Katana VentraIP

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion.[1][note 1][note 2] The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common ideas it maintains is monism, the doctrine that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One".[2]

Not to be confused with Modern Platonism.

Neoplatonism began with Ammonius Saccas and his student Plotinus (c. 204/5–271 AD) and stretched to the sixth century.[3] After Plotinus there were three distinct periods in the history of neoplatonism: the work of his student Porphyry (third to early fourth century); that of Iamblichus (third to fourth century); and the period in the fifth and sixth centuries, when the academies in Alexandria and Athens flourished.[4]


Neoplatonism had an enduring influence on the subsequent history of Western philosophy and religion. In the Middle Ages, Neoplatonic ideas were studied and discussed by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers.[5] 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 (Ibn Sina), and Maimonides incorporated Neoplatonic elements into their own thinking.[6]


Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) had direct access to the works of Proclus, Simplicius of Cilicia, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and he knew about other Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus and Porphyry, through second-hand sources.[7] The German mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260c. 1328) 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 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and continues through 19th-century Universalism and modern-day spirituality.

Origins of the term[edit]

Neoplatonism is a modern term.[note 1] 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's 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. As a pupil of philosopher Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus used the knowledge of his teacher and predecessors in order to inspire the next generation.[10]


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 Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino, for instance, thought that the neoplatonic interpretation of Plato was an authentic and accurate representation of Plato's philosophy.[11] 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.[12]

The One: God, The Good. Transcendent and ineffable.

The Hypercosmic Gods: those that make Essence, Life, and Soul

The : the Creator

Demiurge

The Cosmic Gods: those who make Being, Nature, and Matter—including the gods known to us from classical religion.

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 (2023). Ontology in early Neoplatonism: Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus. Berlin: De Gruyter.  9783110997514.

ISBN

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.

Hartmann, Udo (2018). Der spätantike Philosoph. Die Lebenswelten der paganen Gelehrten und ihre hagiographische Ausgestaltung in den Philosophenviten von Porphyrios bis Damaskios (in German). 3 volumes. Bonn: Habelt,  978-3-7749-4172-4

ISBN

Herkert, Felix (2023). Körperlichkeit im theurgischen Neuplatonismus: Immanente Pforten zur Transzendenz. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter.  9783111246017.

ISBN

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.

The Archived 2009-09-23 at the Wayback Machine: Post-Aristotelian philosophy Archived 2021-02-28 at the Wayback Machine

London Philosophy Study Guide

Wildberg, Christian. . In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

"Neoplatonism"

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)

public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Enneads

public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Elements of Theology