DOI 10.15731/AClass.062.09 191 ACTA CLASSICA LXII (2019) 191–218 ISSN 0065–1141 PLOTINUS’ HIERARCHICAL VIEW OF EMOTIONS AND ITS RELEVANCE TO RESEARCH ON AFFECTIVITY* Robert Zaborowski University of Warmia and Mazury ABSTRACT In the paper I start by presenting the status quæstionis. Since the existing analyses do not do justice to Plotinus’ view of emotions, I present a number of passages from the Enneads in order to give a complete account. The emerging picture is complex and dynamic. To offer a comprehensive interpretation I resort to a hier- archical approach. As a result, strata of affectivity are identified. Finally I compare Plotinus’ perspective with Max Scheler’s and Nicolai Hartmann’s and suggest that a vertical model of affectivity is attractive because it accounts for apparently con- flicting features of affectivity. KEYWORDS: Greek philosophy, Plotinus, Enneads, emotions, affectivity 1. Status quæstionis The paper is provoked by the fact that Plotinus’ view on affectivity has not yet been accounted for satisfactorily. In what follows I want to show that it may be presented in accordance with or on the basis of the most general feature of Plotinus’ philosophy, that is his hierarchical approach. Several scholars reconstruct the structure of the emotions in Plotinus but they don’t reach a picture including all affective phenomena discussed by him. Whereas his hierarchical model is fit for including the whole gamut of affectivity, it often ends with falling into some kind or another of reductionism. Therefore, the interpretations we meet deform Plotinus’ approach, since, even if not totally wrong, they are incomplete. More particularly, I haven’t seen any hierarchical interpretation, which is all the more the pity in that the hierarchical stance in Plotinus is explicit and * This article is dedicated to Jean-Michel Charrue. A shorter version of this paper was given at the 8th Annual ISNS Conference, Miraflores de la Sierra, 17–20 June 2010. I thank Damian Caluori for his comments he was kind enough to communi- cate to me in May 2017. The final version of the paper was completed during a stay at the Fondation Hardt in Sep./Oct. 2017. I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers of Acta Classica for their remarks.