Neoplatonism

Not to be confused with Modern Platonism.

Neoplatonism refers to a philosophical and religious system, beginning with the work of Plotinus in 245 AD, that teaches interpretations of the philosophy and theology of Plato, extending the Middle Platonism of the intervening centuries, c.80–c.245 AD. The English term 'neoplatonism', or 'Neo-Platonism', or 'Neoplatonism' comes from 18th and 19th century Germanic scholars (Germanic term: 'Neu-Platonische' in the 18th century; 'Neuplatoniker' in the 19th century) who wanted to systematize history into nameable periods.

Neoplatonism was founded in c. 245 AD by the Egyptian philosopher Plotinus when he moved from Alexandria to Rome and established a school where he taught an interpretation of Plato's philosophy until his death in 270 AD. The neoplatonism of late antiquity ended in 529 AD when the public teaching of pagan philosophy was forbidden by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and the last Neoplatonic school in Athens, headed by the Syrian philosopher Damascius, was closed.

History

Portrait of Johann Jakob Brucker, whose six volume work Historia critica philosophiae (1742–1767) cemented the division between ancient Platonism, middle Platonism and neoplatonism.

Neoplatonism synthesized ideas from earlier philosophical and religious traditions, namely Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism, and it is that synthesis that explains the central difference between Plato and neoplatonism. Because scholars believe that neoplatonism did not arise spontaneously from Platonism, they postulate an intermediate series of stages, called middle Platonism (German term: Vorneuplatonismus), that evolved Plato's doctrines into neoplatonic doctrines. Middle Platonism is where historians see the first attempts to combine the earlier traditions of Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism.

'Neoplatonism' is a modern term that originated in Germanic scholarship of the 18th and 19th centuries in an attempt to organize history into conspicuous periods. 21st century scholarship has revealed that the conceptual foundation of the division between ancient Platonism into middle Platonism and neoplatonism was cemented by the six volume work called Critical History of Philosophy (Latin: Historia critica philosophiae) published between 1742 and 1767 by the 18th century German historian Johann Jakob Brucker. Unfortunately, in the 18th century the usage of the term 'neoplatonism' was mostly pejorative.

The term 'neoplatonism' has a double function as a historical category. On the one hand, it separates the developments of Platonic doctrines from the time of Plotinus onwards. On the other hand, the prefix 'neo' suggests that there is something new in the interpretations of Plato by Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus. In the Renaissance, Platonist Marsilio Ficino thought that the neoplatonic interpretation of Plato was an authentic and accurate representation of Plato's philosophy. Similarly, some contemporary scholars claim that merely marginal differences separate Plotinus' teachings from those of his immediate predecessors.

21st century scholarship marks the beginning of neoplatonism when the philosopher Plotinus moved from Alexandria to Rome and established a school there in c. 245 AD. There is a recent view, held by the 21st century Irish Professor Sarah Klitenic Wear, that three major periods in neoplatonism can be distinguished after Plotinus: the period of work by Plotinus' student Porphyry; the period of Iamblichus' school in Syria; and the period in the 5th and 6th centuries, when Platonic Academies in Athens and Alexandria flourished with the activities of the philosophers Syrianus, Proclus, Damascius, and Olympiodorus.

1st to 2nd century

Important forerunners of neoplatonism were the 1st century Jewish-Greek philosopher Philo of Alexandria, whose key theological doctrines approximate neoplatonic doctrines; the 1st century middle Platonist Plutarch of Chaeronea, who was inspired by Plato, but was opposed to Stoic doctrines; and the 2nd century middle Platonist Numenius of Apamea, who was an significant influence on the neoplatonic philosophers Plotinus, Porphyry and Proclus, and also anticipated an important neoplatonic doctrine.

Philo of Alexandria

Imaginative 16th century portrait of Philo of Alexandria, whose theological doctrines in the early 1st century approximate Neoplatonic doctrines.

The writings of the 1st century philosopher Philo of Alexandria reveal a conception of God that was similar to Plotinus' conception of the One, also his conceptions of the Logos, as mediator between God and humans, and his conception of Powers, which approach very closely to the Platonic conception of Ideas; approximate neoplatonic doctrines. For both Philo and Plotinus, the suggestion for a doctrine of 'ecstasy' came from Platonic dialogues, where Philo's doctrine distinguished four classes of 'ecstasy': madness, sudden astonishment, deep sleep and inspiration. Philo also accepted the cosmological teachings of Plato, but rejected key cosmological views held by Aristotle and the Stoics.

Plutarch of Chaeronea

The 1st century philosopher Plutarch of Chaeronea anticipated neoplatonic doctrines in his system that was less elaborate and less thorough than that of Plotinus. In Plutarch's system, there are two first principles, God and Matter, between them, Platonic Ideas or patterns which formed the world, and another principle which he called the World-soul. Plotinus borrowed from Plutarch the non-Platonic term 'hypostasis', a concept also used by the Aristotelian-Stoic philosophers Cornutus and Sextus of Chaeronea ('hexis'; in Stoic dialect) and also in Alexandria by Philo of Alexandria, the Septuagint and Lucian of Antioch. Plutarch also wrote on the connection between prophecy and imagination.

