Neo-Platonism

A system of idealistic, spiritualistic philosophy, tending towards
mysticism, which flourished in the pagan world of Greece and Rome
during the first centuries of the Christian era. It is of interest
and importance, not merely because it is the last attempt of Greek
thought to rehabilitate itself and restore its exhausted vitality
by recourse to Oriental religious ideas, but also because it
definitely entered the service of pagan polytheism and was used as
a weapon against Christianity. It derives its name from the fact
that its first representatives drew their inspiration from Plato's
doctrines, although it is well known that many of the treatises on
which they relied are not genuine works of Plato. It originated in
Egypt, a circumstance which would, of itself, indicate that while
the system was a characteristic product of the Hellenistic spirit,
it was largely influenced by the religious ideals and mystic
tendencies of Oriental thought.

To understand the neo-Platonic system in itself, as well as to
appreciate the attitude of Christianity towards it, it is
necessary to explain the two-fold purpose which actuated its
founders. On the one hand, philosophical thought in the Hellenic
world had proved itself inadequate to the task of moral and
religious regeneration. Stoicism, Epicureanism, Eclecticism and
even Scepticism had each been set the task of "making men happy",
and each had in turn failed. Then came the thought that Plato's
idealism and the religious forces of the Orient might well be
united in one philosophical movement which would give
definiteness, homogeneity, and unity of purpose to all the efforts
of the pagan world to rescue itself from impending ruin. On the
other hand, the strength and, from the pagan point of view, the
aggressiveness of Christianity began to be realized. It became
necessary, in the intellectual world, to impose on the Christians
by showing that Paganism was not entirely bankrupt, and, in the
political world, to rehabilitate the official polytheism of the
State by furnishing an interpretation of it, that should be
acceptable in philosophy. Speculative Stoicism had reduced the
gods to personifications of natural forces; Aristotle had
definitely denied their existence; Plato had sneered at them. It
was time, therefore, that the growing prestige of Christianity
should be offset by a philosophy which, claiming the authority of
Plato, whom the Christians revered, should not only retain the
gods but make them an essential part of a philosophical system.
Such was the origin of Neoplatonism. It should, however, be added
that, while the philosophy that sprang from these sources was
Platonic, it did not disdain to appropriate to itself elements of
Aristotelianism and even Epicureanism, which it articulated into a
Syncretic system.

Forerunners of Neoplatonism

Among the more or less eclectic Platonists who are regarded as
forerunners of the Neoplatonic school, the most important are
Plutarch, Maximus, Apuleius, Aenesidemus, Numenius. The last-
mentioned, who flourished towards the end of the second century of
the Christian era, had a direct and immediate influence on
Plotinus, the first systematic neo-Platonist. He taught that there
are three gods, the Father, the Maker (Demiurgos), and the World.
Philo the Jew (see PHILO JUDAEUS), who flourished in the middle of
the first century, was also a forerunner of Neoplatonism, although
it is difficult to say whether his doctrine of the mediation of
the Logos had a direct influence on Plotinus.

Ammonius Saccas

Ammonius Saccas, a porter on the docks of Alexandria, is regarded
as the founder of the Neoplatonic school. Since he left no
writings, it is impossible to say what his doctrines were. We
know, however, that he had an extraordinary influence over men
like Plotinus and Origen, who willingly abandoned the professional
teachers of philosophy to listen to his discourses on wisdom.
According to Eusebius, he was born of Christian parents, but
reverted to paganism. The date of his birth is given as 242.

