School

Neoplatonism

The late ancient Platonism of Plotinus and his successors, centred on the One and the soul’s return to it.

Also called Neo-Platonism, late Platonism

Introduction

Neoplatonism is the name modern scholars give to the Platonic philosophy that began with Plotinus in the third century CE; its followers thought of themselves simply as Platonists. At its heart is a vision of reality as proceeding from a single first principle, the One or the Good, beyond being and thought, through a series of levels, Intellect (nous) and Soul, down to the material world.

Each level proceeds from the one above without diminishing it, as light from the sun, and each turns back to contemplate its source. The human soul belongs to this movement: having descended into a body, it can return by purification, by turning inward, and by contemplation, until it reaches a union (henōsis) with the One beyond all knowledge.

Neoplatonism was at once a metaphysics, a way of life and, for later members of the school, a religion with its own rites. It was the last great school of pagan philosophy and one of the main channels through which Greek thought entered Christian, Islamic and Jewish theology.

History

Historical

Plotinus taught in Rome from 244 to the 260s; his student Porphyry edited his works as the Enneads. Iamblichus, in Syria in the early fourth century, gave a central place to theurgy, ritual practices through which the gods raise the soul. In Athens, the Platonic school flourished under Syrianus and Proclus in the fifth century, and Proclus gave Neoplatonism its most systematic form. In Alexandria, a parallel school, including the woman philosopher Hypatia, taught Platonism alongside mathematics.

In 529 the emperor Justinian forbade pagans to teach, and the Athenian school’s last head, Damascius, went with others into exile for a time in Persia. But Neoplatonism had already entered Christian thought, through Augustine in the Latin West and through the Cappadocians and Pseudo-Dionysius in the Greek East.

Parts of the Enneads, translated into Arabic as the “Theology of Aristotle”, and the Liber de causis based on Proclus, shaped Islamic and Jewish philosophy and medieval Latin thought. Marsilio Ficino translated Plotinus into Latin in the fifteenth century, and Stephen MacKenna’s English translation (1917–1930) brought him to modern readers.

244–270Plotinus teaches in Rome
c. 301Porphyry publishes the Enneads
early 4th c.Iamblichus and the turn to theurgy
5th c.Proclus heads the Platonic school in Athens
529Justinian forbids pagans to teach
1492Ficino’s Latin translation of Plotinus is printed
1917–1930MacKenna’s English translation of the Enneads

Major thinkers

Key concepts

Important texts

Convergence and divergence

Resemblance and difference, given equal room. Each note is marked with the kind of statement it makes.

Areas of convergence

Unity, with Advaita Vedānta
Scholarship
Like Advaita, Neoplatonism describes a single principle at the source of all things, reached by turning inward and setting aside what the self is not.
Apophatic theology, with Christian Mysticism
Historical
The Neoplatonic way of negation passed through Pseudo-Dionysius into the Christian negative theology of the Middle Ages.

Areas of divergence

The One, with Advaita Vedānta
Scholarship
The One is beyond being and intellect; Brahman is being and consciousness. The convergence is of paths more than of destinations.
God, with Christian Mysticism
Scholarship
The One produces of necessity, without will; the Christian God creates freely and is personal. Christian writers adapted Neoplatonism with this correction.

In Metanoia

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Neoplatonism.” Tradition. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/neoplatonism.
Chicago (note): “Neoplatonism,” tradition, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/neoplatonism.
MLA: “Neoplatonism.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/neoplatonism.
BibTeX: @misc{traditions-neoplatonism, title = {{Neoplatonism}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Tradition. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/neoplatonism} }

Also in this tradition

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagitec. late 5th–early 6th centuryAnonymous author of the Mystical Theology, the classic of the Christian negative way.