Natur

This chapter discusses Plotinus’ concept of nature. After a brief summary of the many meanings of the Greek term physis in Plotinus, I focus on the concept of nature as a maker of the physical world, while clarifying the way in which nature makes bodies, particularly living bodies. In this context, nature is often presented as the lowest ‘power’ or ‘part’ of World-Soul. Plotinus distinguishes nature as a physiological principle from soul in the proper sense, which is identified as rational soul. Plotinus’ description of nature as ‘an image of soul’ suggests that the nature making our body is not our rational soul, which is called ‘we’, i.e., our individual self.