Plotinus

Plotinus, a native of Lycopolis in Egypt, who lived from 205 to
270 was the first systematic philosopher of the school. When he
was twenty-eight years old he was taken by a friend to hear
Ammonius, and thenceforth for eleven years he continued to profit
by the lectures of the porter. At the end of the first discourse
which he heard, he exclaimed: "This man is the man of whom I was
in search." In 242 he accompanied the Emporer Gordian to
Mesopotamia, intending to go to Persia. In 244 he went to Rome,
where, for ten years, he taught philosophy, counting among his
hearers and admirers the Emporer Gallienus and his wife Solonia.
In 263 he retired to Campania with some of his disciples,
including Porphyry, and there he died in 270. His works,
consisting of fifty-four treatises, were edited by Porphyry in six
groups of nine. Hence they are known as the "Enneads".The
"Enneads" were first published in a Latin translation by Marsilius
Ficinus (Florence, 1492); of recent editions the best are Breuzer
and Moser's (Oxford, 1855), and Kirchoff's (Leipzig, 1856). Parts
of the "Enneads" are translated into English by Taylor (London,
1787-1817).

Plotinus' starting-point is that of the idealist. He meets what he
considers the paradox of materialism, the assertion, namely, that
matter alone exists, by an emphatic assertion of the existence of
spirit. If the soul is spirit, it follows that it cannot have
originated from the body or an aggregation of bodies. The true
source of reality is above us, not beneath us. It is the One, the
Absolute, the Infinite. It is God. God exceeds all the categories
of finite thought. It is not correct to say that He is a Being, or
a Mind. He is over-Being, over-Mind. The only attributes which may
be appropriately applied to Him are Good and One. If God were only
One, He should remain forever in His undifferentiated unity, and
there should be nothing but God. He is, however, good; and
goodness, like light, tends to diffuse itself. Thus from the One,
there emanates in the first place Intellect (Nous), which is the
image of the One, and at the same time a partially differentiated
derivative, because it is the world of ideas, in which are the
multiple archetypes of things. From the intellect emanates an
image in which there is a tendency to dynamic differentiation,
namely the World-soul, which is the abode of forces, as the
Intellect is the abode of Ideas. From the World-Soul emanates the
Forces (one of which is the human soul), which, by a series of
successive degradations towards nothing become finally Matter, the
non-existent, the antithesis of God. All this process is called an
emanation, or flowing. It is described in figurative language, and
thus its precise philosophical value is not determined. Similarly
the One, God, is described as light, and Matter is said to be
darkness. Matter, is, in fact, for Plotinus, essentially the
opposite of the Good; it is evil and the source of all evil. It is
unreality and wherever it is present, there is not only a lack of
goodness but also a lack of reality. God alone is free from
Matter; He alone is Light; He alone is fully real. Everywhere
there is partial differentiation, partial darkness, partial
unreality; in the intellect, in the World-Soul, in Souls, in the
material universe. God, the reality, the spiritual, is, therefore,
contrasted with the world, the unreal, the material. God is
noumenon, everything else is appearance, or phenomenon.

Man, being composed of body and soul, is partly, like God,
spiritual, and partly like matter, the opposite of spiritual. It
is his duty to aim at returning to God by eliminating from his
being, his thoughts, and his actions, everything that is material
and, therefore, tends to separate him from God. The soul came from
God. It existed before its union with the body; its survival after
death is, therefore, hardly in need of proof. It will return to
God by way of knowledge, because that which separates it from God
is matter and material conditions, which are only illusions or
deceptive appearances. The first step, therefore in the return of
the soul to God is the act by which the soul, withdrawing from the
world of sense by a process of purification (katharsis), frees
itself from the trammels of matter. Next, having retired within
itself, the soul contemplates within itself the indwelling
intellect. From the contemplation of the Intellect within, it
rises to a contemplation of the Intellect above, and from that to
the contemplation of the One. It cannot, however, reach this final
stage except by revelation, that is, by the free act of God, Who,
shedding around Him the light of His own greatness, sends into the
soul of the philosopher and saint a special light which enables it
to see God Himself. This intuition of the one so fills the soul
that it excludes all consciousness and feeling, reduces the mind
to a state of utter passivity, and renders possible the union of
man with God. The ecstasy (ekstasis) by which this union is
attained is man's supreme happiness, the goal of all his endeavor,
the fulfillment of his destiny. It is a happiness which receives
no increase by continuance of time. Once the philosopher-saint has
attained it, he becomes confirmed, so to speak, in grace.
Henceforth forever, he is a spiritual being, a man of God, a
prophet, and a wonder-worker. He commands all the powers of
nature, and even bends to his will the demons themselves. He sees
into the future, and in a sense shares the vision, as he shares
the life, of God.

