Plotino - Tratado 28,9 (IV, 4, 9) — Zeus como demiurgo

9. Pero Zeus, que ordena el mundo, lo gobierna y lo dirige, Zeus, que posee eternamente un alma real y una inteligencia real, además de un poder de previsión que le permite conocer los acontecimientos, organizarlos y dominarlos, así como hacer girar los astros, cosa que ha hecho ya tantas veces, ¿cómo no va a conservar la memoria de todos los períodos, de cuántos y cuáles han tenido ya lugar? Si para que estos vuelvan a realizarse tiene que activar su imaginación, comparar y reflexionar, ¿cómo iba a olvidarse de todo lo demás, siendo como es él mismo el más hábil de los demiurgos? La gran dificultad que se presenta en cuanto a la memoria de los períodos cósmicos es la siguiente: ¿cuál es realmente su número, y puede Zeus conocerlo? Si este número resulta limitado, concederemos al universo un comienzo en el tiempo; pero si es ilimitado, el propio Zeus no conocerá nunca el número de sus obras. Sabrá, si acaso, que su obra es única y que disfrute de una vida única y eterna — así hay que entender el número ilimitado — , pero conocerá esta unidad, no de un modo exterior, sino por su misma obra. De este modo, lo ilimitado convive con él eternamente, y aún mejor le acompaña, pero Zeus lo contemplará con un conocimiento que no le viene de fuera. Si conoce la infinitud de su misma vida, conoce también en su unidad la actividad que ejerce en el universo, aunque ésta se extienda a todo.

IX. Jupiter, qui gouverne le monde et lui donne son ordre et sa beauté, possède de toute éternité une âme royale et une intelligence royale (19); il produit les choses par sa providence et il les règle par sa puissance ; il dispose tout avec ordre en développant et en accomplissant les nombreuses périodes des astres. Ces actes ne semblent-ils pas nécessiter que Jupiter fasse usage de la mémoire, qu’il se rappelle quelles périodes ont été déjà accomplies, qu’il s’occupe de préparer les autres par ses combinaisons, ses calculs, ses raisonnements? Il aura donc d’autant plus besoin de la mémoire qu’il sera plus habile administrateur du monde. [Voici notre réponse à cette objection.]

Quant au souvenir des périodes, il y aurait lieu d’examiner quel est le nombre des périodes et si Jupiter le connaît : car, si c’est un nombre fini, l’univers aura eu un commencement dans le temps (20); s’il est infini, Jupiter ne pourra connaître combien il a fait de choses. [Pour résoudre ces difficultés] il faut admettre que Jupiter jouit toujours de la connaissance, toujours d’une seule et même vie. C’est en ce sens qu’il doit être infini et posséder l’unité, non par une connaissance venue du dehors, mais intérieurement, par sa nature même, parce que l’infini reste toujours tout entier en lui,, qu’il lui est inhérent, qu’il est contemplé par lui, qu’il n’est pas pour lui simplement l’objet d’une connaissance adventice. En effet, en connaissant l’infinité de sa vie, Jupiter connaît en même temps que l’action qu’il exerce sur l’univers est une ; mais ce n’est pas parce qu’il l’exerce sur l’univers qu’il la connaît.

QUESTION: DOES JUPITER’S ROYAL ADMINISTRATION IMPLY A USE OF MEMORY?

9. Jupiter, who governs the world, and endues it with order and beauty, possesses from all eternity a royal soul and intelligence; he produces things by his providence, and regulates them by his power; in an orderly manner he disposes everything in the development and achievement of the numerous periods of the stars. Do not such acts on Jupiter’s part imply use of memory by which he may know what periods have already been accomplished, and busy himself with the preparation of others by his combinations, his calculations, and reasonings? His being the most skilful administrator in the world would seem to imply that he uses memory.

THE INFINITY OF JUPITER’S LIFE OPPOSES HIS USE OF MEMORY.

We might well, in respect to the memory of these periods, examine the number of these periods, and whether it is known to Jupiter; for if it be a finite number, the universe will have had a commencement within time; but if it be infinite, Jupiter will not have been able to know how many things he has done. (To solve this problem) we must admit that Jupiter ever enjoys knowledge, in a single and unitary life, it is in this sense that he must be infinite and possess unity, not by a knowledge come to him from without, but interiorly, by his very nature, because the infinite ever remains entire in him, is inherent in him, is contemplated by him, and is not, for him, simply the object of an accidental knowledge. Indeed, while knowing the infinity of his life, Jupiter simultaneously knows that the influence he exercises on the universe is single; but his knowledge thereof is not due to his exercising it on the universe.

9. But Zeus - ordering all, governor, guardian and disposer, possessor for ever of the kingly soul and the kingly intellect, bringing all into being by his providence, and presiding over all things as they come, administering all under plan and system, unfolding the periods of the kosmos, many of which stand already accomplished - would it not seem inevitable that, in this multiplicity of concern, Zeus should have memory of all the periods, their number and their differing qualities? Contriving the future, co-ordinating, calculating for what is to be, must he not surely be the chief of all in remembering, as he is chief in producing?

Even this matter of Zeus’ memory of the kosmic periods is difficult; it is a question of their being numbered, and of his knowledge of their number. A determined number would mean that the All had a beginning in time [which is not so]; if the periods are unlimited, Zeus cannot know the number of his works.

The answer is that he will know all to be one thing existing in virtue of one life for ever: it is in this sense that the All is unlimited, and thus Zeus’ knowledge of it will not be as of something seen from outside but as of something embraced in true knowledge, for this unlimited thing is an eternal indweller within himself - or, to be more accurate, eternally follows upon him - and is seen by an indwelling knowledge; Zeus knows his own unlimited life, and, in that knowledge knows the activity that flows from him to the kosmos; but he knows it in its unity not in its process.