Numenius of Apamea

The 2nd century philosopher Numenius of Apamea is best understood as a Pythagorean, as he belonged to Platonism's Pythagorean wing, and was a source of the variety of Platonism that Plotinus promoted. Because of that, Plotinus was seen as a kind of successor to Numenius. Numenius preferred deep allegorical interpretations of Plato and Homer and hence was an important methodological influence on Proclus. It was from Numenius that Porphyry derived the idea of writing his allegorizing work on Homer called Cave of the Nymphs. Numenius' works were read in Plotinus' classrooms and he anticipated an important neoplatonic doctrine that distinguished between the Demiurge, identified with Plotinus' conception of the intelligible realm of Intellect, and the Supreme Unity, identified with Plotinus' conception of the One.

Christian

A Renaissance icon of Saint Justin Martyr located in the Stavronikita Monastery. Saint Justin Martyr's conception of the Logos was also an important conception in Plotinus' neoplatonic doctrines.

The 2nd century Christian apologist Saint Justin Martyr, who initially sought wisdom from the Stoics, Peripatetics and Platonists before converting to Christianity, alluded to a conception of the Logos, also an important conception in Plotinus' neoplatonic doctrines, as a means for transmitting the Good News of Christian Gospels. Saint Justin Martyr also refers to the Second Epistle of Plato, which Plotinus used as an authority, to explain the Christian Trinity Platonically. Similarly, the 2nd century Christian Saint Athenagoras of Athens, the first master of the Catechetical School of Alexandria and who taught Clement of Alexandria, describes God as the Logos.

Gnostic

The 2nd century Alexandrian Christian Gnostic Valentinus used the technical Gnostic term 'plenitude' (plērōma) to describe a multitude of higher beings in the spiritual cosmos. The Gnostic conception of a 'plenitude' of higher beings in the spiritual cosmos, seen in Valentinus' conception of 30 or 33 Aeons; and the 2nd century Christian Gnostic Basilides' conception of seven Powers; was previously found in: Philo's conception of five Powers; in Hermetic writings, where there is a conception of a Demiurge and seven Governors; in Numenius' conception of triply divided First and Second gods; and in the 2nd century Christian Gnostic Saturninus' conception of seven creative spheres, or Seven Angels. The term 'plenitude' is an important neoplatonic term, however in Plotinus' neoplatonic doctrines, 'plenitude' was an activity in a hypostasis that retained its unity.

3rd to 4th century

In the 3rd to 4th centuries, prominent members of the neoplatonic school in Rome and Alexandria were: the 3rd century Egyptian philosopher Plotinus, the founder of neoplatonism; the 3rd century Alexandrian philosopher Ammonius Saccas, who taught Plotinus in Alexandria; the 3rd century Etruscan-Roman philosopher Amelius, who studied with Plotinus for over 20 years; the 3rd century Tyrian philosopher Porphyry, who first studied with the 3rd century middle-Platonist philosopher Longinus in Athens and afterwards studied with Plotinus in Rome from 263 AD; the 3rd century Syrian philosopher Iamblichus, who studied with Porphyry in Rome or Sicily; and the 4th century Roman emperor Julian, who as a philosopher, simplified the doctrines of Plotinus and Iamblichus.

Ammonius Saccas

The 3rd century philosopher Ammonius Saccas established a school in Alexandria in c. 200 AD where one of his students was Plotinus. As Ammonius' instruction was purely oral, he did not write philosophical works, it is difficult to know what Plotinus learned from him; however, since Plotinus studied under him for 11 years, his influence on Plotinus was significant. The hypothesis that Ammonius was Indian is improbable and any Indian influence on neoplatonism was thought unlikely in the mid 20th century; however, notable 21st century scholarship has opened major areas of research in that field. The early 4th century Greek Christian historian Saint Eusebius, citing a work wrongly ascribed to Ammonius, and the 4th century Christian theologian Saint Jerome, who confused Ammonius Saccas with another Ammonius, both claimed Ammonius Saccas was a Christian, whereas Porphyry claimed he was born a Christian but reverted back to the Greek religion. The 5th century neoplatonist Hierocles and Porphyry, in his work On the Return of the Soul (fr. 302F), both stated that Ammonius attempted to harmonize the conflicting doctrines of Plato and Aristotle.

Plotinus

The 3rd century Egyptian philosopher Plotinus was the founder of neoplatonism, which has had a profound influence on Middle Ages philosophy, and more broadly, on Western philosophy. The principal source of our biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's Life of Plotinus (Latin: Vita Plotini), written in 301 AD as a preface to his edition of Plotinus' works, called Enneads. During the time Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas in Alexandria, from 232–242 AD, he became eager to learn about Persian and Indian philosophy. To try to achieve that aim, in 242 AD Plotinus embarked on a military expedition with the Roman emperor Gordian III; however, he did not venture very far east, as Gordian III was killed in Mesopotamia in 244 AD, and Plotinus escaped to the city Antioch. In 244 AD Plotinus settled in Rome, where he was to stay until the last year of his life, and established a school there in c. 245 AD marking the beginning of neoplatonism.

An illustration in a Middle Ages manuscript showing Plotinus and Porphyry disputing astrology. Plotinus was the founder of neoplatonism and Porphyry was his student and a prominent neoplatonist of the 3rd century.