Porphyry

Porphyry, who in beauty and lucidity of style excels all the other
followers of Plotinus, and who is distinguished also by the
bitterness of his opposition to Christiani, was born A.D. 233,
probably at Tyre. After having studied at Athens, he visited Rome
and there became a devoted disciple of Plotinus, whom he
accompanied to Campania in 263. He died about the year 303. Of his
work "Against the Christians" only a few fragments, preserved in
the works of the Christian Apologists, have come down to us. From
these it appears that he directed his attack along the lines of
what we should now call historical criticism of the Old Testament
and the comparative study of religions. His work "De Antro
Nympharum" is an elaborate allegorical interpretation and defence
of pagan mythology. His Aphormai (Sentences) is an exposition of
Plotinus's philosophy. His biographical writings included "Lives"
of Pythagoras and Plotinus in which he strove to show that these
"god-sent" men were not only models of philosophic sanctity but
also thaumatourgoi, or "wonder-workers", endowed with theurgic
powers. The best known of all his works is a logical treatise
entitled eosagoge, or "Introduction to the Categories of
Aristotle". In a Latin translation made by Boethius, this work was
very widely used in the early Middle Ages, and exerted
considerable influence on the growth of Scholasticism. It is, as
is well known, a passage in this "Isagogue" that is said to have
given occasion to the celebrated controversy concerning universals
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In his expository works on
the philosophy of Plotinus, Porphyry lays great stress on the
importance of theurgic practices. He holds, of course, that the
practices of asceticism are the starting-point on the road to
perfection. One must begin the process of perfection by "thinning
out the veil of matter" (the body), which stands between the soul
and spiritual things. Then, as a means of further advancement, one
must cultivate self-contemplation. Once the stage of self-
contemplation is attained, further progress towards perfection is
dependent on the consultation of oracles, divination, bloodless
sacrifices to the superior gods and bloody sacrifices to demons,
or inferior powers.

Iamblichus

Iamblichus, a native of Syria, who was a pupil of Porphyry in
Italy, and died about the year 330, while inferior to his teacher
in power of exposition, seemed to have a firmer grasp of the
speculative principles of Neoplatonism and modified more
profoundly the metaphysical doctrines of the school. His works
bear the comprehensive title "Summary of Pythagorean Doctrines".
Whether he or a disciple of his is the author of the treatise "De
Mysteriis Aegyptiorum" (first pub. by Gale, Oxford, 1678, and
afterwards by Parthey, Berlin, 1857), the book is a product of his
school and proves that he, like Porphyry, emphasized the magic, or
theurgic, factor in the Neoplatonic scheme of salvation. As
regards the speculative side of Plotinus's system, he devoted
attention to the doctrine of emanation, which he modified in the
direction of completeness and greater consistency. The precise
nature of the modification is not clear. It is safe, however, to
say that, in a general way, he forestalled the effort of Proclus
to distinguish three subordinate "moments", or stages, in the
process of emanation.

