What is Neoplatonism?

“Neoplatonism” refers to a school of thought that began in approximately 245 ce, when a man called Plotinus moved from the intellectual centre of the Eastern Mediterranean, Alexandria, Egypt, to settle in the capital of the Roman Empire, where he began teaching his interpretation of Plato's philosophy, gaining many disciples and followers. Out of the association of people in Rome and the collection of the written treatises of Plotinus and his pupil Porphyry emerged a school of philosophy that displays enough originality to be considered as a new phase of Platonism: a school of thought of its own. At the time of the closure of the Academy in Athens in 529 ce by the Christian emperor Justinian, the Neoplatonic manner of philosophizing had spread to Syria, Asia Minor and Alexandria, as well as to Athens, the birthplace of philosophy and Platonism.

Neoplatonism long coexisted with Christianity in an empire that had featured Christianity as the official religion from the first Christian emperor Constantine (emperor 306–337 ce) onwards. At the beginning of the movement, that is, in the third century, the debate between the Neoplatonists and Christians, as well as Gnostics, was intense but peaceful. The last Neoplatonic – and pagan – heads of the Academy in the sixth century, however, had difficulties with Christian rulers of the empire, facing, among other things, a ban on teaching philosophy in public. In Alexandria, things had been worse before that: it has been suggested that the Alexandrian Neoplatonists constantly had to adapt their teaching to take into account the Christian leaders of their city (Wallis [1972] 1995: 142).