Neoplatonism

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Not to be confused with Modern Platonism.
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Neoplatonism is a modern term[1] used to designate a tradition of philosophy that arose in the 3rd
century AD and persisted until shortly after the closing of the Platonic Academy in Athens in AD 529
by Justinian I. Neoplatonists were heavily influenced by Plato, but also by the Platonic tradition that
thrived during the six centuries which separated the first of the Neoplatonists from Plato.
In defining the term "Neoplatonism", it is difficult to reduce the school of thought to a concise set of ideas
that all Neoplatonic philosophers shared in common. The work of Neoplatonic philosophy involved
describing the derivation of the whole of reality from a single principle, "the One". While the
Neoplatonists generally shared some basic assumptions about the nature of reality, there were also
considerable differences in their views and approaches, and so it can be difficult to summarize the
philosophical content of Neoplatonism briefly. Instead, the most concise definition of Neoplatonism casts
it as an historical term.[2] It refers to the dynamic philosophical tradition that Neoplatonism was over the
course of its history: to the work of Plotinus, who is traditionally identified as the founder of
Neoplatonism,[3] and to the many thinkers after him, who developed, responded to and criticized his
ideas.[4]
There are multiple ways to categorize the differences between the Neoplatonists according to their
differing views, but one way[5] counts three distinct phases in Neoplatonism after Plotinus: the work of his
student Porphyry, that of Iamblichus and his school in Chalcis, and the period in the fifth and sixth
centuries, when the Academies in Alexandria and Athens flourished. Thinkers of this final period
include Syrianus, Olympiodorus the Younger, Proclus and Damascius. An important feature that
distinguishes Neoplatonism after Porphyry from earlier periods is that later Neoplatonists embraced a
certain kind of spiritual exercise, called theurgy, as a means of developing the soul through a process
called henosis.
The similarities between Neoplatonism and the Vedanta philosophies of Hinduism[6] have led several
authors to suggest an Indian influence in its founding, particularly on Ammonius Saccas, the teacher of
Plotinus.[7][8]Neoplatonism has been very influential throughout history. In the Middle Ages, Neoplatonic
ideas were integrated into the philosophical and theological works of many of the most important
medieval Islamic, Christian, and Jewish thinkers. In Muslim lands, Neoplatonic texts were available in
Arabic translations, and notable thinkers such as al-Farabi, Avicenna and Moses
Maimonides[9] incorporated Neoplatonic elements into their own thinking. Although the revitalisation of
Neoplatonism amongst Italian Renaissance thinkers such as Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola is
perhaps more famous, Latin translations of Late Ancient Neoplatonic texts were first available in the
Christian West much earlier, in the Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, 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.[10] The influence of
Neoplatonism also extends into forms of culture beyond philosophy, and well into the modern era, for
instance, in Renaissance Aesthetics, and in the work of modernist poets such as W. B. Yeats[11] and T.S.
Eliot, among many more.

Contents
[hide]

1Origins of the term Neoplatonism

2Origins

3Teachings
o

3.1The One

3.2Demiurge or Nous

3.3The world-soul

3.4The phenomenal world

3.5Practice

3.6Celestial hierarchy

3.7Salvation

3.8Logos
4Philosophers

4.1Ammonius Saccas

4.2Plotinus

4.3Porphyry

4.4Iamblichus

4.5Hypatia

4.6Proclus

4.7Emperor Julian

4.8Simplicius

4.9Michael Psellos

4.10Gemistus Pletho
5Early Christian and Medieval Neoplatonism

5.1Philosophy and theology

6Islamic Neoplatonism

7Renaissance Neoplatonism

8Cambridge Platonists

9Modern Neoplatonism

10See also

11References

12Sources

13Further reading

14External links

Origins of the term Neoplatonism[edit]

