Neoplatonism

Overview

Neoplatonism is the modern name for the last creative phase of ancient Greek philosophy, launched when Plotinus synthesized Plato's dialogues into a system centred on an utterly transcendent First Principle, the One, from which the divine Intellect and then the Soul endlessly emanate, producing and ordering the visible cosmos. Ancient adherents did not call themselves "Neoplatonists"; they considered themselves simply "Platonists." Plotinus taught that the soul, though absorbed in matter, could recover its divine nature through contemplation and briefly attain union with the One. His successors Iamblichus and Proclus reworked the system, and its last institutional home, Plato's own Academy in Athens, closed in 529 CE, though its ideas had already reshaped Christian, Jewish and Islamic mysticism and would resurface in the Renaissance.^{[1, 3, 6–8]}

History

Plotinus in Rome c. 244–270 CE

Plotinus, probably born in Egypt around 205, studied philosophy in Alexandria for eleven years under the teacher Ammonius Saccas. In 242–243 he joined a Roman military expedition against Persia hoping to study Persian and Indian thought firsthand; when it collapsed with the emperor Gordian III's murder, he made his way to Rome instead, settling there at forty and teaching an informal circle of pupils and prominent Romans until his death in 270. His pupil Porphyry later arranged his treatises into six books of nine, the Enneads. Plotinus also fought a polemical campaign against Gnostic teachers within his own circle, calling their dualism "un-Greek." His dying words, Porphyry records, urged his students to "bring back the god in you to the divine in the All."^{[2, 4, 9–12]}

Porphyry, Iamblichus and theurgy c. 270–330 CE

Plotinus's successors reworked his legacy in different directions. His student Iamblichus, who died around 330, judged pure intellectual contemplation too demanding a path for most souls and instead stressed theurgy, ritual practices he held could unite the soul with the divine; he also posited an even higher, wholly unknowable One beyond Plotinus's own First Principle. For this teaching, later generations called him "the divine."^[13]

Proclus and the Academy's end 410–529 CE

The last major systematizer of this philosophy was Proclus, who studied in Alexandria before becoming head of Plato's own Academy in Athens, a post he held until his death in 485. Like Iamblichus, he defended traditional pagan religion against Christianity and recast Plotinus's emanation into an orderly cyclical scheme; his Elements of Theology, read in medieval Latin translation, shaped Christian theology in both the Greek East and Latin West through the later writer Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. In 529 the Christian emperor Justinian closed the Academy along with the other pagan schools of Athens, ending the tradition's last institutional home.^{[5–6, 14–15]}

Key moments

1. c. 270 CEPlotinus' Enneads · Rome

Beliefs

the One · τὸ ἕν

the One, or the Good

Plotinus held that a single, utterly transcendent First Principle, which he called the One or the Good, lies beyond being and thought itself; from it, by a ceaseless overflow rather than any deliberate act, emanates first the divine Intellect and its Forms, then the Soul, which produces and orders the visible cosmos.^[3]

return to the One · ἕνωσις

union

Because the soul shares the nature of the cosmic Soul, Plotinus taught, it can turn inward through contemplation to recover awareness of its own divine origin and reach, however briefly, mystical union with the One; his pupil Iamblichus later held that most souls instead needed theurgy, ritual acts, to achieve this union.^{[8, 13]}

People

Scripture

Enneads

written c. 254–270 CE; compiled c. 301

Plotinus's own treatises, never meant as a single book, were arranged after his death by his pupil Porphyry into six groups of nine, hence "Enneads"; they remain the only surviving record of his thought.^[4]

Places

Rome

ITA

Plotinus taught an open but informal circle of students and prominent Romans in this city for over two decades, writing the treatises later collected as the Enneads here.^[9–10]

Athens

GRC

Proclus headed Plato's Academy in this city until his death in 485; the school, by then a centre of Neoplatonism, was closed by the emperor Justinian in 529.^[5–6]

How we know

What we know about Plotinus

Almost everything known about Plotinus's life comes from a single source: the biography his devoted pupil Porphyry wrote as a preface to the Enneads. Porphyry's account concentrates on the roughly six years he personally spent with his master in Rome, leaving Plotinus's earlier life and intellectual development almost entirely undocumented.^[16]

Common misconceptions

Glossary

the One · τὸ ἕν

Plotinus's utterly transcendent First Principle, beyond being and thought, from which all reality emanates.^[3]

Enneads

Plotinus's collected treatises, arranged by Porphyry after his death into six books of nine.^[4]

theurgy

Ritual practice that Iamblichus held could unite the soul with the divine, as an alternative to pure philosophical contemplation.^[13]

henosis · ἕνωσις

Mystical union with the One, the goal of the soul's philosophical ascent in Plotinus's system.^[8]

the Academy

Plato's philosophical school at Athens, the tradition's last institutional home, closed by Emperor Justinian in 529 CE.^[6]