Noetic world view in Plotinus
and
notion of Nature.
Johannes Scholasticus
ὁ Ιωάννης Σχολαστικός
(Galatasaray University,
Constantinople)
Contents
0. Definition of “Nature.”
1. Spinoza “natura naturans” vs. “natura naturata.”
2.Plotinian Physis and hierarchy in orgnism by PA
Weiss
3.Plotinian thought on the procession of Soul.
4. Intellect : Noetic world.
5. Comparison with Takahashi’s Four Layer Structure.
0. Definition of the word “Nature.”
Webster New Collegiate Dictionary
1. The inherent character or basic constitution of a person or thing :
ESSENCE.
2.A: A creative and controlling force in the universe. (A hidden
mechanistic view.) B: an inner force or the sum of such forces in an
individual.
3.The physical constitution or drives of an organism. Esp. an excretory
organ or function – usually used in the phrase call of nature=便意.
4.The external world in its entirety.
5. Natural scenery.
(Robert) Ce qui, dans l’univers, se produit spontanément, sans
intervention de l’homme tout ce qui existe sans l’action de l’homme.
6. Things spontaneously produced and exist without intervention of
human beings (human - nature dualism. If not human, no “nature” as
such.)
1.Spinoza “natura naturans”vs. “natura naturata.”
Natura =
1. The essence of a thing in contrast to its properties
e.g. the nature of God, man, a triangle.
2. Entity of existing things (= Natura rerum) governed
by their internal laws. No external authority.
The whole of these laws may have a Principle (so
called “God”) not identified with any part of the Nature
≈ Triangle ≠ <AB+ <BC+<CA=180 deg.
Spinoza “natura naturans”vs. “natura naturata.”
Natura naturans: Substances and attributes that are conceived
clearly and distinctly through themselves (in se est et per se
concipitur) = God.
Total self-sufficiency (selfstandigheden).
Natura naturata : Modes and creature.
a) Universal (natural laws), b) Particular (concrete beings).
Universal –modes immediately depending on God. The greatness
of the workman cf. Divine mind –workman of all things (Seneca=
Later Stoic thought)
Particular – Modes derived from the Universal.
Remark. I) Spinoza’s theory of Substance. a) Substance is its own cause; otherwise it
would be produced by something other than itself, in which case it would not be a
substance. b) It is infinite. If it were finite it would be limited by other substances and
consequently depend on them. c) It is the only substance| for if there were two
substances, they would limit each other and cease to be independent (not self-sufficient).
II) Attributes. What human understanding attributes, ascribes, and, as it were, adds to
God, and not what is really in objectively or formally in the Substance e.g. Thought and
Extension. Id quod intellectus de substantia percipit tanquam eijusdem esssentiam
constituens.
III) Modes. Movement, intellect and will, the natura naturata are modes of substance,
or of its attributes. These modes are infinite. Each one of the infinite modes constitutes
an infinite series of finite modes e.g. bodies.
Plotinus (205- 270 A.D.)
Alexandrian Neoplatonist. His pupil collected all
treatises of their teacher into a collection named
«Enneades». 9 treatises x 6 books
Influence on Proclus Diadochus (412- 485 A.D.) and
all neo-platonists, Christianity (Augustinus), Islamic
thought (Al Kindi),
Renaissance (Ficino).и всех последующих
неоплатоников.
Main subject:
Teaching of Plotinus on
«Physis =φύσις» =>
«Soul=ψυχή» =>
«Intellect=νοῦς ».
Actual as we reexamine
the global world structure,
laws of nature.
3. Plotinian notion of physis (ἡ φύσις)
• Plotinus uses the term physis rather like “generating power” or
“productive power” than “nature.” (<φύειν)
• In physis there is neither lever nor supporting fixed point. Its work
cannot be understood in analogy with a machine or a utensil that
produces puppets (Enneades III.8.2).
• We need to abandon “Subject-Object,” “Subject acting on
Objects” scheme in considering the physis.
• In physis everything is subject and, at the same time, everything is
object.
• Logos in physis is immobile as it is ubiquitous. E.g. Chemical law is
valid everywhere in the world.
• What physis does with respect to other beings is
“contemplation” (ἡ θεωρία = theoria). But it is also the
object of contemplation (το θεώρημα = theorema).
• Physis simultaneously 1) contemplates, 2) is contemplated
and appears to be 3) logos (reason).
• Still physis cannot be compared with a summation of
mechanical forces making to collide one particle with
another. Statistic mechanical laws e.g. Boltzmann’s law on
gas, emerge from the entity of colliding particles. But each
particle does not collide with “the entity” (so called
ensemble).
Lotka-Volterra Prey-Predator
Dymamical system model
Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ)
reaction-diffusion
𝐮 = 𝐃 ∆𝐮 + 𝐑(𝐮),
PA Weiss criticizes “genetic determinism
= animism”
Paul Afred Weiss:
“This is still an inclination today: in many description of activity of
proteins or steroid hormones and the like, the organism seems to be
steered by such substances. The common term used is “control” : a
protein or gene “controls” a cellular process, a hormone “controls” the
function of an organ. From an organismic perspective it would be more
