Plotinus on the good or the one

Amazing as it may be to this day few commentaries on the treatises ofPlotinus Enneads are written. The classic ninth treatise VI9 in Porphyriusorder for example... » 

Amazing as it may be to this day few commentaries on the treatises ofPlotinus Enneads are written. The classic ninth treatise VI9 in Porphyriusorder for example has hardly been studied. This treatise however is ofvital importance because it is in this work that for the first time in theEnneads the One in its superform emerges and Plotinus dwells on the remarkablephenomenon of a mystical union of the soul with the One. A thorough analysisof the argument and its development next to philosophical and philologicalsupport will be welcome to any reader of this intriguing but difficulttreatise. These aims are pursued in the main part of Meijers work thecommentary. The first part of the book preceding the commentary examines thephilosophical history of the concept of the One and its status in the firsteight treatises. This new approach to the problem of the One leads to strikingconclusions. It appears that while Plotinus was writing these first eighttreatises the concept of the One developed from that of a Supreme Entity of aMesoplatonian character viz. the upper part of the mind to One of a Superoneabove mind. This casts an entirely new light on the position of the One inPlotinus and that of the ninth treatise itself. The third part not onlyexamines the mystical union as pictured in the ninth treatise but alsoprovides a full scale discussion of Plotinus descriptions of this union in hisentire work. The degree of unification viz. the question whether a part ofthe mystic self remains intact during the unification is a matter of vigorousscholarly debate. Meijer shows that in spite of some inconsistencies in hisdoctrine about the union one mustaccept that Plotinus basically considered theunion as a complete absorption of the soul into the Supreme Entity. «