While these philosophical defenders of neo-Platonism were
directing their attacks against Christianity, representatives of
the school in the more practical walks of life, and even in high
places of authority, carried on a more effective warfare in the
name of the school. Hierocles, pro-consul of Bithynia during the
reign of Diocletian (284-305), not only persecuted the Christians
of his province, but wrote a work, now lost, entitled "The
discourse of a Lover of Truth, against the Christians", setting up
the rival claims of neo-Platonic philosophy. He, like Julian the
Apostate, Celsus (q.v.), and others, was roused to activity
chiefly by the claim which Christianity made to be, not a national
religion like Judaism, but a world-wide, or universal, religion.
Julian sums up the case of philosophy against Christianity thus:
"Divine government is not through a special society (such as the
Christian Church) teaching an authoritative doctrine, but through
the order of the visible universe and all the variety of civic and
national institutions. The underlying harmony of these is to be
sought out by free examination, which is philosophy." (Whittaker,
"Neo-Platonists", p. 155). It is in the light of this principle of
public policy that we must view the attempt of Iamblichus to
furnish a systematic defence of Polytheism. Above the One, he
says, is the Absolutely First. From the One, which is thus itself
a derivative, comes intellect, which, as the Intellectual and the
Intelligible, is essentially dual. Both the Intellectual and the
Intelligible are divided into triads, which are the
superterrestrial gods. Beneath these and subordinate to them, are
the terrestrial gods whom he subdivides into three hundred and
sixty celestial beings, seventy-two orders of sub-celestial gods,
and forty-two orders of natural gods. Next to these are the semi-
divine heroes of mythology and the philosopher-saints such as
Pythagoras and Plotinus. From this it is evident that neo-
Platonism had by this time ceased to be a purely academic
question. It had entered very vigorously into the contest waged
against Christianity. At the same time, it had not ceased to be
the one force which could claim to unify the surviving remnants of
pagan culture. As such, it appealed to the woman-philosopher
Hypatia, whose fate at the hands of a Christian mob at Alexandria,
in the year 422, was cast up as a reproach to the Christians (see
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Among the contemporaries of Hypatia at
Alexandria was another Hierocles, author of a commentary on the
Pythagorean "Golden Verses".

Proclus

Proclus, the most systematic of all the Neoplatonists, and for
that reason known as "the scholastic of neo-Platonism", is the
principal representative of a phase of philosophic thought which
developed at Athens during the fifth century, and lasted down to
the year 529, when, by an edict of Justinian, the philosophic
schools at Athens were closed. The founder of the Athenian school
was Plutarch, surnamed the Great (not Plutarch of Chaeronea,
author of the "Lives of Illustrious Men"), who died in 431. his
most distinguished scholar was Proclus, who was born at
Constantinople in 410, studied Aristotelean logic at Alexandria,
and about the year 430 became a pupil of Plutarch at Athens. He
died at Athens in 485. He is the author of several Commentaries on
Plato, of a collection of hymns to the gods, of many works on
mathematics, and of philosophical treatises, the most important of
which are: "Theological Elements", stoicheiosis theologike,
(printed in the Paris ed. of Plotinus's Works); "Platonic
Theology" (printed, 1618, in a Latin translation by Aemilius
Portus); shorter treatises on Fate, on Evil, on Providence, etc.
which exist only in a Latin translation made by William of
Moerbeka in the thirteenth century. These are collected in
Cousin's edition, "Procli Opera", Paris, 1820-1825. Proclus
attempted to systematize and synthesize the various elements of
neo-Platonism by means of Aristotelean logic. The cardinal
principle upon which his attempt rests is the doctrine, already
foreshadowed by Iamblichus and others, that in the process of
emanation there are always three subordinate stages, or moments,
namely the original (mone), emergence from the original (proodos),
and return to the original (epistrophe). The reason of this
principle is enunciated as follows: the derived is at once unlike
the original and like it; its unlikeness is the cause of its
derivation, and its likeness is the cause, or reason, of the
tendency to return. All emanation is, therefore, serial. It
constitutes a "chain" from the One down to the antithesis of the
One, which is matter. By the first emanation from the One come to
"henades", the supreme gods who exercise providence over worldly
affairs; from the henades comes the "triad", intelligible,
intelligible-intellectual, and intellectual, corresponding to
being, life, and thought; each of these is, in turn, the origin of
a "hebdomad", a series corresponding to the chief divinities of
the pagan pantheon: from these are derived "forces", or "souls",
which alone are operative in nature, although, since they are the
lowest derivatives, their efficacy is least. Matter, the
antithesis of the One, is inert, dead, and can be the cause of
nothing except imperfection, error, and moral evil. The birth of a
human being is the descent of a soul into matter. The soul,
however, may ascend, and redescend in another birth. The ascension
of the soul is brought about by asceticism, contemplation, and the
invocation of the superior powers by magic, divination, oracles,
miracles, etc.