appropriate to state that the organism uses such signalling molecules
to regulate its functions and to adapt them to current conditions. The
most extreme form of such an obscure animism is genetic
determinism, which is currently under pressure by recent development
in genetics and epigenetics. (The living system: determinism stratified. in
“Beyond Reductionism.” Alpbacher symposium 1968 proceedings 還元主義を超えて―ア
ルプバッハ・シンポジウム′68 (1984年): 池田 善昭, アーサー・ケストラー, J.R.スミシーズ” 工作舎)
Cf. Webster dictionary definition No.2 = nature as the controlling power
of the universe.
Although Weiss writes here “the organism uses such signalling
molecules,” verbs like “to use” or “to regulate,” “to adapt” shall be
understood in a metaphorical meaning. The existence of organism
makes the regulation possible while the regulation ensures the
existence of the organism. Here “A entails B” type causality logic cannot
be applied.
Paul A. Weiss
(1898-1989)
Paul A. Weiss was a German-American biologist
who challenged the applicability of mechanistic
and deterministicphysical laws to living systems.
Interactions between hierarchyical order
of subsystems within an organism by
Weiss
Development of a Neural system by Weiss
The development of the neural system is even “more” than the
summation of all these arrows in the diagram even after addition of
feedback- control arrows. The number of these arrows must be
infinite so that to meet the reality.
Possible applications to ethics throgh
sociology.
(1) Each life is possible thanks to the
network connection with other lives
and social structure (環境に生かさ
れる個人) .
(2) Each life contributes to realisation
of other lives and the society.
Bernd Rosslenbroich (Witten-Herdeke U.) :
Outline of a concept for organistic systems biology (2011)
Old view: DNA influences on the RNA production by its transcription .
1)Transcription is the first step of gene expression, in which a particular
segment of DNAis copied into RNA by the enzyme.
2) Ribosomes translate the nucleotide sequence of a messenger RNA
molecule into the amino acid sequence of a protein. The ribosome reads the
nucleotides 3 at a time (a codon), and assembles the correct amino acids together
into a protein.
New model for DNA transcription. DNA is a part of a
huge molecular network with manifold feedbacks.
RNA => DNA : mysterious non-Mendelian inheritance.
Non-Mendelian inheritance is a general term that refers to
any pattern of inheritance in which traits do not segregate in
accordance with Mendel’s laws. These laws describe the
inheritance of traits linked to single genes on chromosomes in
the nucleus. In Mendelian inheritance, each parent contributes
one of two possible alleles for a trait. If the genotypes of both
parents in a genetic cross are known, Mendel’s laws can be
used to determine the distribution of phenotypes expected for
the population of offspring. There are several situations in
which the proportions of phenotypes observed in the progeny
do not match the predicted values. Non-Mendelian inheritance
plays a role in several disease processes.
3. Plotinian theory on the procession of the soul .
Soul is the organising power of sensual- material world.
Early Stoics (Zeno of Citium, Chrysippus etc.):
consolidation power in minerals (crystallization) or vegetative power
of plants.
Zeno (335-264 B.C.)
Chrysippus
(281-205 B.C.)
Chrysippus
Plotinus : detailed analysis of the hierarchy
among souls and
a teaching on the relation between the World
Soul and lower order souls.
This hierarchy is characterised by upward
(ascension=ἄνοδος, πρόοδος) and downward
(descent=κάθοδος) movements, called
procession (Emile Bréhier:la procession).
«If the soul of every individual were a part of the World
Soul and the body, part of the World Body, then our fate
would have been completely entrained in «the
(Cosmic) Circuit». (IV.3.7)
This phrase would mean a kind of determinism in the
spirit of Laplace.
Laplace operator
Pierre Simon de Laplace
(1749- 1827)
«As members of the universe we take over something from
the All Soul. We do not deny the influence of the Cosmic
Circuit, but against all this we oppose another soul in us
proven to be distinct . As for our being begotten children of
the Cosmos, we answer that in motherhood the entrant
soul is distinct, is not the mother’s». (IV.3.7)
On Procession.
А) Internal life of the soul is conjugate to its location
(e.g. body) . Various forms of reality correspond to
different levels of the procession.
B) In the world understood as a sequence of forms
every level of the sequence depends hierarchically on
the precedent level.
-Plotinus observed «meta-structure» of birth and
extinction of body and roles of soul in the formation of the
world order.
-For Plotinus, soul is the organizing power of the world
i.е. Included various laws of natural phenomena (physics,
chemistry, biology) and mathematical theorems.
In the Procession
«ascension: descent = general : particular ».
Plotinian procession
Atiyah-Singer theorem →Gauss-Bonnet Theorem →
hyperbolic or spherical geometry → plane triangle
Every sequence level hierarchically depends on the
precedent one (V.2.2).
point : plane geometry
black curve: spherical geometry
red curve: hyperbolic geometry
surface : Gauss-Bonnet theorem
Ambient space:
Atiyah-Singer index theorem.
: заряд,
.

