登陆注册
5147400000221

第221章 THE SIXTH ENNEAD(13)

27.On other grounds also, it is indefensible not to have reserved the high place for the true first-principle of things but to have set up in its stead the formless, passive and lifeless, the irrational, dark and indeterminate, and to have made this the source of Being.In this theory God is introduced merely for the sake of appearance: deriving existence from Matter he is a composite, a derivative, or, worse, a mere state of Matter.

Another consideration is that, if Matter is a substrate, there must be something outside it, which, acting on it and distinct from it, makes it the substrate of what is poured into it.But if God is lodged in Matter and by being involved in Matter is himself no more than a substrate, he will no longer make Matter a substrate nor be himself a substrate in conjunction with Matter.For of what will they be substrates, when that which could make them substrates is eliminated? This so-called substrate turns out to have swallowed up all that is; but a substrate must be relative, and relative not to its content but to something which acts upon it as upon a datum.

Again, the substrate comports a relation to that which is not substrate; hence, to something external to it: there must, then, be something apart from the substrate.If nothing distinct and external is considered necessary, but the substrate itself can become everything and adopt every character, like the versatile dancer in the pantomime, it ceases to be a substrate: it is, essentially, everything.The mime is not a substrate of the characters he puts on; these are in fact the realisation of his own personality:

similarly, if the Matter with which this theory presents us comports in its own being all the realities, it is no longer the substrate of all: on the contrary, the other things can have no reality whatever, if they are no more than states of Matter in the sense that the poses of the mime are states through which he passes.

Then, those other things not existing, Matter will not be a substrate, nor will it have a place among the Existents; it will be Matter bare, and for that reason not even Matter, since Matter is a relative.The relative is relative to something else: it must, further, be homogeneous with that something else: double is relative to half, but not Substance to double.

How then can an Existent be relative to a Non-existent, except accidentally? But the True-Existent, or Matter, is related (to what emerges from it) as Existent to Non-Existent.For if potentiality is that which holds the promise of existence and that promise does not constitute Reality, the potentiality cannot be a Reality.In sum, these very teachers who deprecate the production of Realities from Nonrealities, themselves produce Non-reality from Reality; for to them the universe as such is not a Reality.

But is it not a paradox that, while Matter, the Substrate, is to them an existence, bodies should not have more claim to existence, the universe yet more, and not merely a claim grounded on the reality of one of its parts?

It is no less paradoxical that the living form should owe existence not to its soul but to its Matter only, the soul being but an affection of Matter and posterior to it.From what source then did Matter receive ensoulment? Whence, in short, is soul's entity derived? How does it occur that Matter sometimes turns into bodies, while another part of it turns into Soul? Even supposing that Form might come to it from elsewhere, that accession of Quality to Matter would account not for Soul, but simply for organized body soulless.

If, on the contrary, there is something which both moulds Matter and produces Soul, then prior to the produced there must be Soul the producer.

28.Many as are the objections to this theory, we pass on for fear of the ridicule we might incur by arguing against a position itself so manifestly ridiculous.We may be content with pointing out that it assigns the primacy to the Non-existent and treats it as the very summit of Existence: in short, it places the last thing first.The reason for this procedure lies in the acceptance of sense-perception as a trustworthy guide to first-principles and to all other entities.

This philosophy began by identifying the Real with body; then, viewing with apprehension the transmutations of bodies, decided that Reality was that which is permanent beneath the superficial changes-which is much as if one regarded space as having more title to Reality than the bodies within it, on the principle that space does not perish with them.They found a permanent in space, but it was a fault to take mere permanence as in itself a sufficient definition of the Real;the right method would have been to consider what properties must characterize Reality, by the presence of which properties it has also that of unfailing permanence.Thus if a shadow had permanence, accompanying an object through every change, that would not make it more real than the object itself.The sensible universe, as including the Substrate and a multitude of attributes, will thus have more claim to be Reality entire than has any one of its component entities (such as Matter): and if the sensible were in very truth the whole of Reality, Matter, the mere base and not the total, could not be that whole.

Most surprising of all is that, while they make sense-perception their guarantee of everything, they hold that the Real cannot be grasped by sensation;- for they have no right to assign to Matter even so much as resistance, since resistance is a quality.If however they profess to grasp Reality by Intellect, is it not a strange Intellect which ranks Matter above itself, giving Reality to Matter and not to itself? And as their "Intellect" has, thus, no Real-Existence, how can it be trustworthy when it speaks of things higher than itself, things to which it has no affinity whatever?

But an adequate treatment of this entity [Matter] and of substrates will be found elsewhere.

29.Qualities must be for this school distinct from Substrates.

同类推荐
  • 围炉夜话

    围炉夜话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Historical Lecturers and Essays

    Historical Lecturers and Essays

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 辩伪录

    辩伪录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 禅林宝训笔说

    禅林宝训笔说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太清道林摄生论

    太清道林摄生论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 陆先生道门科略

    陆先生道门科略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 皇室军岀击

    皇室军岀击

    在一个无人知晓的地方有一个不很多个地方其中红蓝国的战争一触即发
  • 雪落天堂

    雪落天堂

    雪落、雪落、无尽的悲痛缠绕,看天,看地,看万物纷落,琐事的萦绕,如同那失重的毛巾,缠绕缠绕。但命运是不屈的,在困苦与不堪的打击下,他选择了坚强与自信,与老父相依为命,却也能携佳侣同归,这是上天的恩赐还是同情,尽享天伦之乐。
  • 情倾太虚

    情倾太虚

    汗水,一滴又一滴地落到地上。女子衣衫褴褛,白色的中衣已经染红且无法蔽体,那一道又一道的血痕,还有带伤的肌肤,暴露在炎热的空气中。只是女子丝毫不顾鞭打在自己身上的铁鞭,仰起头看着那不远处的四方小亭,一抹不怕死的笑容缓缓溢出。“住手!”不远处的亭中,一声娇呵带着火星儿传来。扬着铁鞭的男子听到,喘了口气,停下了手中的鞭。这七月的天,果真热的燥人……
  • 秋千旁的夏日私语

    秋千旁的夏日私语

    《秋千旁的夏日私语--听妈妈讲那些感悟一生的事》和《后花园的秘密领地--听爸爸讲那些大自然的事》、《摇椅边的心灵盛宴--听外婆讲那些人生的事》、《榕树下的智慧课堂--听外公讲那些智慧的事》是一套陪着孩子们成长的伴读书,是除了妈妈以外最贴近孩子心灵的呵护全书。
  • 文章

    文章

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 思远道

    思远道

    本书是女学者的一部文化思想随笔集。文章多以人物带学理,内容涉及置身于墨侠、儒、道、释四种传统文化间中国传统知识分子的文化人格特征,以及书与人关系中人格与文格的契合,从中探究文化流脉中民族思想生息传承的人文线索,以文化求道途。书中还附有代表性人物图片,以结构理辨与实证。
  • 五岳山人集

    五岳山人集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重生二代不坑爹

    重生二代不坑爹

    作为一名重生的、不败家的、不坑爹的,还能自己挣钱的富二代。为了找点人生乐趣,那就选择买买买好了,不过人家买的是东西,这货买的是公司。
  • 捡了个租客

    捡了个租客

    酒吧门口碰到个喝醉的,没想到她看起来没什么钱,实际却家财万贯?可你都这么有钱了,干嘛还来租我的小破房?