{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.2",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/index.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "ennead-2",
    "name": "Ennead II — The Physical Cosmos",
    "stream": "greco-christian",
    "epoch_reflected": "greco-latin",
    "epoch_written": "greco-latin",
    "form": "philosophical treatise",
    "tradition": "Neo-Platonic",
    "author": "Plotinus",
    "year_approx": 250,
    "note": null,
    "books_slug": null,
    "books_slugs": null,
    "has_project_translation": false,
    "steiner_loci": []
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "plotinus-enneads",
      "name": "Enneads",
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/"
    }
  ],
  "translation": {
    "title": null,
    "author": null,
    "source": null
  },
  "chapters": [
    {
      "num": 1,
      "slug": "1-on-the-kosmos-or-on-the-heavenly-system",
      "title": "II.1 — On the Kosmos (the Heavenly System)",
      "words": 4085,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/1-on-the-kosmos-or-on-the-heavenly-system/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/1-on-the-kosmos-or-on-the-heavenly-system.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "The eternity of the visible cosmos",
      "blurb": "Plotinus defends the eternity of the kosmos: the visible heavens are not perishable, for they are the image of an eternal Form and are sustained by the World-Soul."
    },
    {
      "num": 2,
      "slug": "2-the-heavenly-circuit",
      "title": "II.2 — The Heavenly Circuit",
      "words": 1759,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/2-the-heavenly-circuit/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/2-the-heavenly-circuit.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Why the heavens move in circles",
      "blurb": "On the cause of the heavenly motion: the rational soul of the kosmos imitates the eternal stability of Intellect through circular motion — the closest bodily approximation to rest."
    },
    {
      "num": 3,
      "slug": "3-are-the-stars-causes",
      "title": "II.3 — Are the Stars Causes?",
      "words": 6857,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/3-are-the-stars-causes/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/3-are-the-stars-causes.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Astrology critiqued",
      "blurb": "Plotinus's measured critique of astrology: the stars are signs, not causes; they participate in the cosmic sympathy by which all things are joined, but they do not determine human destiny."
    },
    {
      "num": 4,
      "slug": "4-matter-in-its-two-kinds",
      "title": "II.4 — On Matter",
      "words": 6260,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/4-matter-in-its-two-kinds/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/4-matter-in-its-two-kinds.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Intelligible matter vs. sensible matter",
      "blurb": "The treatise on matter. Two senses: the intelligible matter of the intelligible kosmos (substrate of the Forms), and the sensible matter of the visible kosmos (substrate of bodies). The latter is mere privation."
    },
    {
      "num": 5,
      "slug": "5-on-potentiality-and-actuality",
      "title": "II.5 — On Potentiality and Actuality",
      "words": 2388,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/5-on-potentiality-and-actuality/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/5-on-potentiality-and-actuality.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Aristotelian categories refined",
      "blurb": "Critical examination of Aristotle's potentiality/actuality distinction: matter is potentiality only; Intellect is pure actuality; the soul holds a mediating place."
    },
    {
      "num": 6,
      "slug": "6-quality-and-form-idea",
      "title": "II.6 — On Quality and Form-Idea",
      "words": 1857,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/6-quality-and-form-idea/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/6-quality-and-form-idea.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "What kind of being qualities have",
      "blurb": "Are qualities substantial, or accidental? Plotinus argues that some qualities (the essential properties that constitute a being) belong to substance; others are merely affections of the underlying being."
    },
    {
      "num": 7,
      "slug": "7-on-complete-transfusion",
      "title": "II.7 — On Complete Transfusion",
      "words": 1518,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/7-on-complete-transfusion/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/7-on-complete-transfusion.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Stoic mixture-theory critiqued",
      "blurb": "Against the Stoic doctrine of complete bodily interpenetration: two bodies cannot occupy the same place; what looks like total mingling is in fact juxtaposition of parts."
    },
    {
      "num": 8,
      "slug": "8-why-distant-objects-appear-small",
      "title": "II.8 — Why Distant Objects Appear Small",
      "words": 877,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/8-why-distant-objects-appear-small/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/8-why-distant-objects-appear-small.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "On the optics of perception",
      "blurb": "A brief optical treatise: the perceived diminution of distant objects is not due to mere geometric distance but to the weakening of qualitative reception as the visual ray attenuates."
    },
    {
      "num": 9,
      "slug": "9-against-those-that-affirm-the-creator-of-the-kosmos-and",
      "title": "II.9 — Against the Gnostics",
      "words": 10476,
      "url": "/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/9-against-those-that-affirm-the-creator-of-the-kosmos-and/",
      "api": "/api/sources/plotinus-enneads/ennead-2/9-against-those-that-affirm-the-creator-of-the-kosmos-and.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "The great Anti-Gnostic treatise",
      "blurb": "Plotinus's polemic against the Gnostics, who teach that the creator and the cosmos are evil. He defends the goodness of the visible world, the unity of the divine principles, and the providence that orders the whole."
    }
  ]
}