Plotinus' school was open to all women and men, and attracted people who just wanted to hear his lectures or attend meetings or seminars or participate in open philosophical discussions, whilst others came to seek a philosophical way of life, and others attended because they wanted to become philosophers. Subjects of study at the school included commentaries on Plato and Aristotle by the Middle Platonists, or Pythagoreans and Aristotelians. Plotinus remained head of his school in Rome until he moved to Campania for the last year of his life where he died in 270 AD at the age of 66. Plotinus entrusted Porphyry with arranging his treatises, written in the last 17 years of his life, which Porphyry arranged according to subject matter into six sets of nine treatises, i.e. six enneads, where an 'ennead' is a set of nine, and called the work Enneads. Porphyry completed the arrangement, which comprises everything Plotinus wrote, and also includes a preface written by Porphyry, about 30 years after Plotinus died.

Porphyry

The 3rd century Tyrian philosopher Porphyry flourished towards the end of the 3rd century amidst radical religious transformations that was to affect the entire Roman empire, resulting in the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in 303 AD, about two years before Porphyry's death. In his biography of Plotinus, Life of Plotinus written in 301 AD, Porphyry mentions meeting the early 3rd century Christian theologian Origen, later he studied literature, rhetoric and philology with the 3rd century Syrian philosopher Longinus, and when he was 30, in c. 262 AD, went to Rome and studied philosophy with Plotinus for six years, and in 268 AD left Rome for Sicily and married Marcella.

Notable 21st century scholarship by the American historian Elizabeth DePalma Digeser has revealed that the context of Porphyry's writings against the Christians, in his work Against the Christians, was a lot more complex than the simple opposition of 'pagans' and 'Christians'. Porphyry was not only 'at war' with the followers of the Christian theologian Origen over shaping religious law for the Roman empire, but he was similarly 'at war' with the school of Iamblichus, who was regarded by early Christians as a 'pagan'. Further, Porphyry's work Against the Christians was only known as a single work several centuries after Porphyry's death. The work Against the Christians cited by the Suda is likely a Byzantine summary of compositions by Porphyry that was circulated after the original compositions were burnt due to the edicts issued by the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II and the Roman emperor Valentinian III in 448 AD. Prior to those edicts, the Roman emperor Constantine had issued an edict, in 325 AD shortly after the First Council of Nicaea, that all of Porphyry's works be burnt and his reputation destroyed.

Porphyry was amongst the first serious students of the Bible, and wrote on astrology; religion, where he was an apologist for traditional Roman religion; philosophy, where he was a critic of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and the school of his student Iamblichus; he also wrote on the 8th century BC author Homer in his work On the Cave of the Nymphs; and he also wrote on musical theory. He is relevant to the history of mathematics because of: his work called Life of Pythagoras, which collects traditions of the Pythagoreans; and his commentary on Euclid's Elements, which may have been used by the 4th century Greek mathematician Pappus, when he wrote his own commentary on Euclid's Elements. Porphyry's introduction to Aristotle's Categoriae, called Isagoge, was important as an introduction to the study of logical works of Aristotle in Plotinus' school in Rome.

Iamblichus

An imaginative illustration of Iamblichus. Not much is known about the life of Iamblichus; however, the works he left behind make him a prominent neoplatonist of the 3rd century.

The 3rd century Syrian philosopher Iamblichus was born to a noble family in Chalcis ad Belum in c. 245 AD, and he may have studied with Porphyry in Rome. He established a school in Syria that was an important link in the Platonic tradition. We do not know much about Iamblichus' life, his date of birth is uncertain, and much of our biographical information that comes from the 4th century Greek historian Eunapius of Sardis lacks factual detail. The 6th century Syrian philosopher Damascius, says in his work Life of Isidore, that Iamblichus descended from the royal line of priest-kings of Emesa. We know that growing up in Syria during the mid 3rd century must have been confusing and disorientating, as during Iamblichus' early youth the Persian King Shapur I broke Roman Empire strongholds around the Kingdom of Chalcis and pillaged the whole of northern Syria, including Antioch.

Scholars are unsure about who Iamblichus' teachers were, but think that he might have studied with Porphyry in Rome in c. 280s AD; however, we know he was very critical of Porphyry's philosophical position. It is not known when Iamblichus left Rome to set up his school in Syria, maybe in Apamea, but the fact that he did make the move might indicate the tension that existed between him and Porphyry. Iamblichus' school seems to have shared many similarities with other Platonic schools in that students lived with or near their teacher, met daily and studied the works of Plato and Aristotle, and held discussions on set topics. Iamblichus is likely to have lived in Apamea in the 320s AD and to have died before 326 AD.

Iamblichus' works are complex and contentious and have attracted a lot of commentary by historians of philosophy and religion and hold a noticeable place in modern scholarship. He is hailed by some scholars as a superb and brilliant metaphysician who further advanced Platonism, but discredited by other scholars for being obscure and introducing all sorts of superstitions into his texts. One of Iamblichus' best known and most translated works is his treatise called On the Pythagorean Way of Life, which is now a valuable and leading source of information on the Pythagorean tradition. Another of his well known works is called On the Mysteries of Egypt, which is popular amongst students of Platonism and classical religion. There has been much late 20th century and 21st century scholarship on Iamblichus' commentaries, treatises, letters and fragments, which have overcome many old prejudices, and now his works are seen as an enticing field of study for students of Late Platonism (a term used in 21st century scholarship to describe a progression of ideas, including Stoic and Hermetic elements, found in both Middle Platonism and neoplatonism).

