1 Theōría-Therēma-Theōreîn: on the Vocabulary, Style, and Content of Plotinus’ Enn. III. 8 [30] 1 José C. Baracat Jr. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil baracatjr@hotmail.com Plotinus could not foresee that almost two thousand years later we would still find it difficult to endure his “paradox of thought” (IIIέ κ [ἁί] 1έκ) 2 and that we could not help considering his doctrine of contemplation, as stated by Émile Bréhier’s famous words, “un des paradoxes les plus violents qu’ait jamais produit la philosophie.” 3 Indeed, the idea that contemplation – an strictly intellectual activity that is the highest goal of human beings and from which nothing results 4 – is not only productive but also spreads throughout the entire reality, being somehow present even in plants and in our silliest actions (III. 8 [30] 1), is a very strange thing to say. However, it is not only the thesis of a productive contemplation that is a strong paradox: the treatise itself that contains such a doctrine is perhaps as 1. I wish to heartily thank Zeke Mazur and Jean-Marc Narbonne for many of the ideas in this article. 2. I follow P. Henry and H.-R. Schwyzer’s editio minor (1964-1983) throughout this paper. Translations are A.-ώέ Armstrong’s (1λθθ-1988), sometimes slightly modified. 3. E. Bréhier (1925) 150. 4. E. g.: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 10. 7 1177a 19-21: the activity of contemplation is our most powerful activity, for it is the activity of intellect, which is our highest part; b1-2: nothing results from the contemplative activity besides contemplation; b19-20: the activity of intellect, being contemplative, seems to be distinguished because of its seriousness (ıπουįૌ) and to aim at nothing else besides itself; b26-31: the life according to intellect, that is the contemplative life, is more than human, it is divine. Despite their different conceptions of intellect and intellectual activity, soul and body, theoretical and practical wisdom, etc., ancient philosophers in general, from Plato onwards, would agree with Aristotle’s statements above.