Plotino - Tratado 43,21 (VI, 2, 21) — Os gêneros primeiros e suas espécies: vinda ao ser da multiplicidade no Intelecto

21 —Si, pues, la Inteligencia permanece conceptualmente una, ¿cómo es que produce Inteligencias parciales?

—Esto equivale a preguntarse cómo de aquellos cuatro géneros proceden las especies que decimos que vienen seguidamente. Pues bien, considera cómo en esta magna e imponente Inteligencia, Inteligencia no multílocua, sino multiintelectiva, Inteligencia universal y total, no Inteligencia parcial y particular, están contenidos todos los Seres, emanados de ella. El Número, ciertamente, lo contiene entre las cosas que ves, y así, es una y múltiple. Esta multiplicidad son sus potencias, maravillosas potencias, no endebles, sino, como puras que son, grandísimas y exuberantes, diríamos; potencias de verdad, que no admiten límite alguno. Son, por tanto, infinitas; son infinidad y grandeza.

Al ver, pues, esta grandeza junto con la belleza de la Esencia que hay en ella y el esplendor luminoso que la circunda tal como están en ella, ya estás viendo la Cualidad floreciendo sobre ella y, con la continuidad de su actividad, la Magnitud presentándose a tu mirada en quietud serena, y como hay uno, dos y tres, la Magnitud tridimensional y toda Cuantidad. Mas como la Cuantidad y la Cualidad están presentes visiblemente y como ambas se juntan y como que se funden en una sola cosa, he ahí a la vista la Figura. Pero como sobreviene la Alteridad e introduce divisiones tanto en la Cuantidad como en la Cualidad, surgen diversas clases de Figuras y nuevas formas de Cualidad. La Identidad, asociándose, produce la igualdad; y la Alteridad, la desigualdad en cuantidad, tanto en número como en magnitud, de las que originan Círculos, Cuadrados y Figuras de lados desiguales, y Números cuadrados y oblongos, pares e impares. Porque como la Inteligencia es vida intelectiva y actividad no inacabada, no deja fuera nada de cuanto descubrimos ahora que es obra intelectiva, sino que contiene todas las cosas como intrínsecas que son a su potencia, conteniéndolas tal como puede contenerlas una inteligencia.

Ahora bien, la Inteligencia las contiene como en una intelección, pero en una intelección no discursiva. Pero ninguna de cuantas cosas son razones queda excluida, antes bien hay una especie de Razón una, grande y perfecta, que engloba todas las razones y las recorre comenzando por las primeras de sí mismas. Mejor dicho, las ha recorrido desde siempre; así que jamás será verdad que las esté recorriendo. Porque, en general y en todos los casos, cuantas cosas concebiría uno, por razonamiento, que existen en la naturaleza, otras tantas descubrirá que existen en la Inteligencia sin que haya habido razonamiento. Diríase que la Inteligencia creó el Ser tal como es después de haber razonado. Pasa como en las razones creadoras de los animales. Porque en estas razones, anteriores a todo razonamiento, todo está dispuesto tan perfectamente como si fueran producto razonado del más exacto razonamiento. ¿Qué hay que esperar, pues, en los Seres anteriores, en los anteriores a la naturaleza y a las razones inmanentes en ella? Porque en los Seres cuya Esencia no es otra cosa que Inteligencia y cuyo Ser y cuya Esencia no les es adventicia, todo estará dispuesto, sin esfuerzo, perfectamente, si ha de estar en conformidad con la Inteligencia, y será lo que quiere y lo que es la Inteligencia. Y por eso es verdadero y primario. Porque si derivara de otro, esto otro sería Inteligencia.

Pues bien, como en el Ser están visiblemente presentes todas las Figuras y toda Cualidad (pues no era una cualidad particular, ya que tampoco podía ser una sola cualidad estando presente la naturaleza de la Alteridad, sino una y múltiple. Y es que también estaba presente la Identidad. Ahora bien, la Cualidad es una y múltiple siendo la talidad desde el principio; luego la unidad y la multiplicidad están en todas las especies. Habrá, pues, Magnitudes diversas, Figuras diversas y Cualidades diversas. Pues ni siquiera hubiera sido lícito que ninguna cosa quedara fuera: el todo es allá perfecto; si no, no sería todo), y como la vida se difunde, o mejor, como está presente en todas partes, necesariamente nacían todos los Animales y había también Cuerpos, pues había Materia y Cualidad.