4th to 5th century

In the 4th to 5th centuries, prominent members of the neoplatonic school in Athens and Alexandria were: the late 4th century Greek philosopher Plutarch of Athens, who was head of the neoplatonic school in Athens until his death in c. 432 AD; the 5th century Greek philosopher Syrianus, who was head of the neoplatonic school in Athens for five years after Plutarch of Athens, until 437 AD; and the 5th century Greek philosopher Proclus, who was head of the neoplatonic school in Athens after Syrianus, for nearly 50 years, until 485 AD. A prominent member of the neoplatonic school in Alexandria was the late 4th to early 5th century Egyptian philosopher Hypatia, who taught mathematics, astronomy and philosophy.

Hypatia

The late 4th to early 5th century Alexandrian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Hypatia, who most scholars say was born in Alexandria in c. 370 AD but some 21st century scholars put the year of her birth as early as c. 350 AD, was the first distinctly neoplatonic philosopher that taught in one brilliant period of neoplatonism in Alexandria. It is clear that Hypatia had a comprehensive education, and embraced neoplatonic philosophy; however, apart from her father, the 4th century Alexandrian mathematician Theon of Alexandria, nothing is known about her other teachers.

An early 20th century painting of Hypatia by Alfred Seifert. Hypatia was the first distinctly neoplatonic philosopher in Alexandria.

Hypatia took over the position of head of the neoplatonic school in Alexandria from her father, and there she taught mathematics, astronomy and a philosophy based on the ideas of Plotinus and Porphyry, which emphasized contemplation over ritual. One of Hypatia's students, from 390–395 AD, was the 5th century Greek bishop Synesius of Cyrene, who wrote letters to Hypatia, seven of which survive, that explain the workings of Hypatia’s inner circle of students, and the rapport Hypatia shared with those students. Other students of Hypatia included Synesius' brothers Eutropius and Alexander, the sophist Athanasius, and Synesius’ friend Olympius.

By 415 AD, Hypatia had been Alexandria’s leading thinker for 35 years and was having regular audiences with Orestes, the Roman governor of Alexandria. Whilst Hypatia had no formal authority in the government of Alexandria, her presence at Orestes’ side was very beneficial to Orestes and made him appear to be the reasonable party in any dispute, and so Hypatia was seen by Alexandrians as a tremendous symbolic power. By March 415 AD there had been three years of confrontations, at times violent, between supporters of the 5th century bishop of Alexandria Saint Cyril of Alexandria, other Alexandrian groups and Orestes, which led to a situation that quickly got out of control, and tragically resulted in the murder of Hypatia by an angry mob.

Hypatia's works include a commentary on the work Arithmetica by the 3rd century mathematician Diophantus of Alexandria, a commentary on the work Conic Sections by the 3rd century BC geometer Apollonius of Perga, both which are lost, an edited manuscript of astronomical tables, originally written by the 2nd century Alexandrian mathematician Ptolemy, called Handy Tables, and a commentary on Book 3 and possibly also on Books 4–13 of Ptolemy's astronomical treatise called Almagest. A poignant and contemporary treatment of Hypatia's life is depicted in the 2009 film Agora by the 21st century Spanish-Chilean film director Alejandro Amenábar, which reconstructs the historical conflicts during Hypatia's life, and portrays Hypatia as the first astronomer to understand the Solar System as heliocentric system in which the planets travel around the Sun in elliptical orbits.

Proclus

Proclus was a Greek neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Greek philosophers (see Damascius). He set forth one of the most elaborate, complex, and fully developed neoplatonic systems, providing also an allegorical way of reading the dialogues of Plato. The particular characteristic of Proclus' system is his insertion of a level of individual ones, called henads, between the One itself and the divine Intellect, which is the second principle. The henads are beyond being, like the One itself, but they stand at the head of chains of causation (seirai or taxeis) and in some manner give to these chains their particular character. They are also identified with the traditional Greek gods, so one henad might be Apollo and be the cause of all things apollonian, while another might be Helios and be the cause of all sunny things. The henads serve both to protect the One itself from any hint of multiplicity and to draw up the rest of the universe towards the One, by being a connecting, intermediate stage between absolute unity and determinate multiplicity.

5th to 6th century

In the 5th to 6th centuries, prominent members of the neoplatonic school in Athens and Alexandria were: the 5th century Alexandrian philosopher Ammonius, who was a student of Proclus and afterwards was the head of the neoplatonic school in Alexandria; the 6th century Greek philosopher Simplicius of Cilicia, who was a student of Ammonius; the 6th century Syrian philosopher Damascius, who was head of the neoplatonic school of Athens in 529 AD when it was closed by Justinian I; and the 6th century Alexandrian philosopher Olympiodorus, who was head of the Alexandrian neoplatonic school after Ammonius and was still lecturing in Alexandria in 565 AD.

