Th.G. Sinnige

Ennead I 6, chronologically the first chapters of the 54 treatises of the Enneads, has a twofold argument. In the first part Plotinus follows the outlines of Plato´s description in the Symposium. There is a scale of values in our perception of beautiful objects: beauty in material things, bodily beauty, virtues in the soul, the beauty of spiritual life. On all these levels the soul perceives beauty by an uncomplicated look, i.e. not as a result of reasoning.