Nichtsein

This chapter has the notion of non-being as its topic. It discusses the polysemy of this concept in the Enneads, from the non-being of the One to that of the sensible world, of the accidents and of matter. The non-being of the One is interpreted as that which transcends the relativity in intelligible being and as a founding potency/potentiality of reality which does not yet express itself explicitly in form of being. The following paragraph touches the issue of whether the understanding of non-being as intelligible difference in Plato’s Sophist is endorsed by Plotinus. Subsequently, the non-being of the sensible entities is discussed from the point of view of its opposition to true being and its constitution from matter and immanent form. The chapter ends with the non-being of matter, which Plotinus equates with the ‘idea’ of non-being.