Kategorien

This chapter is devoted to Plotinus’ discussion of categories and genera of being in Ennead VI 1–3 [42–44], On the Genera of Being. After a summary of the history of the uses of the term ‘category’ from Aristotle to Plotinus, it discusses Plotinus’ project to find the genera of being. It presents Plotinus’ examination of the Peripatetic and the Stoic categories, understood as genera of being of the sensible world, and considers some strategies by means of which Plotinus aims to show that neither school has succeeded in finding the genera of being. The true genera of being belong, Plotinus argues, to the intelligible world and are the five Greatest Kinds Plato introduced in the Sophist. Even though there are no genera of being in the sensible world, sensible things can still be classified in a systematic manner into five categories. The chapter concludes with situating Plotinus in the ancient commentary tradition.