In this very brief treatise – or perhaps note – Plotinus addresses an issue that arises throughout the history of ancient philosophy, namely, the justifiability of suicide. Plotinus’ view is, not surprisingly, in line with the argument in Plato’s Phaedo, but it also adds reflections on how, if at all, Peripatetic and Stoic doctrines might affect the prohibition of suicide. In the editio minor of Henry and Schwyzer there is appended to this treatise an excerpt from the Introduction to Philosophy by Elias, a student of Olympiodorus, purporting to cite Plotinus on suicide. Henry and Schwyzer subsequently rejected the authenticity of this fragment although, as Armstrong suggests, it could come from Plotinus’ oral teaching.
Violent withdrawal of the soul from the body is unjustifiable. This sort of withdrawal burdens the departing soul with the bodily passions. Suicide also deprives human beings of the possibility of moral progress.