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13 - Nature: Plotinus’ Fourth Hypostasis?

from Part IV - Natural Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2022

By
James Wilberding
Edited by
Lloyd Gerson  and
James Wilberding
Lloyd Gerson
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
James Wilberding
Affiliation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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Summary

It can be difficult to get a handle on Plotinus’ conception of Nature (phusis), not least because of the numerous other connections in which Plotinus employs the Greek term phusis.1 Let us put the other uses of the term aside for now and focus on what I shall henceforth refer to as ‘Universal Nature’ or simply ‘Nature’.2 Universal Nature, for Plotinus, is no mere abstraction but a determinate entity that is causally efficacious in the sensible world in a number of ways.

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The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus , pp. 312 - 338
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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