Thematic Issue: ‘the Understanding of Light in the Religious Traditions of the 14th and 15th Century Balkans’
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The term Neoplatonism—or more precisely Neoplatonici, referring to a group ofphilosophers—first appeared in Jacob Brucker’s Historia critica philosophiae from 1744.1Brucker introduced the designation to distinguish Plotinus and his followers, the Neoplatonici,from Plato and the members of the early Academy, whom he called Platonici. This distinctionreflected Brucker’s view that the later school represented a corruption of Platonic rationalismthrough metaphysical and religious speculation. Whereas ‘pure’ Platonic philosophy, asexemplified by Plato and the Old Academy, emphasized rational inquiry, dialectic, and moralphilosophy, seeking knowledge of the divine through reason and contemplation within aphilosophical framework, the Neoplatonici—Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, andothers—‘sought to combine the ancient doctrines of Plato with those of the Pythagoreans,Orientals, and Christians’.2 For Brucker, this synthesis marked a departure from originalPlatonism toward a syncretic, mystical, and theological system that reinterpreted Plato’sdoctrines through an emanationist metaphysics and the ideal of mystical ascent to the One.Although Brucker is generally credited with coining and formalizing the term Neoplatonism, itgained wider acceptance only in the 19th century, through the works of German and Englishhistorians of philosophy such as August Heinrich Ritter, Ludwig Preller, and Eduard Zeller, whosought to categorize late antique philosophical schools systematically.3 Consequently,Neoplatonism came to denote the Greek philosophical movement that flourished between the3rd and 6th centuries in major Mediterranean intellectual centers such as Rome, Alexandria, andAthens. Some modern scholars, however, argue that the chief distinction between the earlyPlatonists and the Neoplatonists lay in the latter’s attempt to reconcile Platonic and Aristotelianthought.4 Indeed, nearly all representatives of classical—or ‘pagan’—Neoplatonism, apart fromPlotinus himself, composed commentaries on Aristotle as well as on Plato.
Source: Црквене студије
Author: Cvetković, Vladimir
Language: English
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7120384803
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