The Neoplatonic Doctrine :: essays research papers fc

The Neoplatonic doctrineAs defined by Funk and Wagnals, Neoplatonism is a type of majestic monism in which the ultimate reality of the universe is held to be an infinite, unknowable, perfect One. From this wiz emanates nous (pure intelligence), whence in turn is derived the foundation somebody, the creative action of which engenders the lesser souls of human beings. The introduction soul is conceived as an image of the nous, stock-still as the nous is an image of the One both the nous and the world soul, despite their differentiation, are thus consubstantial with the One.The world soul, however, because it is intermediate in the midst of the nous and the material world, has the option either of preserving its integrity and imaged perfection or of becoming altogether stifling and corrupt. The same choice is open to any(prenominal) of the lesser souls. When, through ignorance of its true nature and identity, the human soul experiences a false sensation of separateness and i ndependence, it becomes arrogantly self-assertive and falls into sensual and depraved habits. Salvation for such a soul is still possible, the Neoplatonist maintains, by virtue of the very freedom of will that enabled it to choose its sinful course. The soul must reverse that course, tracing in the opposite direction the sequential steps of its degeneration, until it is again united with the fountainhead of its being. The actual reunion is consummate through a mystical experience in which the soul knows an all-pervading ecstasy.     Doctrinally, Neoplatonism is characterized by a categorical opposition between the spiritual and the carnal, elaborated from Platos dualism of estimation and Matter by the metaphysical hypothesis of mediating agencies, the nous and the world soul, which send off the divine power from the One to the many by an aversion to the world of sense and by the necessity of liberation from a life of sense through a rigorous ascetic disciplin e. (Funk and Wagnalls) History of Neoplatonism     Neoplatonism began in Alexandra, Egypt, in the third century AD. Plotinus was the founder of Neoplatonsim and was born in Egypt. He canvass at Alexandra with the philosopher Ammonium Saccus. Along with 224 others he helped carry the Neoplatonic doctrine to Rome, where he established a school. Other important Neoplatonic thinkers were the Syrian-Greek scholars, Porphyry and Lablichus. The Syrian, Athenian, and Alexandrian SchoolsNeoplatonism was the detain of the great schools of classical pagan philosophy. Platonism, as well as Aristotlism, Stoicism, and Pythagoreanism, all provided an awkward understanding of classical Greek paganism.