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Plotino - Tratado 5,3 (V, 9, 3) — A natureza do Intelecto

quarta-feira 15 de junho de 2022, por Cardoso de Castro

  

Míguez

3. Hemos de examinar esta naturaleza de la Inteligencia que, según nos anuncia la razón, constituye el ser real y la esencia verdadera. Para ello debemos primero asegurarnos por otro camino que posee en efecto esos atributos. Tal vez resulte ridículo el preguntarnos si la Inteligencia cuenta en el número de los seres; aunque, desde luego, haya algunos que mantengan sus dudas sobre esta cuestión. Mejor convendrá buscar si es verdaderamente como nosotros decimos, si hay una inteligencia separada, si esta inteligencia coincide con los seres y si es a la vez la naturaleza de las ideas, extremo éste sobre el que también deberá hablarse ahora. Vemos evidentemente que todo lo que llamamos ser es algo compuesto. Ninguno de los seres es algo simple, trátese de los seres producidos por el arte o de los creados por la naturaleza. Porque los seres producidos por el arte contienen bronce, madera, o piedra y no han llegado a su plenitud antes de que el arte haga, en cada caso, una estatua, una cama o una casa, introduciendo a tal fin en estas obras la forma misma que proviene de él. Entre los seres compuestos por naturaleza, unos reúnen varios elementos y son llamados combinaciones que se resuelven en los elementos combinados y en la forma: así, por ejemplo, el hombre, en un alma y en un cuerpo, y el cuerpo en cuatro elementos. Pero cada uno de los elementos se encuentra a su vez compuesto de una materia y de aquello que le proporciona la forma, porque por sí misma la materia de los elementos carece de forma. Esto, si se pregunta de dónde viene la forma a la materia.

Habrá que investigar también si el alma es alguno de los seres simples, o si hay en ella algo que sea como la materia y algo que sea como la forma; e, igualmente, si la inteligencia que se da en ella es como la forma en el bronce o como el artista que produce la forma en el bronce. Transfiriendo estas mismas cosas al universo nos elevaremos entonces a una inteligencia realmente creadora, instituida con el carácter de demiurgo. Diremos, por ejemplo, que el sustrato que recibe las formas es el fuego, el agua, el aire y la tierra, pero que las formas que llegan a él provienen de otro ser, que es el alma. El alma añade, pues, a los cuatro elementos la forma del mundo. Ahora bien, es la Inteligencia la que le proporciona las razones seminales, lo mismo que el arte da a las almas de los artistas las razones necesarias para su acción. Contamos así con una Inteligencia que es la forma del alma y que actúa según la forma; pero hay también una inteligencia que le proporciona la forma, al modo como el escultor la da a la estatua, que contiene en sí misma todo lo que él le ha dado. Lo que (la Inteligencia) ofrece al alma es algo que está cerca de la realidad verdadera; pero lo que el cuerpo recibe es ya una imagen y una imitación.

Bouillet

III. Considérons maintenant l’Intelligence que la raison nous dit être l’Être absolu, l’Essence véritable, et dont nous avons déjà par une autre voie établi l’existence.

Il semble ridicule de chercher si l’Intelligence fait partie de l’ordre des êtres ; mais il est des hommes qui en doutent, ou qui du moins sont disposés à demander qu’on prouve que l’Intelligence a la nature que nous lui attribuons, qu’elle est séparée [de la mati  ère], qu’elle est identique aux essences, qu’elle contient les idées (εἴδη). C’est ce que nous allons établir.

