Neoplatonism

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Many of the deepest ideas about God, the mind, the soul, the nature of embodiment, and beauty spring from the highly influential but understudied school of philosophy often referred to as Neoplatonism. Neoplatonists took themselves to be the philosophical heirs of Plato, but also sought to reconcile Plato's doctrines with Aristotle's as well as bring systematicity to Plato's famously unsystematic dialogues. Neoplatonists were system-builders interested in the connections among connecting metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, philosophical anthropology, and natural theology. The course will explore how neoplatonists approach these philosophical sub-disciplines are shaped in light of their foundational principles such as the priority of unity over multiplicity, the priority of intelligibile (mental) being over material being, the inherent link between beauty and desire, and that all caused things act as images or expressions of that which causes them. Much of the Neoplatonic tradition was explicitly and proudly monotheistic, and partly for this reason, was highly influential in the intellectual development of Judiaism, Christianity, and Islam. In fact, Neoplatonic representatives can be found in each of the major monotheistic religions (and course readings will reflect the diversity of religious traditions in which neoplatonic thought flourished).