Doctrines

The Enneads of Plotinus are the primary and classical document of neoplatonism. As a form of mysticism, it contains theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical parts deal with the high origin of the human soul, showing how it has departed from its first estate. The practical parts show the way by which the soul may again return to the Eternal and Supreme. The system can be divided between the invisible world and the phenomenal world, the former containing the transcendent, absolute One from which emanates an eternal, perfect, essence (nous, or intellect), which, in turn, produces the world-soul.

The One

See also: Henology and henosis

Even though neoplatonism primarily circumscribes the thinkers who are now labeled neoplatonists and not their ideas, there are some ideas that are common to neoplatonic systems; for example, the monistic idea that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One".

For Plotinus, the first principle of reality is "the One", an utterly simple, ineffable, unknowable subsistence which is both the creative source of the Universe and the teleological end of all existing things. Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "One", containing no division, multiplicity, nor distinction; likewise, it is beyond all categories of being and non-being. The concept of "being" is derived by us from the objects of human experience and is an attribute of such objects, but the infinite, transcendent One is beyond all such objects and, therefore, is beyond the concepts which we can derive from them. The One "cannot be any existing thing" and cannot be merely the sum of all such things (compare the Stoic doctrine of disbelief in non-material existence) but "is prior to all existents".

Although, properly speaking, there is no name appropriate for the first principle, the most adequate names are "the One" or "the Good". The One is so simple that it cannot even be said to exist or to be a being. Rather, the creative principle of all things is beyond being, a notion which is derived from Book VI of the Republic, when, in the course of his famous analogy of the sun, Plato says that the Good is beyond being (ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας) in power and dignity. In Plotinus' model of reality, the One is the cause of the rest of reality, which takes the form of two subsequent "hypostases" or substances: Nous and Soul (psyché). Although neoplatonists after Plotinus adhered to his cosmological scheme in its most general outline, later developments in the tradition also departed substantively from Plotinus' teachings in regards to significant philosophical issues, such as the nature of evil.

Emanation

Main article: Emanationism

From the One emanated the rest of the universe as a sequence of lesser beings.

Nous

The original Being initially emanates, or throws out, the nous, which is a perfect image of the One and the archetype of all existing things. It is simultaneously both being and thought, idea and ideal world. As image, the nous corresponds perfectly to the One, but as a derivative, it is different. What Plotinus understands by the nous is the highest sphere accessible to the human mind, while also being pure intellect itself. Nous is the most critical component of idealism, neoplatonism being a pure form of idealism.

World-soul

The image and product of the motionless nous is the world-soul, which, according to Plotinus, is immaterial like the nous. Its relation to the nous is the same as that of the nous to the One. It stands between the nous and the phenomenal world, and it is permeated and illuminated by the former, but it is also in contact with the latter. The nous/spirit is indivisible; the world-soul may preserve its unity and remain in the nous, but, at the same time, it has the power of uniting with the corporeal world and thus being disintegrated. It therefore occupies an intermediate position. As a single world-soul, it belongs in essence and destination to the intelligible world; but it also embraces innumerable individual souls; and these can either allow themselves to be informed by the nous, or turn aside from the nous and choose the phenomenal world and lose themselves in the realm of the senses and the finite.

Phenomenal world

The soul, as a moving essence, generates the corporeal or phenomenal world. This world ought to be so pervaded by the soul that its various parts should remain in perfect harmony. Plotinus is no dualist in the same sense as sects like the Gnostics; in contrast, he admires the beauty and splendour of the world. So long as idea governs matter, or the soul governs the body, the world is fair and good. It is an image – though a shadowy image – of the upper world, and the degrees of better and worse in it are essential to the harmony of the whole. But, in the actual phenomenal world, unity and harmony are replaced by strife or discord; the result is a conflict, a becoming and vanishing, an illusive existence. And the reason for this state of things is that bodies rest on a substratum of matter. Matter is the indeterminate: that with no qualities. If destitute of form and idea, it is evil; as capable of form, it is neutral. Evil here is understood as a parasite, having no-existence of its own (parahypostasis), an unavoidable outcome of the Universe, having an "other" necessity, as a harmonizing factor.

Celestial hierarchy

Later neoplatonic philosophers, especially Iamblichus, added intermediate beings such as gods, angels, demons, and other beings as mediators between the One and humanity. The neoplatonist gods are omni-perfect beings and do not display the usual amoral behaviour associated with their representations in the myths.

• The One: God, The Good. Transcendent and ineffable.
• The Hypercosmic Gods: those that make Essence, Life, and Soul
• The Demiurge: the Creator
• The Cosmic Gods: those who make Being, Nature, and Matter—including the gods known to us from classical religion.

In Iamblichus' system, the realm of divinities stretched from the original One down to material nature itself, where soul, in fact, descended into matter and became "embodied" as human beings. In his system the world has intermediatory beings influencing natural events and possessing and communicating knowledge of the future, and who are all accessible to prayers and offerings. Iamblichus had salvation as his final goal (see henosis). The embodied soul was to return to divinity by performing certain rites, or theurgy, literally, 'divine-working'.

