Movement initiated by Plotinus (AD 205-70) and carried forward by various philosophers of the next three centuries, having repercussions in the Renaissance especially among the Cambridge Platonists of the 17th century and, later, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831).
Neo-Platonism claimed to interpret Plato (c.427-c.347 BC), and to reconcile Aristotle (384-322 BC) with Plato, though modern scholars dispute its success in either claim. It borrowed from other schools, but opposed epicureanism.
Reality is seen as hierarchically ordered, having at its apex a spiritual entity or ‘hypo-stasis’, usually called the One, which is unknowable and ineffable and can be described only indirectly (negatively by abstraction, or by analogy).
Other hypostases are derived from this by a process called ’emanation’ (hence emanationism as a name for neo-Platonism): first intellect (nous), then soul (psyche, including discursive reason), and finally matter.
These stages involve manifestations of the One, but of decreasing perfection and actuality; the changing world around us, for instance, involves potentialities that are not always actualized, and evil can only arise as a privation and where there is change and unrealized potentiality.
Source:
A H Armstrong, ed., Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, 2nd edn (1970)
Table of Contents
- 1 Videos
- 2 Related Products
- 2.1 Neo-Platonism
- 2.2 Neoplatonism (Hackett Classics)
- 2.3 The Practical Art of Divine Magic: Contemporary & Ancient Techniques of Theurgy
- 2.4 Neo-Platonism of the Italian Renaissance
- 2.5 Numenius of Apamea, the father of neo-Platonism; works, biography, message, sources, and influence
- 2.6 From the Old Academy to Later Neo-Platonism: Studies in the History of Platonic Thought (Variorum Collected Studies)
- 2.7 Jewish Neo-Platonism: Selected Essays - An Original Anthology (Jewish Philosophy, Mysticism & History of Ideas Ser.)
- 2.8 Shakespeare on Love: The Sonnets and Plays in Relation to Platos Symposium, Alchemy, Christianity and Renaissance Neo-Platonism
- 2.9 Neo-Platonism
- 2.10 The Emperor Julian's Relation to the New Sophistic and Neo-Platonism: With a Study of His Style
Videos
Neo-Platonism
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Bigg, Charles (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 356 Pages - 06/19/2014 (Publication Date)
Neoplatonism (Hackett Classics)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Wallis, R. T. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 224 Pages - 09/01/1995 (Publication Date) - Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (Publisher)
The Practical Art of Divine Magic: Contemporary & Ancient Techniques of Theurgy
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Dunn, Patrick (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 338 Pages - 08/08/2015 (Publication Date) - Llewellyn Publications (Publisher)
Neo-Platonism of the Italian Renaissance
- Hardcover Book
- Robb, Nesca A (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 315 Pages - 04/01/1969 (Publication Date) - Allen & Unwin (Publisher)
Numenius of Apamea, the father of neo-Platonism; works, biography, message, sources, and influence
- Sylvan Guthrie, Kenneth (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 230 Pages - 12/10/2019 (Publication Date) - Alpha Edition (Publisher)
From the Old Academy to Later Neo-Platonism: Studies in the History of Platonic Thought (Variorum Collected Studies)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Hardcover Book
- Tarrant, Harold (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 370 Pages - 12/28/2010 (Publication Date) - Routledge (Publisher)
Jewish Neo-Platonism: Selected Essays - An Original Anthology (Jewish Philosophy, Mysticism & History of Ideas Ser.)
- Hardcover Book
- English (Publication Language)
- 584 Pages - 03/01/1980 (Publication Date) - Ayer Co Pub (Publisher)
Shakespeare on Love: The Sonnets and Plays in Relation to Platos Symposium, Alchemy, Christianity and Renaissance Neo-Platonism
- Hardcover Book
- Ronald Gray (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 130 Pages - 05/01/2011 (Publication Date) - Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Publisher)
Neo-Platonism
- Theosophical Publishing Society (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 16 Pages - 09/10/2010 (Publication Date) - Kessinger Publishing, LLC (Publisher)
The Emperor Julian's Relation to the New Sophistic and Neo-Platonism: With a Study of His Style
- English (Publication Language)
- 122 Pages - 10/20/2018 (Publication Date) - Franklin Classics Trade Press (Publisher)
Last update 2020-06-17. Price and product availability may change.