Enneads III 3: On Providence (2)

[sdi]

III 3: On Providence (2)

Continuing from the previous discussion, is it strange, then, to consider the world good while it contains things that may do evil? Wouldn't it make more sense to consider the world both good and evil?

Consider a general leading an army: he makes plans and manages logistics, yet it is up to the soldiers to carry out those plans. Certainly a general is honored or criticised for the course of the war, but this does not mean we do not award medals to a particularly gallant soldier or that we do not court-martial a soldier derelict in his duties. In our case, the general—the World Soul—is at once doing its duty while some soldiers—individual souls—are derelict in theirs. Providence is when the general takes those soldiers, sets them to hard labor, corrects them, restores them to rank, and at last allows them to demonstrate their own courage and valor again.

To put it another way, a soul might be weighted down by Matter and placed into circumstances that might drive it to do good or evil; but it is well said that an anchorite makes a tavern his cell and a drunk makes a cell his tavern. A mighty soul can do good work even with poor materials, while a feeble soul might struggle even with the finest. But we do not criticize a plant for failing to be an animal, and neither should we criticize a soul for being anything other than what it is. Instead, we should take a wider view: where does a plant or an animal fit into an ecosystem? Where does an evil act fit into a life or series of lives? Where does a soul, be it weak or strong, fit into the World Soul?

Some more sightseeing: §4 calls back to a discussion we had on whether beastly men can reincarnate into beastly bodies (Plotinus follows Plato and disagrees with Proclus and Sallustius), §5 gives a good summary of the entire discussion of Providence in Plotinus' words, and §6 has an interesting digression on how divination works at the boundary of Providence and Necessity (which reminds me of how Stephen Wolfram is always going on about how everything interesting happens at the boundary of order and chaos).