Does Being share co-primacy with the One? Also, what warrants the particularization from the monad to intellect. Why at all is there any procession? How are henads deduced? GO! (edited)

Lumen

2y

INFJ

Virgo

Does Being share co-primacy with the One: according to Plotinus, no. That is because, if the One had both oneness/unity AND being, then it wouldn't be the One. Which in turn means the One's ontological nature has to transcend being, and explains why being is a degradation-emanation-procession from the One. Why is there procession: Plotinus explains it as a mystical metaphor. The One is like a sun in darkness; it radiates outwards, and its rays little by little turn weaker and less pure as they get further from their source and into this half opaque darkness. There is no logical, knowable explanations of why that is the case; the fact that being is as it is may only be contemplated as an ineffable mystery, though at least we know it is identical with Good and Beauty, so you could say emanation occurs because it is the nature of Good to emanate. But all in all the answer is related to a sort of dialectic between the One and Non-Being. As the One meets Non-Being, they together generate multiplicity. Multiplicity is the fragmentation of the One as it encounters Non-Being, and OF COURSE they HAVE to meet since all that isn't the One is ultimately Non-Being. Emanation-procession is that fragmentation process which Plotinus compares to the rays of the sun. What warrants particularization frop the monad to intellect: Matter is more multiple than Thought. It logically follows that Matter is closer to Non-Being than Thought. Therefore Intellect must be one of the first and purest emanations of the One, even though the One is beyond Thought.