Übel

The ontological status and significance of evil in the Enneads is a much-disputed problem in Plotinian studies. All the more so as in the wake of this problem yet other important questions arise concerning, for example, the probability or improbability of a latent dualism in the Enneads and the exigency of a consistent theodicy in Plotinus’s thought. This chapter presents and analyses Plotinus’s most important tenets concerning the question of evil and gives an overview of the scholarly debate about it, paying special attention to the difficulty of how to explain the intricate relationship of evil to matter in the Plotinian cosmos. In addition, it discusses the bearings of Plotinus’s privation theory of evil on his ethical teachings.