2021-03-12 NSFRI - Plato - Timaeus (48e-51d) Plotinus - Enneads (6.2.21) What's So Hot About Nous? - Info and Reading Options

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<h3>Synopsis</h3><p>Another fun Friday night with Pierre and members of the NS. We continue our discussion of Plotinus 6.2.21, which gets us into Timaeus and Nous.</p><h3>Highlights</h3><h4>Plotinus 6.2.21, Continued</h4><ul><li>7:04:30pm PST Chris asks: What are the four genera?</li><li>A Study in what Plotinus calls, “Seeing”</li><li>An Exploration of “Nous-ing and Logos-ing”</li><li>Does Plotinus have a certain development?</li><li>Compare Plotinus’ first and last descriptions of “seeing”</li><li>Discussion of “seeing” in the greek with Barbara and David</li><li>7:27pm PST What is the Logos doing to and with Nous?<ul><li>It brings out the intelligibility of nous</li><li>(Thus) Nous is not just an activity of the mind or soul, but there is an <em>intelligibility</em> to nous</li></ul></li><li>What's so hot about νους (Nous, Intellect)?</li><li>Timaeus: The only real object of meditation is to contemplate nous.</li><li>Nous is a very rare function: The gods possess it, but few humans have it.</li><li>So this is a way of exercising the powers behind the idea of nous and making it familiar to us so that we can perhaps <em>access it</em>.</li><li>You need the power of nous to understand the nature of ultimate reality: This is the goal of the Timaeus</li><li>The whole intro to the Timaeus (says Plato) is superficial.</li><li>The Mystery, the Real Problem</li><li>3 terms: Intelligible, Model-Copy, and <em>Becoming</em><ul><li>In what is it becoming?</li><li>Upon what does it become?</li></ul></li><li>Everyday world: no reason to call the elements elements, because everything passes out of and into the others. Instead, let's consider that everything is made out of one thing: "gold".</li><li>Upon what is it projected? What is the recipient? (The so-called "screen" Pierre has talked about recently as a metaphor)</li><li>Everything we experience has to be experienced <em>upon</em> something, something that is “pure”.</li><li>How can something so pure except those images?</li><li>Those images themselves are nothing but copies of eternal ideas, ideas in the intelligible realm, and everything we experience is an immitation of that realm.</li><li>The necessary purity of the “screen”: it must be free of any additions other than itself</li><li>Everything that exists has to be in a place</li><li>Sacred place, pure</li><li>What is it about this blank screen that accepts so much stuff upon it?</li><li>is it just passive? or does it have an affinity for the objects that are going to be projected upon it?</li><li>Then it is not pure, is it?</li><li>How is it possible that these eternal ideas can be imitated on another (lower) level in our world? What is the transition?</li><li>The only way out of this is to see the role of the Intellect (nous)</li><li>The Mother: “The Nurse of All Becoming” (the blank screen)</li><li>it participates in the Intelligible</li><li>so Intellect (nous) is the one object of contemplation</li><li>Being, Rest, and Motion: Keep these in mind while contemplating Nous, so as to re-establish yourself in it.</li><li>What is it that is experiencing everything that you are experiencing in your life?</li><li>Read Timaeus section (see <em>Homework</em> below)</li><li>If these things are not projected upon anything, then how does it have its ongoing appearance?</li><li>Generation, That which is generated upon, and Source. Father, Mother, etc.</li><li>How does the Logos (and Pathologos) function in Plotinus 6.2.21?</li><li>Does the blank screen reject the irrational while preserving the pathologos?</li></ul><h4>Phi / Golden Ratio</h4><ul><li>7:57pm PST Chris' questions/comments regarding the φ (phi, golden ratio)</li><li>Every pathologos is imitation</li><li>All people really know is the difficulties they have, but not their problem</li><li>So anyone thinks they understand their problem but still has difficulties still has the problem</li></ul><h4>Back to the Pathologos and Plotinus</h4><ul><li>What is it about that the one thing the pathologos does <em>not</em> turn upon is the Mind?</li><li>missed 20:13 quote about the Self</li><li>In the line of creation, we are the last members. We only create pathologos, which has no life in itself</li><li>Parallels between what the Intellect is doing at the highest and lowest levels</li></ul><h4>Back to Timaeus</h4><ul><li>8:28pm PST page 168 in Bollingen Thomas Taylor . “At present however it is necessasry to consider 3 sorts of things. One that which is generated. another that IN which it is generated. And a third, that from which the generated nature derives its similitude... But it is proper to assimilate that which receives to be like a mother. That from whence it receives, to a father. And the nature situated between these two are the offspring.. The receptacle which is destined to receive all possible forms hould itself be destitute of all forms (ideas). It is necessary that the subject that is so often destined to receive in a beautiful manner, through the whole of itself resembles eternal things. It itself should be naturally destitute of all that it receives.” (The Self) “.. we reall should call it a certain invisible species. Formless, it is a universal recipient. Its scarcely explicable manner participates of an intelligible nature.”</li></ul><p>“All opinions are the sisters. ANd they are not able to separate from our cognition..”</p><ul><li>The distinction between Intellect and Right Opinion</li></ul><h3>Homework For Next Week</h3><ul><li>Go over Timaeus 48-51 again, and be familiar with it.</li><li>In Plotinus: Can we substitute "pathologos" for "logos" while reading 6.2.21, and see where it goes?</li></ul><h3>Resources</h3><ul><li><a href="https://archive.org/details/plotinus-enneads-balboa" rel="nofollow">Balboa Translation of Plotinus Enneads 3.5 and 6.2</a> and MacKenna translation</li><li>Plato, <em>Timaeus</em>: Taylor (both Bolligen and Prometheus Trust) and Loeb</li><li>see our <a href="https://archive.org/details/ns-reading-list" rel="nofollow">NS Reading List</a> for references to the above</li></ul><h3>Technical Issues</h3><ul><li>Pierre's mic was actually too loud tonight (a first). We could not get it to quiet down in the beggining (before recording starts), so it will be “blaring” tonight.</li></ul><h3>Original Location</h3><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/20210312NSFRI" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/20210312NSFRI</a></p><h3>Usage License</h3><p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="nofollow">CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License</a></p><h3>Please Help Support the Project</h3><p>Do you enjoy our free audios and videos? Please consider supporting Pierre, the NS, and our archiving activity by giving a small amount monthly to support our work.</p><p>Go to <a href="http://noeticsociety.org" rel="nofollow">noeticsociety.org</a> and the 'Support the Project' section. Look for the Paypal or other link.</p><p>We'd love it if you chose to 'Make this a monthly donation', as well -- rather than just one-time -- in whatever small amount is within your regular monthly budget.</p><p>Also, please consider <a href="https://archive.org/donate/" rel="nofollow">donating to the Internet Archive</a>, which stores our work here free of charge, as well.</p><p>Thank you!</p><h3>More Info</h3><ul><li><a href="http://noeticsociety.org/pierre-grimes/" rel="nofollow">Pierre Grimes and Philosophical Midwifery</a></li><li><a href="http://noeticsociety.org/" rel="nofollow">The Noetic Society</a></li><li>The <a href="https://archive.org/details/noeticsociety?sort=-publicdate" rel="nofollow">Pierre Grimes and the Noetic Society collection</a> here on archive.org.</li></ul>

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