Evil

Neoplatonists did not believe in an independent existence of evil. They compared it to darkness, which does not exist in itself but only as the absence of light. So, too, evil is simply the absence of good. Things are good insofar as they exist; they are evil only insofar as they are imperfect, lacking some good which they should have.

Return to the One

Neoplatonists believed human perfection and happiness were attainable in this world, without awaiting an afterlife. Perfection and happiness—seen as synonymous—could be achieved through philosophical contemplation.

All people return to the One, from which they emanated.

The neoplatonists believed in the pre-existence, and immortality of the soul. The human soul consists of a lower irrational soul and a higher rational soul (mind), both of which can be regarded as different powers of the one soul. It was widely held that the soul possesses a "vehicle" (okhêma), accounting for the human soul's immortality and allowing for its return to the One after death. After bodily death, the soul takes up a level in the afterlife corresponding with the level at which it lived during its earthly life. The neoplatonists believed in the principle of reincarnation. Although the most pure and holy souls would dwell in the highest regions, the impure soul would undergo a purification, before descending again, to be reincarnated into a new body, perhaps into animal form. Plotinus believed that a soul may be reincarnated into another human or even a different sort of animal. However, Porphyry maintained, instead, that human souls were only reincarnated into other humans. A soul which has returned to the One achieves union with the cosmic universal soul and does not descend again; at least, not in this world period.

Influence

Neoplatonism had an enduring influence on the subsequent history of philosophy. In the Middle Ages, neoplatonic ideas were studied and discussed by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers. In the Islamic cultural sphere, neoplatonic texts were available in Arabic and Persian translations, and notable philosophers such as al-Farabi, Solomon ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), Avicenna, and Maimonides incorporated neoplatonic elements into their own thinking. Thomas Aquinas had direct access to works by Proclus, Simplicius and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and he knew about other neoplatonists, such as Plotinus and Porphyry, through secondhand sources. The mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–c. 1328 AD) was also influenced by Neoplatonism, propagating a contemplative way of life which points to the Godhead beyond the nameable God. Neoplatonism also had a strong influence on the perennial philosophy of the Italian Renaissance thinkers Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, and continues through nineteenth-century Universalism and modern-day spirituality and nondualism.

Early Christian

Main article: Neoplatonism and Christianity

Augustine

Certain central tenets of neoplatonism served as a philosophical interim for the Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo on his journey from dualistic Manichaeism to Christianity. As a Manichee hearer, Augustine had held that evil has substantial being and that God is made of matter; when he became a neoplatonist, he changed his views on these things. As a neoplatonist, and later a Christian, Augustine believed that evil is a privation of good and that God is not material. When writing his treatise 'On True Religion' several years after his 387 AD baptism, Augustine's Christianity was still tempered by neoplatonism.

The term logos was interpreted variously in neoplatonism. Plotinus refers to Thales in interpreting logos as the principle of meditation, the interrelationship between the hypostases (Soul, Spirit (nous) and the 'One'). St. John introduces a relation between Logos and the Son, Christ, whereas Paul calls it 'Son', 'Image', and 'Form'. Victorinus subsequently differentiated the Logos interior to God from the Logos related to the world by creation and salvation.

For Augustine, the Logos "took on flesh" in Christ, in whom the Logos was present as in no other man. He strongly influenced early medieval Christian philosophy. Perhaps the key subject in this was Logos.

Origen and Pseudo-Dionysius

Some early Christians, influenced by neoplatonism, identified the neoplatonic One, or God, with Yahweh. The most influential of these would be Origen, the pupil of Ammonius Saccas; and the sixth-century author known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, whose works were translated by John Scotus in the ninth century for the West. Both authors had a lasting influence on Eastern Orthodox and Western Christianity, and the development of contemplative and mystical practices and theology.

Gnosticism

Main article: Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

Neoplatonism also had links with Gnosticism, which Plotinus rebuked in his ninth tractate of the second Enneads: "Against Those That Affirm The Creator of The Cosmos and The Cosmos Itself to Be Evil" (generally known as "Against The Gnostics").

Due to their belief being grounded in Platonic thought, the neoplatonists rejected Gnosticism's vilification of Plato's demiurge, the creator of the material world or cosmos discussed in the Timaeus. Neoplatonism has been referred to as orthodox Platonic philosophy by scholars like John D. Turner; this reference may be due, in part, to Plotinus' attempt to refute certain interpretations of Platonic philosophy, through his Enneads. Plotinus believed the followers of Gnosticism had corrupted the original teachings of Plato and often argued against likes of Valentinus who, according to Plotinus, had given rise to doctrines of dogmatic theology with ideas such as that the Spirit of Christ was brought forth by a conscious god after the fall from Pleroma. According to Plotinus, The One is not a conscious god with intent, nor a godhead, nor a conditioned existing entity of any kind, rather a requisite principle of totality which is also the source of ultimate wisdom.

Middle Ages

Byzantine

See also: Platonic Academy § Neoplatonic Academy

After the Platonic Academy was destroyed in the first century BC, philosophers continued to teach Platonism, but it was not until the early 5th century (c. 410 AD) that a revived academy (which had no connection with the original Academy) was established in Athens by some leading neoplatonists. It persisted until 529 AD when it was finally closed by Justinian I because of active paganism of its professors. Other schools continued in Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria which were the centers of Justinian's empire.

