Unity and Individuation of the Soul

Abstract

Chapter 4 shows that the understanding of the soul in the Enneads is marked by Plotinus’ attempt to establish a Platonic account of the soul, which he does in constant polemics against other theories. On the one hand, such an account takes into consideration the exegetic and hermeneutic tasks of reading and interpreting Plato. Yet, on the other hand, it also establishes the soul as both uniting and separating, and hence as mediating between the intelligible and the sensible. In his psychology, Plotinus provides explanations for the unity of the soul and for its individuation, which he understands from the perspective of the synthetic unity of the one and the many. Against the material and formal accounts, it is argued that it is the rational principle or logos that is the source and principle of both unity and individuation of the soul in Plotinus.