Results by title

2 books match the query 'Emilsson, Eyjólfur K.'

cover of PLOTINUS Ennead IV.9: On Whether All Souls are One: Translation | Introduction | Commentary

PLOTINUS Ennead IV.9

On Whether All Souls are One: Translation | Introduction | Commentary

Eyjólfur K. Emilsson

Parmenides Publishing, 2026

This short, early treatise undertakes to explain the controversial thesis that all souls—this includes individual human souls and the world-soul—are in some sense just one soul. Plotinus considers a number of objections that can be raised against the thesis. For instance, if the thesis is true, it may seem to follow that that everything that holds for one soul also holds for every other soul. Plotinus seeks to explain that such objections are off the mark, which also shows that the thesis about the unity of soul is not a claim about strict identity of all souls. He then (chapter 5) considers and rejects two materialistic hypotheses about the relationship between individual souls and the world-soul. In the final chapter he presents his own solution: the individual souls and the world-soul are all the soul hypostasis. He likens the relationship between the hypostatic soul and the individual souls with that between a science and the theorems of the science: each theorem potentially contains the whole science and can in a sense be said to be it.

[more]
cover of PLOTINUS Ennead VI.4 and VI.5: On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole: Translation with an Introduction and Commentary

PLOTINUS Ennead VI.4 and VI.5

On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole: Translation with an Introduction and Commentary

Eyjólfur K. Emilsson

Parmenides Publishing, 2015

Ennead VI.4-5, originally written as a single treatise, contains Plotinus’ most general and sustained exposition of the relationship between the intelligible and the sensible realms, addressing and coalescing two central issues in Platonism: the nature of the soul-body relationship and the nature of participation. Its main question is, How can soul animate bodies without sharing their extension? The treatise seems to have had considerable impact: it is much reflected in Porphyry’s important work, Sententiae, and the doctrine of reception according to the capacity of the recipient, for which this treatise is the main source, resonated in medieval thinkers.   
[more]