After the closure of the neoplatonic academy, neoplatonic and/or secular philosophical studies continued in publicly funded schools in Alexandria. In the early seventh century, the neoplatonist Stephanus of Alexandria brought this Alexandrian tradition to Constantinople, where it would remain influential, albeit as a form of secular education. The university maintained an active philosophical tradition of Platonism and Aristotelianism, with the former being the longest unbroken Platonic school, running for close to two millennia until the fifteenth century

Michael Psellos (1018–1078 AD), a Byzantine monk, writer, philosopher, politician and historian, wrote many philosophical treatises, such as De omnifaria doctrina. He wrote most of his philosophy during his time as a court politician at Constantinople between 1030–1049 AD.

Gemistos Plethon (c. 1355–1452 AD; Greek: Πλήθων Γεμιστός) remained the preeminent scholar of neoplatonic philosophy in the late Byzantine Empire. He introduced his understanding and insight into the works of neoplatonism during the failed attempt to reconcile the East–West Schism at the Council of Florence. At Florence, Plethon met Cosimo de' Medici and influenced the latter's decision to found a new Platonic Academy there. Cosimo subsequently appointed as head Marsilio Ficino, who proceeded to translate all Plato's works, the Enneads of Plotinus, and various other neoplatonist works into Latin.

Islamic

Main article: Platonism in Islamic philosophy

The major reason for the prominence of neoplatonic influences in the historical Muslim world was availability of neoplatonic texts: Arabic translations and paraphrases of neoplatonic works were readily available to Islamic scholars greatly due to the availability of the Greek copies, in part, because Muslims conquered some of the more important centres of the Byzantine Christian civilization in Egypt and Syria.

Various Persian and Arabic scholars, including Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Ibn Arabi, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, and al-Himsi, adapted neoplatonism to conform to the monotheistic constraints of Islam. The translations of the works which extrapolate the tenets of God in Neoplatonism present no major modification from their original Greek sources, showing the doctrinal shift towards monotheism. Islamic neoplatonism adapted the concepts of the One and the First Principle to Islamic theology, attributing the First Principle to God. God is a transcendent being, omnipresent and inalterable to the effects of creation. Islamic philosophers used the framework of Islamic mysticism in their interpretation of Neoplatonic writings and concepts.

Jewish

In the Middle Ages, neoplatonist ideas influenced Jewish thinkers, such as the Kabbalist Isaac the Blind, and the Jewish neoplatonic philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), who modified it in the light of their own monotheism.

Renaissance

Main article: Platonism in the Renaissance

Neoplatonism ostensibly survived in the Eastern Christian Church as an independent tradition and was reintroduced to the West by Pletho (c. 1355–1452/1454 AD), an avowed pagan and opponent of the Byzantine Church, inasmuch as the latter, under Western scholastic influence, relied heavily upon Aristotelian methodology. Pletho's Platonic revival, following the Council of Florence (1438–1439 AD), largely accounts for the renewed interest in Platonic philosophy which accompanied the Renaissance.

"Of all the students of Greek in Renaissance Italy, the best-known are the Nnoplatonists who studied in and around Florence" (Hole). Neoplatonism was not just a revival of Plato's ideas, it is all based on Plotinus' created synthesis, which incorporated the works and teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and other Greek philosophers. The Renaissance in Italy was the revival of classic antiquity, and this started at the fall of the Byzantine empire, who were considered the "librarians of the world", because of their great collection of classical manuscripts and the number of humanist scholars that resided in Constantinople (Hole).

Neoplatonism in the Renaissance combined the ideas of Christianity and a new awareness of the writings of Plato.

Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499 AD) was "chiefly responsible for packaging and presenting Plato to the Renaissance" (Hole). In 1462 AD, Cosimo I de' Medici, patron of arts, who had an interest in humanism and Platonism, provided Ficino with all 36 of Plato's dialogues in Greek for him to translate. Between 1462 and 1469 AD, Ficino translated these works into Latin, making them widely accessible, as only a minority of people could read Greek. And, between 1484 and 1492 AD, he translated the works of Plotinus, making them available for the first time to the West.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494 AD) was another neoplatonist during the Italian Renaissance. He could speak and write Latin and Greek, and had knowledge on Hebrew and Arabic. The pope banned his works because they were viewed as heretical – unlike Ficino, who managed to stay on the right side of the church.

The efforts of Ficino and Pico to introduce neoplatonic and Hermetic doctrines into the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church has recently been evaluated in terms of an attempted "Hermetic Reformation".

Modern

Cambridge Platonists

Main article: Cambridge Platonists

In the seventeenth century in England, neoplatonism was fundamental to the school of the Cambridge Platonists, whose luminaries included Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, Benjamin Whichcote and John Smith, all graduates of the University of Cambridge. Coleridge claimed that they were not really Platonists, but "more truly Plotinists": "divine Plotinus", as More called him.

Later, Thomas Taylor (not a Cambridge Platonist) was the first to translate Plotinus' works into English. He also wrote extensively on Platonism and translated almost the entire Platonic and Plotinian corpora into English, and the Belgian writer Suzanne Lilar.