Toutes les choses auxquelles on attribue l’être sont composées; rien n’est simple ni un, soit dans les œuvres de l’art, soit dans les productions de la nature (10). En effet, les œuvres de l’art renferment de l’airain, du bois, de la pierre, et ne sont tirées de ces substances que par le travail de l’artiste, qui, en donnant à la matière la forme qu’il possède, en fait soit une statue, soit un lit, soit une maison. Quant aux productions de la nature, celles qui sont des composés et des mélanges se ramènent par l’analyse à la forme imprimée à tous les éléments du composé, l’homme, par exemple, à une âme et à un corps, et le corps, aux quatre éléments. Comme chaque objet apparaît ainsi composé de matière et d’un principe qui lui donne la forme (puisque la matière même des éléments prise en elle-même n’a pas de forme (11]], on est conduit à se demander d’où la matière tient sa forme, et à rechercher si l’âme est simple ou s’il y a en elle deux parties, dont l’une joue le rôle de matière et l’autre celui de forme (12), en sorte que la première partie soit semblable à la forme que reçoit l’airain d’une statue, et la seconde au principe qui produit la forme elle-même.

Transportant ce point de vue à la contemplation de l’univers, on s’élève à l’Intelligence, et on reconnaît en elle le créateur du monde, le Démiurge : c’est en recevant d’elle ses formes (μορφαί} par l’intermédiaire d’un autre principe, de l’Ame universelle, que la substance [ matérielle] est devenue eau, air, terre et feu ; d’un côté, l’Ame donne la forme aux quatre éléments du monde (13); de l’autre, elle reçoit de l’Intelligence les raisons [séminales] (14), comme les âmes des artistes eux-mêmes reçoivent des arts les raisons qu’ils réalisent (15). Ainsi, dans l’Intelligence il y a une partie qui est la forme de l’Ame : c’est l’Intelligence considérée comme forme ; il y en a une autre qui donne la forme (comme l’artiste donne à l’airain la forme de la statue) et qui possède en soi tout ce qu’elle donne (16). Or les formes que l’Intelligence donne à l’Ame se rattachent à la vérité d’aussi près que possible, tandis que celles que l’Ame donne au corps ne sont que des images et des apparences éloignées de la vérité (17).

Guthrie

PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE AND NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE.

3. Let us now consider the Intelligence which reason tells us is absolute essence and genuine "being," and whose existence we have already established in a different manner. It would seem ridiculous to inquire whether Intelligence form part of the scale of beings; but there are men who doubt it, or who at least are disposed to ask for a demonstration that Intelligence possesses the nature we predicate of it, that it is separated (from matter), that it is identical with the essences, and that it contains the ideas. This is our task.

IN THE HUMAN WORLD EVERYTHING IS A COMPOSITE OF FORM AND MATTER.

All things that we consider to be essences are composites; nothing is simple or single, either in works of art, or in the products of nature. Works of art, indeed, contain metal, wood, stone, and are derived from these substances only by the labor of the artist, who, by giving matter its form makes of it a statue, or bed, or house. Among the products of nature, those that are compounds or mixtures may be analyzed into the form impressed on the elements of the compound; so, for instance, we may in a man, distinguish a soul and body, and in the body four elements. Since the very matter of the elements, taken in itself, has no form, every object seems composed of matter and of some principle that supplies it with form. So we are led to ask whence matter derives its form, and to seek whether the soul is simple, or whether it contains two parts, one of which plays the parts of matter, and the other of form, so that the first part would be similar to the form received by the metal of a statue, and the latter to the principle which produces the form itself.

THE WORLD-SOUL ALSO IS A COMPOUND OF FORM AND MATTER.

Applying this conception to the universe, we rise to Intelligence, recognizing therein the demiurgic creator of the world. It was in receiving from it its shapes by the intermediation of another principle, the universal Soul, that the (material) substances became water, air, earth and fire. On the one hand, the Soul shapes the four elements of the world; on the other, she receives from Intelligence the (seminal) reasons, as the souls of the artists themselves receive from the arts the reasons which they work out. In Intelligence, therefore, there is a part which is the form of the soul; it is intelligence considered as shape. There is another which imparts shape, like the sculptor who gives the metal the shape of the statue, and which in itself possesses all it gives. Now the (shapes) which the Intelligence imparts to the soul connect with the truth as closely as possible, while those which the soul imparts to the body are only images and appearances.

