ABSTRACT
Plotinus's overall view bears some similarity to the Stoic theory of the 'properly qualified'; with the obvious difference that Plotinus regards the nature of each individual as dependent on incorporeal principles. Plotinus refers to the distinction between qualities that are essential completions of substance and mere accidental qualities. Plotinus, then, holds at the same time that sensible particulars are integrally qualitative and that some of their qualitative features are more important than others. Yet some passages suggest that Plotinus regarded his view according to which a formative principle accounts for the whole structure of particulars as susceptible of being extended to non-human particulars as well. This overall theory accounts for Plotinus's complex and ambivalent approach to the problem of essential properties. Porphyry's philosophical framework is different, since he accepts Aristotle's hylomorphism without qualification as an account of the physical world.
