Enneads Enneads International Socialist Organisation (Australia) Category="Neoplatonist texts"Category="Philosophy books"Category="Roman era books"The Six Enneads is a book whose title is sometimes abbreviated to The Enneads or Enneads, and was written by the Neo-Platonist Plotinus; it was edited and compiled by his last student Porphyry, in a short period c. 270 CE, after the death of Plotinus. Plotinus was a Platonic philosopher, being possibly a 12th to 14th generation student of the Greek philosopher Plato. Plotinus claimed his Platonist education was passed to him by the Platonist Ammonius Saccas of the Egyptian city of Alexandria and one of the founders of Neo-Platonism. This article refers to the version translated into modern English, by Stephen Mackenna and B. S. Page. It is divided into six chapters (called enneads) and each chapter is subdivided into nine subchapters (called tractates).

The First Ennead

First Tractate - "THE ANIMATE AND THE MAN."
Second Tractate - "ON VIRTUE."
Third Tractate - "ON DIALECTIC [THE UPWARD WAY]."
Fourth Tractate - "ON TRUE HAPPINESS."
Fifth Tractate - "HAPPINESS AND EXTENSION OF TIME."
Sixth Tractate - "BEAUTY."
Seventh Tractate - "ON THE PRIMAL GOOD AND SECONDARY FORMS OF GOOD [OTHERWISE, 'ON HAPPINESS']"
Eighth Tractate - "ON THE NATURE AND SOURCE OF EVIL."
Ninth Tractate - "THE REASONED DISMISSAL."

The Second Ennead

First Tractate - "ON THE KOSMOS OR ON THE HEAVENLY SYSTEM."
Second Tractate - "THE HEAVENLY CIRCUIT."
Third Tractate - "ARE THE STARS CAUSES?"
Fourth Tractate - "MATTER IN ITS TWO KINDS."
Fifth Tractate - "ON POTENTIALITY AND ACTUALITY."
Sixth Tractate - "QUALITY AND FORM-IDEA."
Seventh Tractate - "ON COMPLETE TRANSFUSION."
Eighth Tractate - "WHY DISTANT OBJECTS APPEAR SMALL."
Ninth Tractate - "AGAINST THOSE THAT AFFIRM THE CREATOR OF THE KOSMOS AND THE KOSMOS ITSELF TO BE EVIL: [GENERALLY QUOTED AS "AGAINST THE GNOSTICS"].

The Third Ennead

First Tractate - "FATE."
Second Tractate - "ON PROVIDENCE (1)."
Third Tractate - "ON PROVIDENCE (2)."
Fourth Tractate - "OUR TUTELARY SPIRIT."
Fifth Tractate - "ON LOVE."
Sixth Tractate - "THE IMPASSIVITY OF THE UNEMBODIED."
Seventh Tractate - "TIME AND ETERNITY."
Eighth Tractate - "NATURE CONTEMPLATION AND THE ONE."
Ninth Tractate - "DETACHED CONSIDERATIONS."

The Fourth Ennead

First Tractate - "ON THE ESSENCE OF THE SOUL (1)."
Second Tractate - "ON THE ESSENCE OF THE SOUL (2)."
Third Tractate - "PROBLEMS OF THE SOUL (1)."
Fourth Tractate - "PROBLEMS OF THE SOUL (2)."
Fifth Tractate - "PROBLEMS OF THE SOUL (3). [ALSO KNOWN AS, "ON SIGHT"].
Sixth Tractate - "PERCEPTION AND MEMORY."
Seventh Tractate - "THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL."
Eighth Tractate - "THE SOUL'S DESCENT INTO BODY."
Ninth Tractate - "ARE ALL SOULS ONE?."

The Fifth Ennead

First Tractate - "THE THREE INITIAL HYPOSTASES."
Second Tractate - "THE ORIGIN AND ORDER OF THE BEINGS. FOLLOWING ON THE FIRST."
Third Tractate - "THE KNOWING HYPOSTASES AND THE TRANSCENDENT."
Fourth Tractate - "HOW THE SECONDARIES RISE FROM THE FIRST: AND ON THE ONE."
Fifth Tractate - "THAT THE INTELLECTUAL BEINGS ARE NOT OUTSIDE THE INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLE: AND ON THE NATURE OF THE GOOD."
Sixth Tractate - "THAT THE PRINCIPLE TRANSCENDING BEING HAS NO INTELLECTUAL ACT. WHAT BEING HAS INTELLECTION PRIMALLY AND WHAT BEING HAS IT SECONDARILY."
Seventh Tractate - "IS THERE AN IDEAL ARCHETYPE OF PARTICULAR BEINGS?"
Eighth Tractate - "ON THE INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY."
Ninth Tractate - "THE INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLE, THE IDEAS, AND THE AUTHENTIC EXISTENCE."

The Sixth Ennead

First Tractate - "ON THE KINDS OF BEING- (1)."
Second Tractate - "ON THE KINDS OF BEING (2)."
Third Tractate - "ON THE KINDS OF BEING (3)."
Fourth Tractate - "ON THE INTEGRAL OMNIPRESENCE OF THE AUTHENTIC EXISTENT (1)."
Fifth Tractate - "ON THE INTEGRAL OMNIPRESENCE OF THE AUTHENTIC EXISTENT (2)."
Sixth Tractate - "ON NUMBERS."
Seventh Tractate - "HOW THE MULTIPLICITY OF THE IDEAL-FORMS CAME INTO BEING: AND UPON THE GOOD."
Eighth Tractate - "ON FREE-WILL AND THE WILL OF THE ONE."
Ninth Tractate - "ON THE GOOD, OR THE ONE."

External links

The Six Enneads (complete Mackenna and Page translation) in monospaced text. The table of contents in the article above is from this source.
The Six Enneads (complete Mackenna and Page translation) in PDF, HTML, and 'Palm Doc' versions.
The Six Enneads Mackenna and Page translation divided into six sections in HTML.