Frei von sich und von anderem: Zum Ursprung und Wesen des noetischen Selbst in Plotins Philosophie.

The characterisation of the freedom of the One contained in Plotinus, Ennead VI 8 (39).19.15 ff. offers an important key to understanding the origin and nature of the noetic self, that is, the nature of the self per se in Plotinus' philosophy. Relying on some passages of the Enneads regarding the noetic life, it can be shown that the Plotinian concept of the self always refers to freedom from oneself and from others, which freedom Plotinus associates with the One. Basing on this premise the self reveals itself as the primordial image of the One, whereby image in its original modality does not imply a reproductive dynamic, but rather manifestation of inexhaustible generativity, through which the image is produced as an autonomous modality of consciousness and being.