De la nature de la surabondance du Premier chez Plotin

Abstract

AbstractThe nature of the One poses a formidable problem. At the source of procession there is, on the one hand, a discontinuity between the First and derived hypostases, since the One is anything but what it gives, since it is beyond its gifts as absolute transcendence and absolute otherness, and since it forever remains the same in its venerable immobility. But, on the other hand, there is a continuity from the Principle to its begotten, inasmuch as its derived energy is like its image, like a trace ensuring the erotic-dynamic process which is transmitted to lower beings in return for their conversion toward the Highest. Confronting the problem of that apparently irreconcilable duality is the search to determine why the One overflows, what is the nature of that overflowing, and how that overflowing might be at the foundation of procession.