The last great school of Greek philosophy was Neoplatonism, and its most famous representative was Plotinus, born in Lykopolis, Egypt in A.D. 204. In his late twenties, Plotinus began to study in Alexandria with Ammonius Saccas, a shadowy figure who was also the teacher of the theologian Origen. After eleven years with Ammonius, Plotinus joined an expedition to Persia to learn Persian and Indian wisdom. The trek proved unsuccessful and Plotinus moved to Rome. There he established a school of philosophy and a friendship with the emperor Gallenius. At one point he sought permission to found a city based on Plato's Republic, but the plan came to naught. He stayed in Rome, teaching and writing, until the death of the emperor in 268. He then moved to the home of a friend where he died in 270, apparently from leprosy.
Developing Plato's dualistic understanding of reality, Plotinus taught that true reality lies "beyond" the physical world. This "reality beyond reality" has no limits and so cannot be described by words, since words invariably have limits. Plotinus, again borrowing from Plato, calls this ultra-reality the "Good" or the "One." The One/Good has no limits and is so supremely rich that it overflows or "emanates" to produce "Intellectual-Principle" or "Divine Mind" (Nous). This Intellectual-Principle, in turn, overflows and "Divine-Soul" emanates from it. This process continues as Divine-Soul generates the material world. The lowest level of emanation, at the furthest extreme from the One/Good, is the utter formlessness and unreality of matter.
The goal of philosophy is to awaken individuals to the reality beyond the material world. But philosophy alone cannot take a person to the highest reality of the One. Only in mystical experience can an individual unite with the One. Plotinus himself claimed to have achieved such a union four times during his life.
Neoplatonism, with its emphasis on the otherworldly and the need for escape from the physical world, was the perfect philosophy for the chaotic final days of the Roman Empire. Plotinus' thought had a profound influence on Christian thought, especially on Augustine. Indeed, if St. Thomas Aquinas is considered an Aristotelian, Augustine may be called a Neoplatonist. Many later thinkers, such as Meister Eckhart, Nicolas of Cusa, Comenius, Boehme, G.W.F. Hegel, and Schelling, also had their philosophy molded by Neoplatonist doctrines.
By Forrest Baird © 2000 by Prentice Hall from Philosophic Classics, Volume I