Enneads I i: What is Man?

[sdi]

The Enneads are intense to study! I am thinking that I will hazard an attempt to interpret and summarize the tractates as I go along; this is mostly for my own use, but I figure that if anyone wishes to follow along with me, you may! Please note, however, that this is merely a first pass over the work—I am yet without the benefit of hindsight or commentaries, so I may widely miss the mark. That's fine by me: I like to go into things blind, and revel in the process of discovery; nonetheless, comments and criticisms are quite welcome.

Compared with my series with Sallustius, these posts will be much less formal and will appear irregularly, depending on the rate at which I am able to digest the text.

I i: What is Man?

Consider an axe. It is the fusion of two things: iron, and the concept of a wedge. Neither a lump of iron nor a mere concept can chop down a tree: it is the fusion of the two that gives it potency.

Now, let us suppose the axe misses its mark and is nicked or dulled. Is the iron harmed? No, of course not: the iron is all still there and can be melted down and reformed. Is the wedge-concept harmed? No, of course not: ideals persist regardless of what happens to any instance of that ideal. It is only the fusion of the two, the axe itself, that can be said to be harmed.

And what if the axe is no longer needed? Well, then one might melt down the iron and put it to some other use. The iron and the wedge-concept persist, of course, but the axe does not.

In the same way, a man is the fusion of a body and a soul; it is only the fusion of the two that can sin; the fusion comes into being only when it is needed; if it is too badly damaged it may be unmade and remade; and it persists only until it is needed no longer.