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Neoplatonism

Translation
Neoplatonism
—Neoplatonic /nee'oh pleuh ton"ik/, adj. —Neoplatonist, n.
/nee'oh playt"n iz'euhm/, n. (sometimes l.c.)
a philosophical system, originated in the 3rd century A.D. by Plotinus, founded chiefly on Platonic doctrine and Oriental mysticism, with later influences from Christianity. It holds that all existence consists of emanations from the One with whom the soul may be reunited.
[1835-45; NEO- + PLATONISM]

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Form of Platonism developed by Plotinus in the 3rd century AD and modified by his successors.

It came to dominate the Greek philosophical schools and remained predominant until the teaching of philosophy by pagans ended in the late 6th century. It postulated an all-sufficient unity, the One, from which emanated the Divine Mind, or logos, and below that, the World Soul. Those transcendent realities were thought to support the visible world. All things emanated from the One, and individual souls could rise to mystical union with the One through contemplation. Though Plotinus's thought in some respects resembles Gnosticism, he was passionately opposed to that doctrine.

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      the last school of Greek philosophy, given its definitive shape in the 3rd century CE by the one great philosophical and religious genius of the school, Plotinus. The ancient philosophers who are generally classified as Neoplatonists called themselves simple “Platonists,” as did the philosophers of the Renaissance and the 17th century whose ideas derive from ancient Neoplatonism. See Platonism.

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Universalium. 2010.

  
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