Ahora bien, naciendo por siempre todos los Seres, siendo permanentes y estando abarcados en el Ser por la Eternidad, siendo cada uno por separado lo que es, pero estando todos juntos en uno solo, esa especie de entrelazamiento y combinación de todos en uno solo es la Inteligencia. Y como contiene todos los Seres en sí misma, es un «Viviente perfecto», es el «Viviente Esencial»; pero como se ofrece a sí misma a ser vista por aquel que procede de ella, al hacerse allá inteligible, le da a éste derecho a ser llamado con razón «inteligencia».

XXI. Comment l’Intelligence, tout en restant une, pro¬duit-elle par la raison les choses particulières? C’est demander comment des quatre genres (57) proviennent les genres inférieurs. Contemple donc cette grande et ineffable Intelligence, qui ne se sert pas de la parole, mais qui est toute intelligence, intelligence de tout, intelligence universelle et non intelligence particulière ou individuelle; considère comment s’y trouvent toutes les choses qui en procèdent. — En contemplant les essences qu’elle contient, elle a le nombre, elle est une et plusieurs ; elle est plusieurs, c’est-à-dire plusieurs puissances, puissances admirables, pleines de force et de grandeur, parce qu’elles sont pures ; puissances vigoureuses, véritables, parce qu’elles n’ont pas de terme auquel elles soient forcées de s’arrêter, infinies par conséquent, infinité et grandeur suprêmes. — Si tu considères cette grandeur et cette beauté de l’essence, si par l’éclat et par la lumière qui l’environnent tu distingues ce que renferme l’Intelligence, tu vois s’épanouir la qualité. — Avec la continuité de l’acte apparaît à ton regard la grandeur à l’état de repos. Comme il y a un et deux et par suite trois, la grandeur se présente comme la troisième chose avec la quantité universelle (58).—Or, dès que la qualité et la quantité se montrent à nous, et s’unissent, se fondent en quelque sorte en une seule chose, tu vois la figure.— Alors vient la Différence qui divise la qualité et la quantité: de là les diverses qualités et les différences de figure. — La présence de l’Identité fait l’égalité, et celle de la Différence l’inégalité, dans la quantité, dans le nombre, dans la grandeur en général : de là le cercle, le quadrilatère et les figures composées de choses inégales; de là les nombres semblables et différents, pairs et impairs.

Ainsi la Vie intellectuelle, l’acte parfait, embrasse toutes les choses que notre esprit conçoit maintenant, toutes les œuvres intellectuelles ; elle contient dans sa puissance toutes choses à titre d’essences et de la manière dont les possède l’Intelligence. Or celle-ci les possède par la pensée, pensée qui n’est pas discursive [mais intuitive]. La Vie intellectuelle possède donc toutes les choses dont il y a des raisons [des idées] ; elle est elle-même une Raison unique, grande, parfaite, qui renferme toutes les raisons (59), qui les parcourt avec ordre en commençant par les premières, ou plutôt qui les a parcourues de tout temps, en sorte qu’on ne peut jamais dire avec vérité qu’elle les parcourt (60): car toutes les choses que le raisonnement nous fait saisir en quelque partie que ce soit de l’univers, on trouve que l’Intelligence les possède sans raisonnement; il semble que ce soit l’Être même qui [étant identique à l’Intelligence] ait fait raisonner ainsi l’Intelligence [ait produit ses conceptions (61)], comme cela parait arriver dans les raisons séminales qui produisent les animaux (62). Dans les raisons qui sont antérieures au raisonnement [dans les idées], toutes choses se trouvent avoir la constitution que l’intelligence la plus pénétrante serait amenée par le raisonnement à juger la meilleure (63). Que ne doivent donc pas être ces idées supérieures et antérieures à la Nature et aux raisons? L’Intelligence y est identique avec l’Essence (64); l’existence n’y est pas adventice, non plus que l’intelligence ; tout y est parfait, puisque tout y est conforme à l’intelligence. L’Être est ce qu’exige l’Intelligence ; il est par conséquent être véritable et premier : car s’il procédait d’un autre être, c’est cet autre qui serait l’Intelligence.