The Last Neoplatonists

Proclus was the last great representative of neo-Platonism. His
disciple, Marinus, was the teacher of Damascius, who represented
the school at the time of its suppression by Justinian in 529.
Damascius was accompanied in his exile to Persia by Simplicius,
celebrated as a neo-Platonic commentator. About the middle of the
sixth century John Philoponus and Olympiadorus flourished at
Alexandria as exponents of Neoplatonism. They were, like
Simplicius, commentators. When they became Christians, the career
of the school of Plato came to an end. The name of Olympiadorus is
the last in the long line of scholarchs which began with
Speusippus, the disciple and nephew of Plato.

Influence of Neoplatonism

Christian thinkers, almost from the beginning of Christian
speculation, found in the spiritualism of Plato a powerful aid in
defending and maintaining a conception of the human soul which
pagan materialism rejected, but to which the Christian Church was
irrevocably committed. All the early refutations of psychological
materialism are Platonic. So, too, when the ideas of Plotinus
began to prevail, the Christian writers took advantage of the
support thus lent to the doctrine that there is a spiritual world
more real than the world of matter. Later, there were Christian
philosophers, like Nemesius (flourished c. 450), who took over the
entire system of neo-Platonism so far as it was considered
consonant with Christian dogma. The same may be said of Synesius
(Bishop of Ptolemais, c. 41), except that he, having been a pagan,
did not, even after his conversion, give up the notion that
Neoplatonism had value as a force which unified the various
factors in pagan culture. At the same time there were elements in
Neoplatonism which appealed very strongly to the heretics,
especially to the Gnostics, and these elements were more and more
strongly accentuated in heretical systems: so that St. Augustine,
who knew the writings of Plotinus in a Latin translation, was
obliged to exclude from his interpretation of Platonism many of
the tenets which characterized the neo-Platonic school. In this
way, he came to profess a Platonism which in many respects is
nearer to the doctrine of Plato's "Dialogues" than is the
philosophy of Plotinus and Proclus. The Christian writer whose
neo-Platonism had the widest influence in later times, and who
also reproduced most faithfully the doctrines of the school, is
the Pseudo-Dionysius (see DIONYSIUS, THE PSEUDO-AREOPAGITE). The
works "De Divinis Nominibus", "De hierarchia coelesti", etc., are
now admitted to have been written at the end of the fifth, or
during the first decades of the sixth, century. They are from the
pen of a Christian Platonist, a disciple of Proclus, probably an
immediate pupil of that teacher, as is clear from the fact that
they embody, not only Proclus's ideas, but even lengthy passages
from his writings. The author, whether intentionally on his part,
or by some mistake on the part of his readers, came to be
identified with Dionysius who is mentioned in the Acts of the
Apostles as a convert of St. Paul. Later, especially in France, he
was further identified with Dionysius the first Bishop of Paris.
Thus it came about that the works of the Pseudo-Areopagite, after
having been used in the East, first by the Monophysites and later
by the Catholics, became known in the West and exerted a
widespread influence all through the Middle Ages. They were
translated into Latin by John Scotus Eriugena about the middle of
the ninth century, and in this form were studied and commented on,
not only by mystic writers, such as the Victorines, but also by
the typical representatives of Scholasticism, such as St. Thomas
Aquinas. None of the later scholastics, however, went the full
length of adopting the metaphysics of the Pseudo-Areopagite in its
essential principles, as did John Scotus Eriugena in his "De
divisione naturae".

