Enneads V 4: How the Secondaries Rise from the First, and on the One

[sdi]

A very short tractate to follow on from the previous. I note, though, that the respite is to be short-lived: indeed, the sixth ennead alone comprises an entire third of the text!

V 4: How the Secondaries Rise from the First, and on the One

The One, being absolutely simple, must be the first thing, since there is nothing simpler that could precede it. But how can absolute simplicity give rise to complexity?

As we have already said, the Intellect is the first (and only, so to speak) thing that Exists: whatever It produces must come from It. But since the Intellect, being perfect, cannot change, then Its production doesn't change It, but rather is the same as the process of generation itself. We analogize this with the image of a fire: the fire produces heat even though it isn't part of the fire itself, but rather part of the process of burning.

Since the Intellect is an image of the One, the One must be the original of this behavior. But since the Intellect is the definition of what Exists, the One must transcend existence. But the One is nonetheless identical with the Intellect: the One is everything, and the Intellect is everything that Exists (which is to say, everything, or else we are just playing rhetorical tricks). So the Intellect is, in a sense, the Unreal coming to Know Itself, thus making it Real.

That is to say, the One is everything in an un-self-conscious mode; as soon as consciousness (which can, at first, only be self-consciousness, since there's no other yet) is introduced, it's the Intellect.