Taylor

III. This nature, however, of intellect must be considered, which reason announces to be truly being, and true essence, previously confirming, by proceeding in another way, [what we have before asserted] that it is necessary there should be a certain nature of this kind. Perhaps, therefore, it is ridiculous to investigate whether intellect ranks in the order of beings; though perhaps some persons may be dubious concerning this. And they may be in a still greater degree dubious whether there is such an intellect as we have maintained there is, and which is separate [from soul]. Likewise, whether this intellect is [real] beings, and whether it contains the nature of forms, about which we now propose to speak. We see, therefore, that all the things which are said to exist are composites, and that no one of them is simple, whether they are fashioned by art, or constituted by nature. For artificial substances consist of brass, or wood, or stone, and do not yet obtain perfection from these, till they are elaborated by the several arts, one of which produces a statue, another a bed, and another a house, and each effects this by the insertion of the form which it contains. Moreover, with respect to the things which are constituted by nature, such of them as are composed of many particulars, and which are said to be co-mingled, may be analyzed into the form which is inherent in all substances that are mingled together. Thus man may be analyzed into soul and body; and body into the four elements. But finding that each of these is a composite, consisting of matter and that which gives it form (for the matter of the elements is of itself formless) you will again also investigate respecting the soul, whether it now ranks among simple natures, or whether one thing in it has the relation of matter, but another, viz. the intellect which it contains, the relation of form; one indeed being analogous to the morphe in brass, but the other to the artist who produces that morphe. He, likewise, who transfers these very same things to the universe, will also here ascend to intellect, and will admit that it is truly the maker and demiurgus [of all things]. He will, likewise, say that the subject matter receiving forms, becomes either fire or water, or air, or earth ; but that these forms proceed from another cause, and that this is soul. Again, also, he will assert, that soul imparts morphe to the four elements of the world; but that intellect becomes the supplier of productive principles to soul; just as productive principles being inserted from the arts in the souls of artists enable them to energize [according to art]. "With respect to intellect, also, one which is as the form of the soul is analogous to morphe, but another which imparts this form, is analogous to the maker of the statue, in whom all things are inherent which he imparts. The things, however, which body receives, are now nothing more than images and imitations.

MacKenna

3. We will have to examine this Nature, the Intellectual, which our reasoning identifies as the authentically existent and the veritable essential: but first we must take another path and make certain that such a principle does necessarily exist.

Perhaps it is ridiculous to set out enquiring whether an Intellectual-Principle has place in the total of being: but there may be some to hesitate even as to this and certainly there will be the question whether it is as we describe it, whether it is a separate existence, whether it actually is the real beings, whether it is the seat of the Ideas; to this we now address ourselves.

All that we see, and describe as having existence, we know to be compound; hand-wrought or compacted by nature, nothing is simplex. Now the hand-wrought, with its metal or stone or wood, is not realized out of these materials until the appropriate craft has produced statue, house or bed, by imparting the particular idea from its own content. Similarly with natural forms of being; those including several constituents, compound bodies as we call them, may be analysed into the materials and the Idea imposed upon the total; the human being, for example, into soul and body; and the human body into the four elements. Finding everything to be a compound of Matter and shaping principle - since the Matter of the elements is of itself shapeless - you will enquire whence this forming idea comes; and you will ask whether in the soul we recognise a simplex or whether this also has constituents, something representing Matter and something else - the Intellectual-Principle in it - representing Idea, the one corresponding to the shape actually on the statue, the other to the artist giving the shape.

Applying the same method to the total of things, here too we discover the Intellectual-Principle and this we set down as veritably the maker and creator of the All. The underly has adopted, we see, certain shapes by which it becomes fire, water, air, earth; and these shapes have been imposed upon it by something else. This other is Soul which, hovering over the Four [the elements], imparts the pattern of the Kosmos, the Ideas for which it has itself received from the Intellectual-Principle as the soul or mind of the craftsman draws upon his craft for the plan of his work.

The Intellectual-Principle is in one phase the Form of the soul, its shape; in another phase it is the giver of the shape - the sculptor, possessing inherently what is given - imparting to soul nearly the authentic reality while what body receives is but image and imitation.


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