This early treatise is a fairly conventional defence of human freedom. Plotinus begins by rejecting the causal explanations of Epicureans, Stoics, and astrologers. He then gives a brief statement of the Platonic view which asserts the pre-eminence of soul as a causal force which maintains human freedom when active but is passive when it yields to external factors (fate).
§1. All things are caused except the first.
§2. The Epicureans posit corporeal causes, the Stoics a single principle (fate), others the heavenly bodies (a kind of fate).
§3. Rejection of the Epicurean theory especially as an explanation of cognitive and behavioural processes.
§4. Rejection of the Stoic theory of the soul of the cosmos that leads to a denial that we are responsible for our own actions.
§5. Rejection of the view of the astrologers who also remove human responsibility.
§6. The heavenly bodies have some causal influence on the maintenance of general cosmic order, but are not responsible for individual traits and characteristics.
§7. Rejection of the Stoic theory of a single causal principle interpenetrating the universe.
§8. Soul, in Platonic doctrine, is in control in proportion to its perfection, but under constraint when it yields to the external.
§9. Soul acts voluntarily only when it acts according to reason.
§10. Things are caused by soul and by externals (fate). Soul is passive when yielding to externals, active when using reason.