternity” indicates that time can be described only in the context of eternity. Aristotle's definition of time as the “number of motion” shows that time is something closely linked to movement and to the counting soul. Plotinus's main thesis is this: Eternity is the life of the intellect, and time is the life of the soul.

His treatise on eternity and time starts with the presupposition that eternity (aion) is linked to the intelligible world of eternal being and time (chro-nos) to our sensible world of becoming. Eternity and intellect both include the same, because both are “most venerable” (semnotaton). While the intelligible includes everything just as a whole includes its parts, eternity includes the whole all at once (homou), that is, simultaneously and not as parts. Although rest corresponds to eternity as motion does to time, eternity is not identical with rest; otherwise the intelligible world would be limited to only one of the five concepts in Plato's Sophist; the other four (substance, motion, the other, the same) would be excluded. The first definition of eternity is this: “Eternity is the life, which belongs to that which exists and is in being, all together and full, completely without extension or interval” (all translations by Armstrong). This definition is founded on Plato's “living being” in the Timaeus, which is contemplated by the demiurge. This is described as “eternal” and as “always existing in the same state.”

For Plotinus, eternity is not to be identified with the intellect or the intelligible world but it is related to the totality of the intelligible life. This life that is eternity is not identical with the intelligible, but is a manifestation of it: “Eternity is not the substrate but something which, as it were, shines out from the substrate itself.” Eternity does not come to the intelligible from outside but it is from it and with it; that is, “The nature of eternity is contemplated in the intelligible nature existing in it as originated from it.” So eternity is an aspect of the intelligible as much as beauty or truth and is very close to being like a Plotinian intelligible form. It is a true whole in such a way that it is deficient in nothing, with neither past nor future.

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