Erdemin İrâdesi, İrâdenin Erdemi: Plotinos’ta Akıl ve İrâde Bağlamında Erdem Anlayışı

Geç Antik Çağ filozoflarından ve aynı zamanda Yeni-Platoncu okulun kurucusu olarak kabul edilen Plotinos (İS 205-270), öğrencisi Porfürios tarafından düzenlenen ve Enneadlar (Dokuzluklar) olarak adlandırılan külliyatında Grek ve Roma felsefe geleneğinde yer alan hemen her konuya değinmiş ve kendisine kadarki Platoncu geleneğe bağlı kaldığı kadar yeni düşünceler de ortaya koymuştur. Modern çağdaki anlamlarıyla Antik Çağ felsefesindeki kökenleri tartışmalı olan “irâde” ve “özgürlük” kavramlarıyla alakalı olarak da Plotinos sadece Platon’daki değil, Aristoteles’ten geç dönem Stoacı düşünceye dek ortaya çıkan ve kendi dönemine ulaşan kavramsal yapı ve buna bağlı tartışmalara kayıtsız kalmamış ve gelenekte gördüğü meselelere, terminolojiye çok dokunmadan Platoncu çizgide cevap ve içerik üretmeye çalışmıştır. Kökenini Platon ve Aristoteles’in eserlerinde bulan ve akla bağlı istek, istenç, irâde anlamlarına gelen boulêsis kavramını Plotinos “elimizde olana” (to ef’ hêmin) dair tartışmalara eklemlemiş ve sahih bir irâde edişi gerçekten bize bağlı ve bizim elimizde olanın gerek-şartı konumuna getirmiştir. Filozof, böyle bir irâde edişi ise sıkı koşullara bağlamış ve ancak “erdem” (aretê) vasıtasıyla erişilebilen ve kaynağını ilahi Akıl’da (Nous) bulan düşünceye ve istence katılmanın şeyleri bizim elimizde kılabileceğini söylemiştir. Bu dizgede erdemin kendisi ise insan ruhunda “başka bir akıl” olduğu kadar “başka bir irâde” olarak da resmedilmiş ve kaynağını Platon’un “Er Miti’nde” bulan erdemin “efendisiz” (adespoton) oluşunun yine aynı hikâyede bizim erdeme yönelik seçim ve irâde edişimize bağlanışı kritik bir konuma yükseltilmiştir.

The Will of Vırtue, The Virtue of Will: Plotinus’ Concept of Virtue in The Contexts of Intellect and Will

Plotinus (205-270 CE) was a philosopher of Late Antiquity and is considered to be the founder of the philosophical school called Neo-Platonism. His Enneads deals with many technical discussions received from previous eras of Classical Greek and Roman philosophy, and as much as the author is loyal to the Platonic tradition up to his time, he also introduces some novel approaches. Regarding the debates around the concept of will and freedom too, the philosopher contributes to the discussions stemming from the works of various thinkers from Plato to Roman Stoics and strives to come up with Platonic solutions to the problems, without necessarily modifying the terminological use he finds present. Plotinus integrates the concept of boulêsis (meaning wish, want or will) into the debates around the expression “that which depends on us” (to eph’ hêmin) and proposes true willing as the necessary condition for something to really depend on us. Such willing, in its turn, is bound by the philosopher to strict conditions and it is argued that only participation in a certain type of thought and willing, which find their source at the divine Intellect (Nous), and which can only be reached via virtue, can make things up to us. Virtue itself is presented not only as “another intellect” in the human soul but also as “another will”, and Plato’s postulation of virtue as “without a master” (adespoton) in his Myth of Er, in close connection with our choosing and willing it, is raised to a critical place.

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