Neoplatonism, the last form of Hellenic philosophy, the system of an illustrious succession of ancient philosophers who claimed to found their doctrines and speculations on those of Plato. Strictly speaking, however, the Platonic philosophy expired with Plato's immediate disciples, Speusippus and Xenocrates. Neoplatonism is an attempt to combine Plato's doctrine of the Ideas, developed by Aristotle, and supplemented with an ethical system akin to that of the Stoics, with the oriental doctrine of Emanation; it does for Hellenism something like what Philo did for Judaism. Such amalgamation came about most naturally in Alexandria. Placed at the junction of two continents, Asia and Africa, and close to the most cultivated and intellectual regions of Europe, that celebrated city naturally became a focus for the chief religious and philosophies of the ancient world. Here the East and the West, Greek culture and oriental enthusiasm, met and mingled; and here Christianity sought a home, and by the liberality of its sympathies strove to quell the myriad discords of Paganism.
Authorities have differed as to how much should be included under the term Neoplatonism. By some it is used to designate the whole new intellectual movement proceeding from Alexandria, comprising, in this broad view, the philosophy of Philo-Judæus and of Numenius the Syrian; of Christian Fathers like Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen; of the Gnostics; and of Ammonius Saccas and his successors. But the best authorities restrict the application of the term to the fourth of these series. Plotinus, its real founder, resuscitated Plato; Proclus gave the world another Aristotle; in the person of Julian the Apostate Neoplatonism became master of the world, and for three centuries it was a formidable rival to Christianity. The
Neoplatonists aimed at constructing a religion on a basis of dialectics. They strove to attain a knowledge of the Highest, and the way in which they endeavoured to accomplish this was by assuming the existence of a capacity in man for passing beyond the limit of his empirical knowledge, and acquiring an intuitive knowledge of the absolute, the true—that which is beyond and above the fluctuations and dubieties of 'opinion.' This impersonal faculty is called Ecstasy. By means of it man—ceasing, however, to be individual man—can identify himself with the Absolute (or Infinite). Plotinus, in fact, set out from the belief that 'philosophy' is only possible through the identity of the thinker, or rather of the subjective thought, with the thing thought of, or the objective thought. This intuitive grasp or 'vision' of the Absolute is not constant; we can neither force nor retain it by an effort of will; it springs from a divine inspiration and enthusiasm higher and purer than that of poet or prophet, and is the choicest 'gift of God.'
The god of Plotinus and the other Alexandrians is a mystical Trinity. The Divine Nature contains within it three Hypostases (Substances); its basis, if we may so speak, is Unity or Primitive Light. This Unity is not itself any thing, but the principle of all things; it is absolute good, absolute perfection; and, though it is utterly incapable of being conceived by the understanding, there is that in man which assures him that it—the incomprehensible, the ineffable—is. From Unity, as the primordial source of all things, emanates Pure Intelligence (Nous), its reflection and image, that by which it is intuitively apprehended; from Pure Intelligence, in turn, emanates the 'Soul of the World,' whose creative activity produces the souls of men and animals, and 'Nature;' and finally, from Nature proceeds 'Matter,' which, however, is subjected by Plotinus to such refinement of definition that it loses all its grossness—though he is no dualist, and glories in the beauty of the world. Unity, Pure Intelligence, and the World-Soul thus constitute the Plotinian Triad, with which is connected, as we have seen, the doctrine of an eternal Emanation. Human souls, whose source is the Pure Intelligence, are—by some mysterious fate—imprisoned here in perishable bodies, and the higher sort are ever striving to reascend to their original home.
The most distinguished pupil of Plotinus was Porphyry, who mainly devoted himself to expounding and qualifying the philosophy of his master. In him we see for the first time the presence of a distinctively anti-Christian tendency. Neoplatonism, which can only be properly understood when we regard it as an attempt to place Paganism on a philosophical basis—to make the Greek religion philosophical, and Greek philosophy religious—did not consciously set out as the antagonist of Christianity. Neither Ammonius Saccas nor Plotinus assailed the new faith; but as the latter continued to grow, and to attract many of the most powerful intellects of the age into its service, this latent antipathy began to show itself. Porphyry wrote against Christianity; Iamblichus, the most noted of his pupils, did the same. The latter also introduced a theurgic or 'magical' element into Neoplatonism, teaching, among other things, that certain mystical exercises and symbols exercised a supernatural influence over the divinities. Magic and spiritualism are always popular, and it is therefore not wonderful that Iamblichus should have had numerous followers. Edesius succeeded to his master's chair. From the school of one of his disciples, Maximus, came the Emperor Julian, whose patronage for a moment shed a gleam of splendour over Neoplatonism, and seemed to promise it a universal victory.
After a succession of able but not always consistent teachers, among whom is to be reckoned the noble Hypatia, we reach Proclus, the last great Neoplatonist, who belongs to the 5th century, a man of prodigious learning, and of an enthusiastic temperament, in whom the pagan-religious, and consequently anti-Christian, tendency of the Neoplatonic philosophy culminated. His ontology was based on the Triad of Plotinus, but was considerably modified in detail; he exalted 'Faith' above 'Science' as a means of reaching the Absolute Unity; was a believer in Theurgy, and so naturally laid great stress upon the ancient Chaldaean oracles, Orphic hymns, mysteries, &c., which he regarded as divine revelations, and of which he considered himself—as, indeed, he was—the last great 'interpreter.' His hostility to the Christian religion was keen; in its success he saw only the triumph of a vulgar popular superstition over the refined and beautiful theories of philosophy; it was as if he beheld a horde of barbarians defacing the statues and records of the Pantheon. The disciples of Proclus were numerous, but not remarkable for talent. Perhaps the ablest of his successors was Damascus, in whose time the Emperor Justinian, by an arbitrary decree, closed the schools of the heathen philosophers. Neoplatonism soon ceased to exist as a system; but it served as a schoolmaster to bring the medieval thinkers to Plato and Aristotle, it served as the nurse of Christian mysticism, and it had helped to mould the mind of Augustine. From a scientific point of view it was retrogressive, perverse, absurd; yet in the moral and religious sphere it maintained a high and holy ideal, and fostered a firm belief in that which is above the empirical.
See Zeller's History of Greek Philosophy; Ueberweg and the other histories of philosophy; Herzog-Plitt's Realencyklopädie; the church histories; Kingsley's Alexandria and her Schools, and his Hypatia; Bigg's Christian Platonists of Alexandria (1885); Simon, Histoire de l'École d'Alexandrie (1845); Vacherot, Histoire critique de l'École d'Alexandrie (1851); and the articles in this work on PLATO, STOICISM, PHILO, ORIGEN, GNOSTICS, PLOTINUS, PORPHYRY, IAMBLICHIUS, PROCLUS.