Puisque l’Être nous montre ainsi en lui toutes les figures et la qualité universelle (elle ne pouvait être particulière : car elle ne devait pas être unique, la double présence de la Différence et de l’Identité exigeant qu’elle fût à la fois une et plusieurs) ; puisque l’Être est dès l’origine un et plusieurs, que toutes les espèces qu’il comprend doivent par conséquent renfermer à la fois unité et pluralité, offrir des grandeurs, des qualités, des figures différentes (car il est impossible que quelque chose manque à l’Être, qu’il ne soit pas l’universalité complète, parce qu’il ne serait plus universel s’il n’était pas complet) ; puisqu’enfin la Vie y pénètre tout, y est présente partout, il en résulte que de lui ont dû naître tous les animaux (car les corps mêmes n’y manquent pas puisqu’on y trouve mati  ère et qualité). Or, comme tous les animaux y sont nés et y subsistent de tout temps, étant par leur être embrassés dans l’éternité, que pris séparément ils sont chacun une des différentes essences, que pris ensemble ils forment une unité, il en résulte que l’ensemble complexe et synthétique de tous ces animaux est l’Intelligence, qui, ayant ainsi en soi tous les êtres, est l’Animal parfait, l’Animal par essence. En se laissant contempler par ce qui tient d’elle l’existence, l’Intelligence devient pour lui l’Intelligible, et reçoit cette qualification avec vérité (65).

HOW INTELLIGENCE, THOUGH ONE, PRODUCES PARTICULAR THINGS.

21. How then does Intelligence, though remaining one, by Reason produce particular things? This really amounts to asking how the inferior genera derive from the four Genera. We shall then have to scrutinize how this great and ineffable Intelligence, which does not make use of speech, but which is entire intelligence, intelligence of all, universal, and not particular or individual intelligence, contains all the things which proceed therefrom.

(Of the essences it contains) it possesses the number, as it is both one and many. It is many, that is, (it is) many potentialities, which are admirable powers, full of force and greatness, because they are pure; powers that are vigorous and veritable because they have no goal at which they are forced to stop; consequently being infinite, that is, supreme Infinity, and Greatness. If then we were to scrutinize this greatness and beauty of being, if by the splendor and light which surround it, we were to distinguish what Intelligence contains, then would we see the efflorescing of quality. With the continuity of actualization we would behold greatness, in quiescent condition. As we have seen one (number), two (quality), and three (greatness), greatness, as the third thing, presents itself with universal quantity. Now, as soon as quality and quantity show themselves to us, they unite, blend into one and the same figure (outward appearance). Then comes difference, which divides quality and quantity, whence arise different qualities, and differences of figure. The presence of identity produces equality, and that of difference, inequality, both in quantity, number, and dimension; hence the circle, the quadrilateral, and the figures composed of unequal things; hence numbers that are similar, and different, even and uneven.

THIS INTELLECTUAL LIFE POSSESSES THE REASONS OR IDEAS.

Thus intellectual Life, which is the perfect actualization, embraces all the things that our mind now conceives, and all intellectual operations. In its potentiality it contains all things as essences, in the same manner as Intelligence does. Now Intelligence possesses them by thought, a thought which is not discursive (but intuitive). The intellectual life therefore possesses all the things of which there are "reasons" (that is, ideas); itself is a single Reason, great, perfect, which contains all reasons, which examines them in an orderly fashion, beginning with the first, or rather, which has ever examined them, so that one could never leally tell that it was examining them. For all things that we grasp by ratiocination, in whatever part soever of the universe they may be located, are found as intuitively possessed by Intelligence. It would seem as if it was Essence itself which, (being identical with Intelligence), had made Intelligence reason thus (by producing its conceptions), as appears to happen in the ("seminal) reasons" which produce the animals. In the (ideas, that is in the "seminal) reasons" which are anterior to ratiocination, all things are found to possess a constitution such that the most penetrating intelligence would have considered best, by reasoning. We should therefore expect (great and wonderful things) of these Ideas, superior and anterior to Nature and ("seminal) reasons." There Intelligence fuses with "Being;" neither in essence nor intelligence is there anything adventitious. There everything is smoothly perfect, since everything there is conformable to intelligence. All Essence is what Intelligence demands; it is consequently veritable primary Essence; for if it proceeded from some other (source), this also would be Intelligence.

FROM ESSENCE ARE BORN ALL LIVING ORGANISMS.

