- 著者
-
森本 聡
- 出版者
- 宗教哲学会
- 雑誌
- 宗教哲学研究 (ISSN:02897105)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.13, pp.93-105, 1996 (Released:2019-03-20)
Plotinus’ system has been called ‘emanation’, for he often illustrates it by similes such as the sun and the light flowing out from it. But insisting that such similes should not be interpreted literally, H. F. Müller denies that his philosophy is emanation system. The aim of this paper is to elucidate what this concept means for Plotinus himself. We consider the question from two points.
The first point is how we understand the (eternal) process of generation of Intelligence from the One. The One gives birth to the Formative Principle (λόγος), and Intelligence is the first and greatest Formative Principle. What has to be noticed here is that we can regard the process as the unfolding of the Principle from the One. But the One remains constant and unchanged in the sense that it transcends the Principle and is superior to it.
The second point is the relation between the One and the principles springing up from it. Their existence wholly depends upon it because they are brought into being by it and cannot exist away from it. So they proceed from and return to it at the same time. Since the One contains them, it is omnipresent. From this aspect it is all that proceed from it, and indwells in them. But having no prior principle, it cannot be held nor contained by anything. Then it is present in none of them. In other words, the One is all and, at the same time, none of them.
Thus, to take it into account that the One does not only transcend all but also is immanent in them, the concept of ‘emanation’, including the procession of the Formative Principle from the One, can be better understood as unfolding of the One. The One unfolds itself while it remains undeveloped.