E: electric force,
E   ,

potential 
0 
  
  ( , , ),
x y z

( )  
Laplace eqn.  0
: dielectric density ,
потенциал, = constant (
dotted curves )
:
10 7
4c 2

and the vector field of electric force E (fat curves).
Physis and Logos=formative principle
associated to Psyche
• In Physis some logos (1) produces another logos (2).
• This second logos (2) gives something of itself to the material
substratum that is not able to produce another logos any
more. The logos that becomes visible is of the lowest rang.
(Enneades III.8.2.)
• Example: Logos (1) = formative principle assoc. to second
order elliptic equations, logos (2)= Principle assoc. to Laplace
equation like electrostatic equation ( the last stage of logos
hierarchy, no logos will be produced if concrete dielectric
density has been chosen.)
• Material substratum = Electrostatic, Heat conduction,
Membrane with tension, Neutron diffusion, Fluid without
vortex.
4. Plotinian notion of Intellect (ὁ νοῦς).
Souls proceed from the Intellect.
The thinking (νοεῖν) Intellect and that which is actually (not potentially) thought
(νοείται) by the Intellect constitute an inseparable unity.  No “Subject-Object”
scheme!
The (Platonic ) ideas are immanently internal to the Intellect, as they were in the
Intellect from the very beginning.
Intellect: all forms (τα πάντα εἴδη) ≈ science (ἡ ἐπιστήμη): all laws &theorems (τα
παντά θεωρήματα)
Soul gives forms of the world to the elements. While the Intellect gives logos to the
soul (V.9.3).
Art
≈ Intellect
: logos of art
: logos of the soul
: soul of the artist
: soul=psyche
•Intellect ≈ all possible physical, chemical laws and
mathematical theorems together with their
consequences. Entity of the upper structure from
which these theorems and laws are derived.
(Universal)
•Universal : laws ≈ Intellect : ideas
•This Universal “thinks” about the law of gravitational
force. This “thought” (νόησις) is always actual (not
potential, independent of time or place).
•Inside of this Universal the law of gravitation cannot
be independent of other physical laws like those of
electromagnetism.
Grand Unified Theory :
(1) the electromagnetic, (2) weak and (3) strong interactions
(not gravitation so far) are unified into one single interaction.
(The Universal actually thinks about all theorems
simultaneously and actually.)
Further Comparative Studies
Cf. Kantian a priori deduction of the categories.
Categories are not separate from and indifferent to each other.
). Inside of this Universal the law of
gravitation cannot be independent of other
Cf. Hegel’s Logic.
physical laws like those of
The genealogy of its conceptselectromagnetism.
= genealogy of the things + metaphysics.
Speculative logic
= Denklehre (= science on logical reasoning) + Seinlehre (=ontology).
Noetic world
iLogic
Mathematical theorems
Physical etc. laws
Earth’s vegetative soul
τα στοιχεία =Elements
5. T. Takahashi’s Four Layer World Order
Comparison
Humanistic world View
Noetic Psycho-physical world
View
Rational Order, Scientific reasoning
<=
Projection
Stable everyday life order
Psyche
Unstable animistic world
Physis
Life itself, Generating power
<=
AmplenessChaos
「共災」の論理、高橋隆雄,2013
Reflections around Co-Disaster
Projection