The Concepts of Space in Plotinus

Abstract

The aim of this article is to collect passages from the Enneads that contain relevant information for the investigation of the concepts of space/place in Plotinus. I hope I can indicate, after collating such passages, that at least three notions of space/place coexist in Plotinus’ philosophy: i) Plotinus distinguishes space and matter, but from this distinction it does not become clear a) whether space subsists apart from bodies, or b) whether it is nothing but a relative, or c) whether it is one of the properties of bodies and, in this case, whether it has an intelligible model; ii) on the other hand, we find elements to think that Plotinus identified space with matter; iii) and, in numerous passages, Plotinus formulates an immaterial, Platonic version of the Stoic concept of space, asserting that immaterial beings are not in place, so that body is not the soul’s place, but rather soul is the place of body.