PLOTINUS AND NEO-PLATONISM

1. PLOTINUS AND NEO-PLATONISM By Y. Hambali History of Western-Medieval Philosophy Islamic College for Advanced Studies (ICAS) 2003 M./1423 H.

2. Platonism and Neo-Platonism Plotinus (205-270) • Plotinus of Alexandria (205-270) a Roman philosopher, was the founder and foremost exponent of Neo-Platonism; around 244 AD he carried the Neo-Platonism doctrine to Rome where he established a school. • Works: He major work, the Enneads, contains a comprehensive exposition of Neoplatonic metaphysic. • Plotinus based his ideas on the mystical and poetic writings of Plato, the Pythagoreans, and Philo Judeans. For him, the main function of philosophy was to prepare individuals for the experience of ecstasy in which they become one with God.philosophy.

3. Neo-Platonism • Neo-Platonism is that form of Platonic philosophy developed by Plotinus in the 3 rd century AD and modified by his successors. • It came to dominate the Greek philosophical school and remained predominant until the teaching of philosophy by pagans ended in the second half of the 6th century AD. It represents the final form of pagan Greek philosophy.

4. Neoplatonic Doctrine: Neoplatonic doctrine may be characterized as follows: • by a categorical opposition between the spiritual and the carnal, elaborated from Plato’s dualism of idea and matter. • By the metaphysical hypothesis of mediating agencies, the nous and the world soul, which transmit the divine power from the One to the many • By an aversion to the world of sense • By the necessity of liberation from a life of sense through a rigorous ascetic discipline Neo-Platonism was one of the most influential philosophical and religious schools of this era and important rival of early Christianity.

5. Philo Judaeus • Philo Judaeus (1 st century AD), a Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher who combined Greek philosophy—particularly Platonic and Phitagorian ideas-with Judaic religion in a comprehensive system that anticipated Neo-Platonism and Jewish, Christian, and Muslim mysticism. • He insisted on the transcendent nature of God as surpassing human understanding and therefore indescribable; he described the natural world as a series of stages of descent from God, terminating in matter as the source of evil.

6. The philosophical-Religious Doctrine of Neo-Platonism: Neo-Platonism is a type of idealistic monism in which the ultimate reality of the universe is held to be an infinite, unknowable, perfect One. The philosophical-Religious Doctrine of Neo-Platonism may be summarized as follows: • From the One emanates nous (pure intelligence) whence in turn is derived the world soul, the creative activity of which engenders the lesser souls of human beings. • The world soul is conceived as an image of the nous even as the nous is an image of the One; both the nous and the world soul are thus consubstantial with the One. • God---or the One– is beyond rational understanding and is the source of all reality. • The universe emanates from the One by a mysterious process of overflowing of divine energy in successive levels. • The highest levels from a trinity of the One; the Logos; which contains the Platonic Forms; and the world soul; which gives rise to human souls and natural forces. • The world soul is intermediate between the nous and the material world. • The farther things emanate from the One, according Plotinus, the more imperfect and evil they are and the closer they approach the limit of pure matter.

7. Plotinus Philosophy • Philosophy for Plotinus was religion, the effort to actualize in oneself the great impulse of return to the One; and religion for him was philosophy. • For him the combination of moral purification and intellectual enlightment, which only Platonist philosophy as he understood it could give, was the only way to prepare oneself for an ecstatic reunion with the One. • Later Neo-Platonism aspired to be not only a completed and coherent metaphysical system but also a complete pagan theology, perhaps best seen in Proclus’ Platonic theology (below). • The maintenance and defense of the religion in a world more and more intolerantly dominated by rival Christianity was one of the main concerns of the Platonists after Plotinus.

8. Other important Neoplatonic thinkers included the Syrians-Greek philosopher Porphyry and Lamblichus, and the Greek and mathematician Proclus. • Porphyry (c 234-305), a devout disciple of Plotinus and careful editor of his works, occupied a special position in the development of later Neo-Platonism. • Te most distinctive feature of his thought seems to have been an extreme spiritualism, an insistence on the ‘flight from the body’. • Porphyry did not always clearly distinguish the One from intellect. For him Being, Life, and Intellect are phases in the eternal self-determination of the ultimate reality. • This triad became one of the most important elements in the complex metaphysical structures of the later Neo-Platonist. • One of porphyry's most important and influential contributions was the incorporation into Neo-Platonism of Aristotle’s logic, in particular the doctrine of the categories, with the characteristic Neoplatonic interpretation of them as terms signifying entities. • Also of interest is his declaration of ideological war against the Christian, whose doctrines he attacked on both philosophical and exegetical grounds in a work of 15 books entitled Against Christians.

9. Lamblichus ( c. 250-330) • Lamblichus ( c. 250-330) was the originator of a type of Neo-Platonism that came to dominate the Platonic schools in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. • According to his Platonic system the first principle of reality, the ultimate One, was removed to an altogether ineffable transcendence, and the distinctions between the levels of being were sharpened and multiplied. • Below the One was vast structure of triads, or trinities, reaching down to the physical world; this was constructed by combining the vertical succession of levels of Being, intellect, and Soul with another horizontal triadic structure, resulting in a timeless dynamic rhythm of outgoing and return.

10. Proclus (410-485) • Proclus (410-485) codified later Platonism, but it is often impossible to tell which parts of his thought are original and which derive from Porphyry and lamblichus. • In his Elements of Theology Proclus presents a carefully argued summary of the basic tenets of his metaphysical system, one that explains the causal relationships of the several hierarchies which constituted his intelligible universe.

11. Conclusion • By the end of the 4 the century AD the Platonic Academy at Athens had been reestablished and was particularly fervent and open in its paganism and attracted Christian hostility; it eventually yielded to it and was closed in AD 529. • Nevertheless, Neo-Platonism continued to exert a strong influence on medieval thought. • The elements of asceticism and unworldliness appealed strongly to the Fathers and Doctor Christian Church. Augustine, in his Confessions, acknowledged the contribution of Neo-Platonism to Christianity and indicated the profound influence exerted by its doctrines on his own religious thinking.

12. References McLean, George F., Ancient Western Philosophy The Hellenistic Emergence, New York: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 1997. Russell, Betrand, History of Western Philosophy, London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1984. Knowles. David, The Evolution of Medieval Thought, New York: Vintage Books, 1962.