This treatise is a sort of epitome of the longer treatise 5.1 (10). It is focused on the problem of how a many can be derived from a One. This is a problem raised in the chronologically previous treatises 5.9 (5) and 4.8 (6). The problem is exacerbated by the fact that production from the One cannot involve its going outside itself for this would undermine its simplicity. Plotinus here also argues that the primary product of the One must be Intellect, first as that which is primarily complex and then as that which is identical with all that is intelligible as it reverts to the One.
§1. The ontological priority of the absolutely simple first principle of all.
§2. The derivation of Intellect from the One and the distinction between internal and external activity. In what sense Intellect is identical with the Indefinite Dyad and in what sense it is identical with all Being.