The Self as Hypernoetic Intellect in Plotinus’ Philosophy

The article examines the nature of the self in Plotinus' philosophy and particularly what scholars have called the mobile or fluid self, as opposed to the static, hierarchical structure of the individual soul. This freely moving self, able to fall into the sensible realm and return to the One, is one of the most intriguing ideas of Plotinus. However, there seems to have been little attempt to locate this self within the Plotinian metaphysics and anthropology. In the paper it is argued that the most probable metaphysical seat of this self is the transcendent, hypernoetic aspect of the intellect, due to its inchoate and potential nature as well as to its closeness to the One.