Thus Essence reveals within itself all the Forms and universality. This could not have been particular; for it could not be single, the double presence of difference and identity demanding it to be simultaneously one and many. Since, from its very origin, Essence is one and many, all the species it contains must consequently simultaneously contain unity and plurality, revealing dimensions, qualities, and different figures; for it is impossible that Essence should lack anything, or should not be complete universality; for it would no longer be universal, if it were not complete. Life, therefore, penetrates every thing; is everywhere present within it. Hence results that from that Life must have been born all living organisms, for since matter and quality are found within their bodies, these also are not lacking. Now, as all living organisms are born within it, and have ever subsisted within it, they were essentially embraced within eternity, yet, taken separately, each of them is a different essence. Taken together they form a unity. Consequently, the complex and synthetic totality of all these living organisms is Intelligence, which, thus containing all (beings), is the perfect and essential living Organism. When Intelligence allows itself to be contemplated by what derives existence from it, Intelligence appears thereto as the intelligible, and receives this predicate properly, and truly.

21. How then does the universal Intellect produce the particulars while, in virtue of its Reason-Principle, remaining a unity? In other words, how do the various grades of Being, as we call them, arise from the four primaries? Here is this great, this infinite Intellect, not given to idle utterance but to sheer intellection, all-embracing, integral, no part, no individual: how, we ask, can it possibly be the source of all this plurality?

Number at all events it possesses in the objects of its contemplation: it is thus one and many, and the many are powers, wonderful powers, not weak but, being pure, supremely great and, so to speak, full to overflowing powers in very truth, knowing no limit, so that they are infinite, infinity, Magnitude-Absolute.

As we survey this Magnitude with the beauty of Being within it and the glory and light around it, all contained in Intellect, we see, simultaneously, Quality already in bloom, and along with the continuity of its Act we catch a glimpse of Magnitude at Rest. Then, with one, two and three in Intellect, Magnitude appears as of three dimensions, with Quantity entire. Quantity thus given and Quality, both merging into one and, we may almost say, becoming one, there is at once shape. Difference slips in to divide both Quantity and Quality, and so we have variations in shape and differences of Quality. Identity, coming in with Difference, creates equality, Difference meanwhile introducing into Quantity inequality, whether in number or in magnitude: thus are produced circles and squares, and irregular figures, with number like and unlike, odd and even.

The life of Intellect is intelligent, and its activity [Act] has no failing-point: hence it excludes none of the constituents we have discovered within it, each one of which we now see as an intellectual function, and all of them possessed by virtue of its distinctive power and in the mode appropriate to Intellect.

But though Intellect possesses them all by way of thought, this is not discursive thought: nothing it lacks that is capable of serving as Reason-Principle, while it may itself be regarded as one great and perfect Reason-Principle, holding all the Principles as one and proceeding from its own Primaries, or rather having eternally proceeded, so that "proceeding" is never true of it. It is a universal rule that whatever reasoning discovers to exist in Nature is to be found in Intellect apart from all ratiocination: we conclude that Being has so created Intellect that its reasoning is after a mode similar to that of the Principles which produce living beings; for the Reason-Principles, prior to reasoning though they are, act invariably in the manner which the most careful reasoning would adopt in order to attain the best results.

What conditions, then, are we to think of as existing in that realm which is prior to Nature and transcends the Principles of Nature? In a sphere in which Substance is not distinct from Intellect, and neither Being nor Intellect is of alien origin, it is obvious that Being is best served by the domination of Intellect, so that Being is what Intellect wills and is: thus alone can it be authentic and primary Being; for if Being is to be in any sense derived, its derivation must be from Intellect.

Being, thus, exhibits every shape and every quality; it is not seen as a thing determined by some one particular quality; there could not be one only, since the principle of Difference is there; and since Identity is equally there, it must be simultaneously one and many. And so Being is; such it always was: unity-with-plurality appears in all its species, as witness all the variations of magnitude, shape and quality. Clearly nothing may legitimately be excluded [from Being], for the whole must be complete in the higher sphere which, otherwise, would not be the whole.

Life, too, burst upon Being, or rather was inseparably bound up with it; and thus it was that all living things of necessity came to be. Body too was there, since Matter and Quality were present.

Everything exists forever, unfailing, involved by very existence in eternity. Individuals have their separate entities, but are at one in the [total] unity. The complex, so to speak, of them all, thus combined, is Intellect; and Intellect, holding all existence within itself, is a complete living being, and the essential Idea of Living Being. In so far as Intellect submits to contemplation by its derivative, becoming an Intelligible, it gives that derivative the right also to be called "living being."