The term "Neoplatonism" has a double function as a historical category. On the one hand, it
differentiates the philosophical doctrines of Plotinus and his successors from those of the
historical Plato. On the other, the term makes an assumption about the novelty of Plotinus' interpretation
of Plato. In the nearly six centuries from Plato's time to Plotinus', there had been an uninterrupted
tradition of interpreting Plato which had begun with Aristotle and with the immediate successors
of Plato's academy and continued on through a period of Platonism which is now referred to as Middle
Platonism. The term "Neoplatonism" implies that Plotinus' interpretation of Plato was so distinct from
those of his predecessors that it should be thought to introduce a new period in the history of Platonism.
Some contemporary scholars, however, have taken issue with this assumption and have doubted that
Neoplatonism constitutes a useful label. They claim that merely marginal differences separate Plotinus'
teachings from those of his immediate predecessors.
Whether Neoplatonism is a meaningful or useful historical category is itself a central question
concerning the history of the interpretation of Plato. For much of the history of Platonism, it was
commonly accepted that the doctrines of the Neoplatonists were essentially the same as those of Plato.
The Renaissance Platonist Marsilio Ficino, for instance, thought that the Neoplatonic interpretation of
Plato was an authentic and accurate representation of Plato's philosophy.[12] Although it is unclear
precisely when scholars began to disassociate the philosophy of the historical Plato from the philosophy
of his Neoplatonic interpreters, they had clearly begun to do so at least as early as the first decade of the
nineteenth century. Contemporary scholars often identify the German theologian Friedrich
Schleiermacher as an early thinker who took Plato's philosophy to be separate from that of his
Neoplatonic interpreters. However, others have argued that the differentiation of Plato from
Neoplatonism was the result of a protracted historical development that preceded Schleiermacher's
scholarly work on Plato.[13]

Origins[edit]

See Also Plato's unwritten doctrines

The most important forerunners of Neoplatonism are the Middle Platonists, such as Plutarch, and
the Neopythagoreans, especially Numenius of Apamea. Philo, a forerunner of Neoplatonism,
translated Judaism into terms of Stoic, Platonic and Neopythagorean elements, and held that God is
"supra rational" and can be reached only through "ecstasy", and Philo held that the oracles of God
supply the material of moral and religious knowledge. The earliest Christian philosophers, such
as Justin and Athenagoras, who attempted to connect Christianity with Platonism, and the

Christian Gnostics of Alexandria, especially Valentinus and the followers of Basilides, also mirrored
elements of Neoplatonism, albeit without its rigorous self-consistency.

Teachings[edit]
Neoplatonism is generally a metaphysical and epistemological philosophy. Neoplatonism is a form
of idealistic monism combined with elements of polytheism.
Although the founder of Neoplatonism is supposed to have been Ammonius Saccas, the Enneads of his
pupil Plotinus are the primary and classical document of Neoplatonism. As a form of mysticism, it
contains theoretical and practical parts, the first dealing with the high origin of the human soul and
showing how it has departed from its first estate, and the second showing 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 One from which emanates an eternal,
perfect, essence (nous), which, in turn, produces the world-soul.

The One[edit]
One of the characteristic features of Plotinus' system, which was also taken up by subsequent
Neoplatonists, is the doctrine of "the One" beyond being. For Plotinus, the first principle of reality is an
utterly simple, ineffable, unknowable subsistence which is both the creative source and
the teleological end of all existing things. 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,[14] when, in the course of his famous analogy of
[15]
the sun, Plato says that the Good is beyond being ( ) 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", Nous and Soul. 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.

Demiurge or Nous[edit]
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 derivative, it is entirely 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.[16][17] The demiurge (the nous) is the energy, or ergon (does the work), which manifests or
organises the material world into perceivability.

The world-soul[edit]
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.

The phenomenal world[edit]

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.[18]

Practice[edit]
Here, then, we enter upon the practical philosophy. Along the same road by which it descended, the soul
must retrace its steps back to the supreme Good. It must, first of all, return to itself. This is accomplished
by the practice of virtue, which aims at likeness to God, and leads up to God. In the ethics of Plotinus, all
the older schemes of virtue are taken over and arranged in a graduated series. The lowest stage is that
of the civil virtues, then follow the purifying, and last of all the divine virtues. The civil virtues merely
adorn the life, without elevating the soul. That is the office of the purifying virtues, by which the soul is
freed from sensuality and led back to itself, and thence to the nous. By means of ascetic observances,
the human becomes once more a spiritual and enduring being, free from all sin. But there is still a higher
attainment; it is not enough to be sinless, one must become "God" (henosis). This is reached through
contemplation of the primeval Being, the One in other words, through an ecstatic approach to it.
Thought cannot attain to this, for thought reaches only to the nous, and it itself is a kind of motion. It is
only in a state of perfect passivity and repose that the soul can recognise and touch the primaeval
Being. Hence, the soul must first pass through a spiritual curriculum. Beginning with the contemplation
of corporeal things in their multiplicity and harmony, it then retires upon itself and withdraws into the
depths of its own being, rising thence to the nous, the world of ideas. But, even there, it does not find the
Highest, the One; it still hears a voice saying, "not we have made ourselves". The last stage is reached
when, in the highest tension and concentration, beholding in silence and utter forgetfulness of all things,
it is able, as it were, to lose itself. Then it sees God, the foundation of life, the source of being, the origin
of all good, the root of the soul. In that moment, it enjoys the highest indescribable bliss; it is, as it were,
swallowed up by divinity, bathed in the light of eternity. Porphyry says that on four occasions during the
six years of their acquaintance, Plotinus attained to this ecstatic union with God.

