Vontade e Liberdade na Idade Média e na Modernidade Da boulesis da alma nas Enéadas de Plotino

Abstract

The concept of boulesis, recurrent in several treatises of the Enneads and later translated by Cicero as uoluntas, expresses in Plotinus the soul's natural desire for the intelligible, the higher Good. This disposition demands separation from the body and the soul's return to its generating principle, by way of virtue. Boulesis must, however, be conceived in accordance with the ontological hierarchy of hypostases, being distinct in the One and in particular souls, as evidenced in Treatise VI, 8. In Treatises I, 8; III, 6; and V, 1, evil in the sensible world is understood as an effect of the soul's fall into matter (understood as deprivation of form), the result of a forgetfulness and estrangement from its intelligible nature. Our aim is to analyze to what extent the soul's boulesis (as separation from the body and ascension to the One) implies a voluntary choice that, although determined by the intelligible order, also reveals itself as a deliberation between authenticity and appearance; between choosing itself, and giving in to the tragic illusion of matter, which diverts it from its path to true freedom.

Keywords: Plotinus, Will, Metaphysics, Soul.