"Neoplatonism"
Considered the last of the great pagan philosophies, it was developed by Plotinus (3d cent. A.D.).
It has had a lasting influence on Western metaphysics and mysticism, although its original form was
much altered by the followers of Plotinus.
Neoplatonism was a viable force from the middle of the 3d cent. to 529, when Justinian closed the Academy at Athens.
Although Plotinus is the central figure of Neoplatonism, his teacher, Ammonius Saccus (175-242), a self-taught laborer of Alexandria, Egypt.
may have been the actual founder; however, no writings of Ammonius have survived.
Plotinus left Egypt, settled in Rome in 244, and founded a school there.
There are two reciprocal movements in Neoplatonism:
1. The metaphysical movement of emanation from the One.
2. The ethical movement of reflective return to the One through contemplation of the forms of the Divine Mind.
While Plotinus' thought was mystical (i.e., concerned with the infinite and invisible within the finite and visible world),
his method was thoroughly rational, stemming from the logical and humanistic traditions of Greece.
Many of his philosophical elements came from earlier philosophies;
the existence of the One and the attendant theory of ideas were aspects of the later writings of Plato, that identified the World Soul with transcendent universal reason.
What was distinctive in Plotinus' system was the unified, hierarchical structuring of these elements and the theory of emanation.
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