Celestial hierarchy[edit]
The religious philosophy of Plotinus for himself personally sufficed, without the aid of the popular religion
or worship. Nevertheless, he sought for points of support in these. God is certainly in the truest sense
nothing but the primaeval Being who is revealed in a variety of emanations and manifestations. Plotinus
taught the existence of an ineffable and transcendent One, the All, from which emanated the rest of the
universe as a sequence of lesser beings. Later Neoplatonic philosophers, especially Iamblichus, added
hundreds of 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 Matterincluding the gods known to us from classical
religion.

Salvation[edit]
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.
They 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. It is
also a cornerstone of Neoplatonism to teach that all people return to the Source. The
Source, Absolute, or One is what all things spring from and, as a
superconsciousness (nous), is where all things return. It can be said that all
consciousness is wiped clean and is returned to a blank slate when returning to the
Source. All things have force or potential (dynamis) as their essence. This dynamis
begets energy (energeia).[19][20][21]
The Neoplatonists believed in the pre-existence, and immortality of the soul.[22][23] 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",[24] accounting for the human soul's immortality and
allowing for its return to the One after death.[25] After bodily death, the soul takes up a
level in the afterlife corresponding with the level at which it lived during its earthly life.
[26][27]
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,[23] before descending again,[28] to be reincarnated into a new
body, perhaps into animal form.[29] 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.[30] A soul which
has returned to the One achieves union with the cosmic universal soul[31] and does
not descend again, at least, not in this world period.[28]

Logos[edit]
The term "Logos" was interpreted variously in neoplatonism. Plotinus refers
to Thales[32] in interpreting Logos as the principle of meditation, the interrelationship
between the Hypostases[33] (Soul, Spirit (nous) and the 'One'). St. John introduces a
relation between 'Logos' and the Son, Christ,[34] whereas, St. Paul calls it 'Son',
'Image', and 'Form'.[34][35][36]Victorinus subsequently differentiated the Logos interior to
God from the Logos related to the world by creation and salvation.[34]
Augustine re-interpreted Aristotle and Plato in the light of early Christian thought.[37] In
his Confessions, he describes the Logos as the divine eternal Word.[38] Following St.
John, Augustine's Logos "took on flesh" in Christ, in whom the logos was present as
in no other man.[39][40] He strongly influenced Early Medieval Christian Philosophy.
[41]
Perhaps the key subject in this was Logos.
After Plotinus' (around AD 205270) and his student Porphyry (around AD 232
309) Aristotle's (non-biological) works entered the curriculum of Platonic thought.
Porphyry's introduction (Isagoge) to Aristotle's Categoria was important as an
introduction to logic, and the study of Aristotle became an introduction to the study of
Plato in the late Platonism of Athens and Alexandria. The commentaries of this group
seek to harmonise Plato, Aristotle, and, often, the Stoa.[42] Some works of

Neoplatonism were attributed to Plato or Aristotle. De Mundo, for instance, is thought

not to be the work of a 'pseudo-Aristotle' though this remains debatable.[43]

Philosophers[edit]
Ammonius Saccas[edit]
Ammonius Saccas (birth unknown, death ca. AD 265, Greek: ) is
a founder of Neoplatonism and the teacher of Plotinus. Little is known of Ammonius
Saccas other than that both Christians (see Eusebius, Jerome, and Origen) and
pagans (see Porphyry and Plotinus) claimed him a teacher and founder of the
Neoplatonic system. Porphyry stated in On the One School of Plato and Aristotle,
that Ammonius' view was that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle were in
harmony. Eusebius and Jerome claimed him as a Christian until his death, whereas
Porphyry claimed he had renounced Christianity and embraced pagan philosophy.

