Plotinus

Plotinus (ca. 205–270) is widely considered the father of Neoplatonism. Much of our biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads.

Teachings

Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "One", which is beyond all categories of being and non-being. The concept of "being" is derived by us from the objects of human experience, but the infinite, transcendent One is beyond all such objects, and therefore is beyond the concepts derived from them. "Being" or "existence" is an attribute, and the One is beyond all attributes as their source. The One "cannot be any existing thing", and cannot be merely the sum of all such things, but "is prior to all existents". The One emanated the rest of the universe as a sequence of lesser beings. Later Neoplatonic philosophers, especially Iamblichus, added hundreds of intermediate beings as emanations between the One and humanity; but Plotinus' system was much simpler in comparison.

Related Topics:
Being - Non-being - Existence - Emanated - Universe - Iamblichus

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The One contains no division, multiplicity or distinction. Compare, for example, Advaita Vedanta, ("advaita" = "not two", or "non-dual"). Thus, no attributes can be assigned to the One. Thought cannot be attributed to the One because thought implies distinction between a thinker and an object of thought. Likewise, neither will nor activity can be ascribed to the One, since doing so would logically require distinction between an "agent" of will or act, and its object.

Related Topics:
Advaita Vedanta - Thought - Will - Activity - Agent

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The One, beyond all attributes, including being and non-being, is the source of the world not through any act of creation, willful or otherwise, since activity cannot be ascribed to the unchangeable, immutable One. Plotinus resorts to a logical principle that the "less perfect" must, of necessity, "emanate", or issue forth, from the "perfect" or "more perfect". Thus, all of "creation" emanates from the One in succeeding (not temporal) stages of lesser and lesser perfection.

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Plotinus offers an alternative to the orthodox Christian notion of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing), which would make God suffer the deliberations of a mind and actions of a will. Emanation ex deo (out of God), confirms the absolute transcendence of the One making the unfolding of the cosmos purely a consequence of the existence of the One. The One is in no way affected or diminished by the emanations. The One does not divide itself into multitudes of lesser beings, or parcel himself out piece by piece. Plotinus uses the analogy of the Sun which emanates light indiscriminately without thereby "lessening" itself, or a mirror reflection which in no way diminishes the object reflected.

Related Topics:
Christian - Sun

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The first emanation is Thought (Nous), identified with the "demiurge" in Plato's Timaeus. From Nous proceeds the "World Soul", which Plotinus divides into "upper" and "lower", identifying the lower with Nature. From the World Soul proceed individual human souls, and finally, matter, at the lowest level of being and perfection.

Related Topics:
Timaeus - Nature - Human - Perfection

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Although the "material world" is at the lowest level of the "chain of being", Plotinus criticized the Gnostic disdain for matter. Plotinus asserted the ultimately divine nature of material creation since it is the product of Nous (the demiurge) and the World Soul.

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The essentially religious nature of Plotinus' philosophy may be further illustrated by his concept of attaining "ecstatic" union with the One. Porphyry relates that Plotinus achieved "union" several times during the years he knew him. Compare, of course, "enlightenment", "liberation", and other concepts of mystical union common to many Eastern and Western traditions.

Related Topics:
Enlightenment - Liberation - Mystical union

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Neoplatonism was sometimes used as a philosophical foundation for paganism, and as a means of defending paganism against Christianity; but many Christians were also influenced by Neoplatonism. The teachings of Plotinus influenced many of the early Christian Fathers, e.g., St. Augustine.

Related Topics:
Paganism - Christianity - St. Augustine

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In the 20th century, American philosopher Ken Wilber has drawn heavily upon Plotinus in his cosmology, reaching some similar metaphysical conclusions.

Related Topics:
20th century - Ken Wilber - Cosmology - Metaphysical

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