The Enneads

The Arrangement of the Books

Here and in this place, among those who are uncompressed This likely refers to the state of the soul in the divine realm, free from the "compression" of the physical body., he has been released and is blessed by the gods. Such was the life he led. As for the arrangement and the preservation of the books, as I have noted before... I myself joined his school and remained with him until the end. I resolved to do this for all: first, I did not arrange the books chronologically, but rather grouped them by subject matter. I followed the example of Andronicus the Athenian Andronicus of Rhodes (here called "the Athenian"), who famously organized Aristotle’s works into the corpus we use today. and his arrangement of the Peripatetic Peripatetic: the school of philosophy founded by Aristotle, known for walking while teaching. library.

I have organized the body of work into fifty-four books, which I then divided into six groups of nine. The word "Ennead" comes from the Greek word for "nine." Porphyry chose this number for its mathematical and mystical significance. Although the physical fire of life has ceased, the contents remain as they were written. Each treatise was composed and set in order, gathering related themes together. Thus, I have set them in order, beginning with the treatises that are more accessible and deal with ethics.

1 On the Living Being and the Man. Ennead I.1: Discusses the distinction between the soul and the physical body.
2 On Virtues.
3 On Dialectic.
4 On Happiness.
5 Whether Happiness increases with Time.
6 On the Beautiful. original: "ἐπὶ τοῦ καλοῦ" (epi tou kalou) — one of Plotinus's most famous works on aesthetics and the soul.
7 On the First Good and other Goods.
8 On what are Evils and where they come from.
9 On the Reasoned Withdrawal from Life. A discussion on the philosophical justifications for suicide.

This first group contains the ethical treatises. The second group contains those concerning the physical world and the laws of the universe.

These concern the things of the world, including the elements and the heavens.
1 On the World.
2 On the Circular Motion. Refers to the movement of the celestial spheres.
3 Whether the Stars are causes.
4 On the Two Matters. Distinguishing between "intelligible matter" and "sensible matter."
5 On Potentiality and Actuality.
6 On Quality and Formless Qualities.
7 On Sensation and Memory.
8 On the Whole.
9 On Visibility and why things appear small from a distance.

The third group follows, dealing with the world again but focusing on fate and providence.
1 On Fate and Nature.
2 On Providence, Book I.
3 On Providence, Book II.
4 On our Allotted Spirit. Spirit: (daimon) a guiding tutelary spirit or inner genius.
5 On Love.
6 On the Impassibility of Incorporeal things.
7 On Eternity and Time. original: "περὶ αἰῶνοσ χρόνου" (peri aionos chronou) — a foundational text on the nature of duration.
8 On Nature, Contemplation, and the One.
9 On Various Questions.

I have placed these together in this specific order. I have gathered his own words into a unified body, just as a physician organizes his notes. Let the reader know that those things which follow are arranged in the same manner...