Plotinus[edit]
Plotinus (Greek: ) (c. 205 c. 270) was a major GrecoEgyptian[44] philosopher of the ancient world who is widely considered the father of
Neoplatonism. Much of our biographical information about him comes from
Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads. While he was himself
influenced by the teachings of classical Greek, Persian and Indian
philosophy and Egyptian theology,[45] his metaphysical writings later inspired
numerous Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Gnostic metaphysicians and mystics over
the centuries. 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".

Porphyry[edit]
Porphyry (Greek: , c. A.D. 233 c. 309) was aSyrian[44] Neoplatonist
philosopher. He wrote widely on astrology, religion, philosophy, and musical theory.
He produced a biography of his teacher, Plotinus. He is important in the history of
mathematics because of his Life of Pythagoras and his commentary on Euclid's
Elements, which Pappus used when he wrote his own commentary. Porphyry is also
known as an opponent of Christianity and as a defender of Paganism; of his
Adversus Christianos (Against the Christians) in 15 books, only fragments remain.
He famously said, "The gods have proclaimed Christ to have been most pious, but
the Christians are a confused and vicious sect."

Iamblichus[edit]
Iamblichus, also known as Iamblichus Chalcidensis, (c. 245 c. 325, Greek:
) was aSyrian[44] Neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction
taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy and, perhaps, by western philosophical
religions themselves. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean
philosophy. 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. The world is thus peopled by a crowd of
superhuman 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'.

Hypatia[edit]
Hypatia (c. AD 360 415) was a Greek woman who served as head of the Platonist
school in Alexandria, Egypt, where she taught philosophy, mathematics and
astronomy prior to her murder by a mob of anti-pagan Christians because she was
defending the Christian ruler of Alexandria Orestes.[46]

Proclus[edit]
Proclus Lycaeus (February 8, 412 April 17, 485), surnamed "The Successor" or
"diadochos" (Greek Prklos ho Didokhos), 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. 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.

Emperor Julian[edit]
Julian (born c. 331 died June 26, 363), was a Roman Emperor (361363) of
the Constantinian dynasty. He was the last pagan Roman Emperor. The legalization
of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine had led to its widespread success within
the Eastern Roman Empire and, to a lesser extent, the Western Roman Empire.
Julian attempted to counteract Christianity by restoring and reforming pagan worship,
using the Neoplatonism developed by Iamblichus to unify Hellenic worship in the
empire.

Simplicius[edit]
Simplicius of Cilicia (c. AD 530), a pupil of Damascius, is not known as an original
thinker, but his remarks are thoughtful and intelligent, and his learning is prodigious.
[who?]
To the student of Greek philosophy, his commentaries are invaluable[who?], as they
contain many fragments of the older philosophers as well as of his immediate
predecessors.

Michael Psellos[edit]
Michael Psellos (10181078) a Byzantine monk, writer, philosopher, politician, and
historian. He wrote many philosophical treatises such as De omnifaria doctrina. He
wrote most of his philosophy during his time as a court politician at Constantinople in
the 1030s and 1040s.

Gemistus Pletho[edit]
Gemistus Pletho (c. 1355 1452, Greek: ) 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 EastWest Schism at the council of Florence. At

Florence, Pletho 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.

Early Christian and Medieval Neoplatonism [edit]

Main articles: Neoplatonism and Christianity and Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
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, 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
baptism, Augustine's Christianity was still tempered by Neoplatonism.
Many other Christians were influenced by Neoplatonism, especially in their
identifying the Neoplatonic One, or God, with Yahweh. The most influential of these
would be Origen, the pupil of Ammonius Saccas and the fifth-century author known
as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, (whose works were translated by John
Scotus in the 9th century for the West) and proved significant for both the Eastern
Orthodox and Western branches of Christianity. 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 Professor 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.[47]
Despite the influence this pagan philosophy had on Christianity, Justinian I would
hurt later Neoplatonism by ordering the closure of the refounded School of Athens.
[48]
After the closure, Neoplatonic and or secular philosophical studies continued in
publicly funded schools in Alexandria. In the early seventh century, the Neoplatonist
Stephanus brought this Alexandrian tradition to Constantinople, where it would
remain influential, albeit as a form of secular education.[49] 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 15th century[49] In the Middle Ages, Neoplatonist ideas influenced Jewish thinkers,
such as the Kabbalist Isaac the Blind, and the Jewish Neoplatonic
philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol, who modified it in the light of their own
monotheism. Neoplatonist ideas also influenced Islamic and Sufi thinkers such as al
Farabi and Avicenna. Neoplatonism ostensibly survived in the Eastern Christian
Church as an independent tradition and was reintroduced to the West by Plethon, an

avowed pagan and opponent of the Byzantine Church, inasmuch as the latter, under
Western scholastic influence, relied heavily upon Aristotelian methodology. Plethon's
Platonic revival, following the Council of Florence (14381439), largely accounts for
the renewed interest in Platonic philosophy which accompanied the Renaissance.

