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.   

Eyjólfur K. Emilsson is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oslo. He is the author of Plotinus on Sense-Perception: A Philosophical Study (Cambridge University Press, 1988), and Plotinus on Intellect (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Steven K. Strange was Associate Professor of Philosophy at Emory University until his untimely death in 2009. He is the author of the authoritative translation of Porphyry’s On Aristotle, Categories (Duckworth and Cornell University Press, 1992), and co-editor of Stoicism: Traditions and Transformations (Cambridge University Press, 2004)