Aristotle and Plotinus on the simplicity of 'Nous'

The goal of this dissertation is to examine Plotinus' criticism of Aristotle's noetic doctrine. Chapter One examines Aristotle's critique of the Pythagorean Table of Opposites, Plato's Two-Principles doctrine (the One and the Indefinite Dyad), the alleged Platonic doctrine of the Ideal Numbers, and Speusippus' theory of the One. By reconstructing Speusippus' argument as presented by Iamblichus, I argue that Aristotle's critique of Speusippus is a potential anticipated response to Plotinus' interpretation of Aristotle's noetic doctrine. Chapter Two discusses Aristotle's henology and his noetic doctrine in order to defend the possibility of a multiplicity of content within Nous, without thereby infecting it with potentiality. In light of Metaph. XII 9, I argue that Aristotle succeeds in demonstrating that Nous is both pure actuality and a unity-and-plurality. Chapter Three introduces Plotinus' doctrine of the One and the derivation of inchoate Nous through the mediation of the Indefinite Dyad and Intelligible Matter. The causal continuity from the One to its first effluence is illustrated in the derivation of the Indefinite Dyad, which Plotinus had interpreted as Intelligible matter. A section is devoted to Plotinus' theory of dual Imagination, and the Tolma, which reasserts the ultimate simplicity of the One. Chapter Four examines Plotinus' critique and transformation of Aristotle's noetic doctrine through the mediation of Albinus, who (allegedly) proposed a principle above Nous, and Alexander of Aphrodisias, who introduced into Nous final and efficient causality. Aristotle's divine Nous is not really simple, argues Plotinus, for it includes a formal duality between the subject and the object of thought, as well as a material plurality (its content). Hence, given that the Intellect contains a degree of potentiality, it is not the simplest causal principle of the cosmos. While I adhere to Aristotle's position of the supremacy of Nous, I accept Plotinus' advance that the first principle exercises final and efficient causality. Moreover, I acknowledge Plotinus' astute recognition of a formal duality within Aristotle's Nous, as object of itself and as thinking subject. Finally, I accept Plotinus' minimal duality between the first principle and its first effluence over Aristotle's strict duality.