Philosophy and theology[edit]

John Burnet (1892) noted[50]
The Neoplatonists were quite justified in regarding themselves as the spiritual heirs
of Pythagoras; and, in their hands, philosophy ceased to exist as such, and became theology.
And this tendency was at work all along; hardly a single Greek philosopher was wholly
uninfluenced by it. Perhaps Aristotle might seem to be an exception; but it is probable that, if we
still possessed a few such "exoteric" works as the Protreptikos in their entirety, we should find
that the enthusiastic words in which he speaks of the "blessed life" in theMetaphysics and in
the Ethics (Nicomachean Ethics) were less isolated outbursts of feeling than they appear now.
In later days, Apollonios of Tyana showed in practice what this sort of thing must ultimately lead
to. The theurgy and thaumaturgy of the late Greek schools were only the fruit of the seed sown
by the generation which immediately preceded the Persian War.

Islamic Neoplatonism[edit]
Various Arabic scholars and philosophers utilised the works of Plato, Aristotle,
Plotinus, and other Neoplatonist philosophers to evaluate, assess, and
eventually adapt Neoplatonism to conform to the monotheistic constraints of
Islam.[51] Arabic scholars, like earlier Neoplatonic thinkers, read and
philosophised the works of Plato and developed similar questions and
conclusions. The translation and interpretation of Islamic Neoplatonists had
lasting effects on Western philosophers, affecting Descartes' view on the
conception of being. Important figures that translated and shaped Islamic
Neoplatonism were Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Ibn Arabi, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, and alHimsi.
There were three major reasons for the prominence of Neoplatonic influences in
the Islamic world:
1.

Availability of Neoplatonic texts: Arabic translations and paraphrases

of Neoplatonic works were readily available to Moslem scholars
greatly due to the availability of the Greek copies, in part, because the
Muslims came to rule over some of the more important centres of
Greek civilisation (Egypt and Syria).

2.

Spatial and temporal proximity: "Plotinus and other Neoplatonists lived

only a few centuries before the rise of Islam, and many of them were
Egyptian Greeks."

3.

Neoplatonism's mystical perspectives: Plotinus' system has similar

content to Islamic mysticism, like Islamic Sufism. This eased the
acceptance of Neoplatonic doctrines by Islamic philosophers.[52]

Islamic Neoplatonism differs from traditional Neoplatonism because of its

incorporation of Islamic theology, most commonly through the change in
definitions of the One and the First Principle. "What changes Neoplatonism is
the transcendence of the First Principle.[53]" Moslem philosophers changed the
Neoplatonic characteristics of the One into those attributable to God as present
in Islamic scripture, notably transferring the First Principle to God. By assigning

the First Principle to God, they are altering the definition to fit the definition of
God determined by scripture. Philosophers described God as free from Platonic
forms and having divine omniscience and providence. The notion of the divine
Intellect is altered under Islamic Neoplatonism and is once again attributed to
God. Plotinus doesn't believe in the idea of intelligent design of the universe by
an omnipotent being. Islamic philosophers adapted divine Intellect to reinforce
scripture, in that God is a transcendent being, omnipresent and inalterable to
the effects of creation. 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.[54]
"The greatest cluster of Neoplatonic themes is found in religious mystical
writings, which in fact transform purely orthodox doctrines such as creation into
doctrines such as emanationism, which allow for a better framework for the
expression of Neoplatonic themes and the emergence of the mystical themes of
the ascent and mystical union.[55]" Islamic philosophers used the framework of
Islamic mysticism in their interpretation of Neoplatonic writings and concepts.
Parviz Morewedge gives four suppositions about the nature of Islamic
Mysticism:
The Unity of Being
"An inherent potential unity among all dimensions of world-experience."
The Mediator Figure
"The mediation between finite man and the ultimate being."
The Way of Salvation
"Knowledge is embedded in the path of self-realization." Passing trials advances one through
stages until transcendence.
The Language of Symbolic Allegory
"Mystical texts are often written in the allegorical language of tales."[56]

