Neoplatonism & Plotinus

(Originally written November 11, 2006 in Book 11)

Neoplatonism

The religious tone already prevalent in Stoicism emerged even stronger in Neoplatonism.

Neoplatonism was overtly religious, yet it remained philosophical by focusing still on epistemology and metaphysics (something the cults neglected).

Neoplatonism developed a philosophy of religion that would have a long history in Western culture.

Neoplatonism became Plato's chief influence over the history of western philosophy.

The two chief aspects of Platonism that appealed to Neoplatonism were:
1) Its transcendence
2) anti-rationalism - insistence on belief that the most important truths cannot be communicated by conceptual means.

The Academic Skeptics had gravitated towards Plato's anti-rationalism as well, but the Academics focused on probability of truth and to take a pragmatic stance. They are satisfied if something works and unconcerned with the truth of that something.

The 3rd century was not satisfied by pragmatism. The people of that time sought certitude and truth in the Mystery Cults and in faith in Jesus Christ.

The Neoplatonists focused on the anti-rational element of arriving at truth via suprarational methods.

The central problem of Neoplatonism was to find a true knowledge and to achieve a transcendence.

Neoplatonism shared this problem and goal with the Eastern Mystery Cults.

Plotinus

Little is known of the origin Neoplatonism or the life of Plotinus.

Plotinus lived around 204-270 AD.

Plotinus was so uninterested in things of this life that he was almost ashamed of being in the body.

He grew up in Alexandria where the West and the East began to fuse.

He was trained int he classical schools of philosophy.

Plotinus traveled to Persia to learn more about the East and then went to Rome.

He taught and began to write around age 50. After his death his works were edited by Porphyry.

Plotinus' version of Platonism

Neoplatonism placed an emphasis on getting into a right relation with a suprarational reality.

Plotinus held that reality was beyond being and beyond knowledge.

The One transcended knowledge and intellect. The One is truth. The One cannot be grasped by knowledge, but it can be grasped by some other means.

The One is transcendent. It is independent. It is omnipresent.

Plotinus followed Plato in use of the dialectic, but the dialectic was not a systematic thought process for Plotinus, it was a mystic vision where truth was discovered all at once.

Paradoxically, Plotinus used rational arguments to support an anti-rationalist position.

Reality cannot be attributed any specific properties or attributes.

The thought is limited, but the reality is unlimited. Thus a limited cannot know an unlimited.

Rational thought can tell us what the Ultimate Reality is not, but cannot tell us anything about what it is.

Plotinus' Mysticism

Mysticism played a central role in Plotinus' philosophy. It was the basis for everything.

There are numerous problems with mysticism being a basis for philosophy.
1) Mystic experiences are private and incommunicable
2) It is too exclusive
3) Mystical experiences are incompatible with the fact that a philosophical theory must be articulable.