After the suppression of the Athenian school of philosophy by
Justinian in 529, the representatives of neo-Platonism went, as we
have seen, to Persia. They did not remain long in that country.
Another exodus, however, had more permanent consequences. A number
of Greek neo-Platonists who settled in Syria carried with them the
works of Plato and Aristotle, which, having been translated into
Syriac, were afterwards translated into Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin,
and thus, towards the middle of the twelfth century, began to re-
enter Christian Europe through Moorish Spain. These translations
were accompanied by commentaries which continued the neo-Platonic
tradition commenced by Simplicius. At the same time a number of
anonymous philosophical works, written for the most part under the
influence of the school of Proclus, some of which were ascribed to
Aristotle, began to be known in Christian Europe, and were not
without influence on Scholasticism. Again, works like the "Fons
vitae" of Avicebrol, which were known to be of Jewish or Arabian
origin, were neo-Platonic, and helped to determine the doctrines
of the scholastics. For example, Scotus's doctrine of materia
primo-prima is acknowledged by Scotus himself to be derived from
Avicebrol. Notwithstanding all these facts, Scholastic philosophy
was in spirit and in method Aristotelean; it explicitly rejected
many of the neo-Platonic interpretations, such as the unity of the
Active Intellect. For this reason all unprejudiced critics agree
that it is an exaggeration to describe the whole Scholastic
movement as merely an episode in the history of neo-Platonism. In
recent times this exaggerated view has been defended by M. Picavet
in his "Esquisse d'une histoire comparee des philosophies
medievales" (Paris, 1907).

The neo-Platonic elements in Dante's "Paradiso" have their origin
in his interpretation of the scholastics. It was not until the
rise of Humanism in the fifteenth century that the works of
Plotinus and Proclus were translated and studied with that zeal
which characterized the Platonists of the Renaissance. It was
then, too, that the theurgic, or magic, elements in Neo-Platonism
were made popular. The same tendency is found in Bruno's "Eroici
Furori", interpreting Plotinus in the direction of materialistic
pantheism. The active rejection of Materialism by the Cambridge
Platonists in the seventeenth century carried with it a revival of
interest in the neo-Platonists. An echo of this appears in
Berkeley's "Siris", the last phase of his opposition to
materialism. Whatever neo-Platonic elements are recognizable in
the transcendentalists, such as Schelling and Hegel, can hardly be
cited as survivals of philosophic principles. They are rather
inspirational influences, such as we find in Platonizing poets
like Spenser and Shelley.

Notes

CREUZER AND MOSER, edd., Plotini opera (Oxford, 1835) tr. TAYLOR
(London, 1794-1817); JOHNSON (tr.), Three Treatises of Plotinus
(Osceola, Missouri, 1880); COUSIN, Procli Opera (Paris, 1864), tr,
TAYLOR (London 1789 and 1825); NAUCK ed., Porphyrii opuscula
(Leipzig, 1860 and 1886), tr. TAYLOR; IDEM, tr. (London, 1823);
WHITTAKER, The Neo-Platonists (Cambridge, 1901); BIGG, The
Christian Neo-Platonists of Alexandria (Oxford, 1886);
Neoplatonism (London, 1895); VACHEROT, L'Ecole d'Alexandrie
(Paris, 1846-1851); SIMON, Histoire de l'ecole d'Alexandrie
(Paris, 1843-1845); ZELLER, Philosophie der Griechen, III (4th
ed., Leipzig, 1903), 2,468 sqq.; TURNER, History of Philosophy
(Boston, 1903), 205 sqq.

WILLIAM TURNER
Transcribed by Geoffrey K. Mondello

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

-------------------------------------------------------

  Provided courtesy of:

       Eternal Word Television Network
       PO Box 3610
       Manassas, VA 22110
       Voice: 703-791-2576
       Fax: 703-791-4250
       Web: http://www.ewtn.com
       Email address: [email protected]

-------------------------------------------------------

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.ratthing.com. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.