Plotinus · Philosophy

Matter and the Problem of Evil

Plotinus’ account of <em>matter</em> as the lowest reach of the emanation - sheer formlessness and privation, where the light of the One has all but faded - and his explanation of evil not as a positive force but as a <em>lack</em>, the absence of good and form, like darkness as the absence of light.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that for Plotinus matter is the lowest level of the emanation - sheer formlessness, privation, almost non-being, where the One’s light has faded into darkness - and that evil is not a positive force but a lack of good and form (privation), so that the One is not the author of evil. Explain his theory of ma…

Leads to The Stoics.

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