Zeit und Ewigkeit

Plotinus’ On Eternity and Time (III 7) chronologically follows upon the tripartite treatise On the Genera of Being (VI 1–3) and is followed by On Happiness (I 4). The chapter stresses the importance of the continuity of thought that links these three works. Questions about time and eternity had arisen in On the Genera of Being, but could not be answered satisfactorily within the framework of a theory of ‘categories’. On Eternity and Time takes up these questions again. The first six chapters of the treatise are devoted to the theme of ‘eternity’, while the Chap. 7–13 are devoted to the theme of ‘time’. Eternity and time are linked by the notion of ‘life’: eternity is the intelligible life of Intellect, and time is the life of the world soul. This latter idea is also expressed by the theory that time is the ‘activity’ (energeia) of the world soul. Thus, the everlastingness of the essence of the soul (IV 4,15–16) and the diachronic development of its activities can be perfectly reconciled. The self-eternalisation of the individual soul by participation in Intellect is possible, and the ‘good life’ resulting therefrom is the theme of On Happiness following upon III 7.