Renaissance Neoplatonism[edit]
Main article: Platonism in the Renaissance
"Of all the students of Greek in Renaissance Italy, the bestknown are the Neoplatonists 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 (143399) was "chiefly responsible for
packaging and presenting Plato to the Renaissance" (Hole).
In 1462, 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, Ficino translated these works into
Latin, making them widely accessible, as only a minority of

people could read Greek. And, between 1484 and 1492, he

translated the works of Plotinus, making them available for
the first time to the West.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (146394) was another
excelling Neoplatonist during the Italian Renaissance. He
could not only speak and write in Latin and Greek, but he
also had immense knowledge on the Hebrew and Arabic
languages. 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".[57]

Cambridge Platonists[edit]
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 Cambridge University. 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.[58][59]

Modern Neoplatonism[edit]
In the essay "Inner and Outer Realities: Jean Gebser in a
Cultural/Historical Perspective", Integral philosopher Allan
Combs claims that ten modern thinkers can be called NeoPlatonists: Goethe, Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Coleridge, Em
erson, Rudolf Steiner, Carl Jung, Jean Gebser and the
modern theorist Brian Goodwin. He sees these thinkers as
participating in a tradition which can be distinguished from
the empiricist and materialist Western philosophical
traditions.[60]
In the philosophy of mathematics, in the early 20th century,
the German philosopher, Gottlob Frege, renewed the interest
in Plato's theory of mathematical objects (and other abstract
objects, in general). Since then, a number of philosophers,
such as Crispin Wright and Bob Hale have defended and
developed this Neo-platonist account of mathematics.
Some cite American poet Ezra Pound as a Neo-platonist,
albeit from a rather Confucian perspective due to his great
admiration for Plotinus and his writings on philosophy and
religion.[clarification needed] Religiously, he described himself in
public as a Hellenistic Pagan.[citation needed]

Other notable modern Neoplatonists include Thomas Taylor,

"the English Platonist", who wrote extensively on Platonism
and translated almost the entire Platonic and Plotinian
corpora into English, and the Belgian writer Suzanne Lilar.
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.[citation needed]

See also[edit]

Allegorical interpretations of Plato

Antiochus of Ascalon

Asclepigenia

Atticus (philosopher)

Brethren of Purity

Cambridge Platonists

Dehellenization

Henology

International Society for Neoplatonic Studies

List of ancient Greek philosophers

Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

Pantheism and panentheism

Peripatetic school

Plato's unwritten doctrines

Pseudo-Aristotle

Plutarch

Syrianus

Theosophy

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Sources[edit]
Wikisourcehasoriginal
textrelatedtothisarticle:
Portal:Neoplatonism

This article incorporates text from a publication now

in the public domain: Adolf Harnack; John Malcolm
Mitchell (1911). "Neoplatonism". In Chisholm,
Hugh. Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press.

Further reading[edit]

The London Philosophy Study Guide offers many

suggestions on what to read, depending on the
student's familiarity with the subject: Post-Aristotelian
philosophy

Charles Emile Ruelle, An edition of Damascius On First

Principles, (Paris, 1889)

Whittaker, Thomas, The Neo-Platonists: A Study in the

History of Hellenism, (Cambridge, 1901)

Gerson, Lloyd P. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to

Plotinus. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996)

Dillon, John M. and Gerson, Lloyd P.

(eds.), Neoplatonic Philosophy. Introductory Readings.
(Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2004).

Chiaradonna, Riccardo and Franco Trabattoni

(eds.), Physics and Philosophy of Nature in Greek
Neoplatonism: Proceedings of the European Science
Foundation Exploratory Workshop (il
Ciocco,Castelvecchio Pascoli, June 2224,
2006) (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009) (Philosophia antiqua,
115).

Doull, James (1999). "Neoplatonism and the Origin of

the Cartesian Subject" (PDF). Animus. 4. ISSN 12090689. Retrieved August 9, 2011.

Gertz, Sebastian R. P., Death and Immortality in Late

Neoplatonism: Studies on the Ancient Commentaries
on Plato's Phaedo, Brill: Leiden, 2011.

Remes, Pauliina and Slaveva-Griffin, Svetla (eds.), The

Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism, New York:
Routledge, 2014.

External links[edit]

Wildberg, Christian. "Neoplatonism". 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)