Contemporary

See also: Plato's unwritten doctrines

Scholarship

Cornelia de Vogel, whose significant interpretation of Plato's dialogue The Sophist, showed the close connection between fundamental doctrines of Plato and neoplatonism.

During the late 19th and early 20th century, scholars generally accepted that Plato's doctrines and Neoplatonic doctrines were two different things, and that it was the doctrines of neoplatonism that were transmitted into the Middle Ages and not Plato's. This was the view of the early 20th century German historian Ernst Hoffmann, which relied on the assumption that there is a significant difference between Platonic and neoplatonic doctrines. However, later 20th scholarship has shown significant similarity between the aims and content of Platonism, middle Platonism and neoplatonism, and that has the effect of blurring the lines of distinction between these phases in the history of philosophy.

Late 20th century scholarship showed there is ample evidence in Plato's dialogues that indicate Plato's thought was very close to neoplatonism, much closer than that conceived by 19th century scholarship. This evidence is further corroborated by reports of Plato's oral teachings in the Platonic Academy by later writers from Aristotle onwards. These reports, now known as 'Plato's unwritten doctrines', detail Plato's later doctrines that were not reflected in his dialogues and show that Plato's oral teachings, late in his career when he was not writing regularly, have much in common with Neoplatonic doctrines, especially those of Plotinus. Pioneering scholars in this field of research were the 19th century German philosopher Eduard Zeller and the 20th century French philosopher Léon Robin.

Significant recent scholarship that advanced tenets of similarity between Platonism, middle Platonism and neoplatonism were authored by the 20th century French philosopher André-Jean Festugiere, the 20th century Dutch philosopher Cornelia de Vogel, the 20th century American historian Harold F. Cherniss, the 20th century Irish scholar E. R. Dodds, the 20th century German philosopher Philip Merlan and the 20th and 21st century Irish philosopher John M. Dillon.

Writers

The science fiction writer Philip K. Dick identified as a neoplatonist and explores related mystical experiences and religious concepts in his theoretical work, compiled in The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.

See also

• Allegorical interpretations of Plato
• Antiochus of Ascalon
• Asclepigenia
• Atticus (philosopher)
• Bahá'í cosmology
• Brethren of Purity
• Dehellenization
• Henology
• International Society for Neoplatonic Studies
• Influence of Neoplatonism on Christianity
• List of ancient Greek philosophers
• Panentheism
• Pantheism
• Peripatetic school
• Syrianus
• Christian theology
• Plato's Laws
• Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400)

Further reading

• Addey, Crystal. 2014. Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism: Oracles of the Gods. Farnham; Burlington : Ashgate.
• Blumenthal, Henry J., and E. G. Clark, eds. 1993. The Divine Iamblichus: Philosopher and Man of Gods. Proceedings of a Conference held at the University of Liverpool on 23–26 September 1990. Bristol, UK: Bristol Classical Press.
• Catana, Leo 2013. "The Origin of the Division between Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism." Apeiron: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 46: 2: 166–200.
• Chiaradonna, Riccardo and Franco Trabattoni eds. 2009. Physics and Philosophy of Nature in Greek Neoplatonism: Proceedings of the European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop, Il Ciocco, Castelvecchio Pascoli, 22–24 June 2006. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
• Chlup, Radek. 2012. Proclus: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
• Dillon, John M. and Lloyd P. Gerson eds. 2004. Neoplatonic Philosophy. Introductory Readings. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.
• Gersh, Stephen. 2012. "The First Principles of Latin Neoplatonism: Augustine, Macrobius, Boethius." Vivarium 50.2: 113–138.
• Gerson, Lloyd P. ed. 1996. The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Gertz, Sebastian R. P. 2011. Death and Immortality in Late Neoplatonism: Studies on the Ancient Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo. Leiden: Brill.
• Hadot, Ilsetraut. 2015. "Athenian and Alexandrian Neoplatonism and the Harmonization of Aristotle and Plato." Translated by Michael Chase. Leiden; Boston: Brill.
• O’Meara, Dominic J. 1993. Plotinus: An Introduction to the Enneads. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
• Rangos, Spyridon. 2000. "Proclus and Artemis: On the Relevance of Neoplatonism to the Modern Study of Ancient Religion." Kernos 13: 47–84.
• Remes, P. 2008. Neoplatonism. Stocksfield, UK: Acumen.
• Remes, Pauliina and Slaveva-Griffin, Svetla eds. 2014. The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism, New York: Routledge.
• Smith, Andrew. 1974. Porphyry's Place in the Neoplatonic Tradition: A Study in Post-Plotinian Neoplatonism. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
• Whittaker, Thomas. 1901. The Neo-Platonists: A Study in the History of Hellenism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Some works of neoplatonism were attributed to Plato or Aristotle.

External links

• The London Philosophy Study Guide: Post-Aristotelian philosophy
• Wildberg, Christian. "Neoplatonism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• "Neoplatonism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• International Society for Neoplatonic Studies
• Christian Platonists and Neoplatonists: Historical and Modern
• Islamic Platonists and Neoplatonists
• Aristotle's Categories at Gutenberg
• Confessiones (Book I-XIII) - Augustine at Gutenberg
• De immortalitate animae of Augustine (Google Books)
• Enneads public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Elements of Theology public domain audiobook at LibriVox