The Alexandrian School

Chapter II — Neoplatonism

Article 1. The Alexandrian School

The same dissatisfaction with the inadequate philosophies of post-Aristotelean times which gave rise to the Greco-Jewish movement also produced Neoplatonism. Greco-Jewish philosophy blends Greek philosophy and an allegorical version of Old Testament Scriptures; Neoplatonism blends Greek (and especially Platonic) philosophy with the pagan religion-philosophies of the Orient, and with certain notions derived from Christian Revelation. Neoplatonism is listed here with the pre-Christian philosophies because it belongs to pagan times in spirit, and because it is a terminal philosophy and not an inspirational one. It belongs to the end of an age—the pre-Christian age—even though it comes historically within the era that dates from the birth of Our Lord.

This Chapter will discuss three phases of Neoplatonism as it exhibited itself in three Schools, namely:

a) Ammonius Saccas; b) Plotinus; c) Others. aJ) Ammonius Saccas (a. d. 176-242), founder of Neoplatonism, was a native of Alexandria., Hgw<s reared in the Christian Faith, but apostatized and adopted Greek philosophy as his rule of life. About the beginning of the 3 century he opened a school at Alexandria and lectured to pupils both Christian and pagan. He has left no writings. His school is important because it developed Plotinus, who promulgated the doctrines taught orally by his master. From the esteem in which Ammonius Saccas was held by Plotinus we may judge that he was a teacher of more than ordinary ability.

b) Plotinus (204-269).

Life: Plotinus was born at Lycopolis in Egypt, In youth he went to Alexandria and attended the school of Ammonius. He joined a military expedition of the Emperor Gordian against the Persians, but it seems that his purpose in so doing was not so much the service of the Empire as the desire of gaining some first-hand knowledge of Oriental philosophy. Upon his return from war he began teaching in Rome, and in a very short time his fame as a teacher and philosopher spread through the Roman world. He died at Minturnae, a town in Latium.

Works: Plotinus wrote 54 little works, which his pupil, Porphyry, collected and arranged in six series of nine each, and for this reason the books are called the Enneads (i. e., literally, “The Nines”“). All these works survive.

Doctrine: The amalgam of philosophy taught by Plotinus is markedly Greek, although it is not hard to trace certain oriental influences in it. It contains much Platonic theory, but there are elements in it taken from the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, and even the old Ionians. We may conveniently discuss Plotinus’ system in three paragraphs, dealing respectively with metaphysics and physics psychology, and Lthics.

i. Above all determinate, finite essences, there is a supreme Being which is the first principle and fountain head of all things. This Being embraces in itself all reality, and yet it has no determinate nature. In itself this Being is formless; it has no attributes such as intelligence, no accidental determinations such as rest or motion. It is The One. From The One emerged Mind or Intelligence (Nous); and from Nous came the World-Soul. When The One gave off the first of these beings, this being looked back upon The One, contemplated the perfections there contained, and became intelligent, became Nous. But Nous does not behold all the limitless perfections of The One; for Nous is a lesser being, inferior to The One. What Nous beholds in The One, it conceives, or receives, as ideas, and these are the exemplars or essential models of things in the world. Still Nous, the container of the exemplars or ideas of things, did not directly produce the world in accordance with these. Nous communicated to the World-Soul (which is also intelligent) the exemplar-ideas, and the World-Soul (called also Demiurge) made the world of sensible things, i. e., bodily images of the exemplar-ideas. The whole universe lives, and this world-life is manifested differently in different parts of the cosmos; more perfectly, for instance, in the stars, and less perfectly here on earth. Of the manifestations of life on earth the most perfect and important is that of man—human life.

ii. Man’s soul is totally independent of his body: the body is merely.-the. instrument of the soul. Human souls pre-existed in the World-Soul until the cosmic development demanded their.uni.QH-With matter. Human souls are really all one substance, one with another, one with the World-Soul, one with Nous, and, ultimately, one with The One. Still, there exists a sort of multiplicity of souls. Just as the soul of an individual man produces different operations in different members of his body, so the great human-soul-substance produces different operations in different individual men. Inconsistently with this doctrine, Plotinus holds that human souls are no mere accidental manifestations of the World-Soul, and offers argument to prove that they were personally pre-existent, and that they have personal immortality.

iii. Matter is the substance most remote from the Great Source, i. e., The One. Thus the human soul, joined to a material body, is far removed from its ultimate source, and is likely to forget its divine origin and become subject to the fleshly appetites. These material appetites must be curbed; man must despise bodily pleasures; he must allow the body barely what is necessary to sustain effective life. Thus will the soul cast off the yoke imposed by the body, and will be able to reason and to reflect until it understands that it is in intimate union with the World-Soul and Nous; and ultimately it may rise to the ecstatic contemplation of The One itself. In the intuitive or direct vision of The One the soul will find endless delight and all sweetness. This vision is not perfectly achieved in this life, but is reserved for purified souls in the life to come. Souls unpurified and sensual will be subjected to new births (transmigration) until they accomplish their purification and so fit themselves to look eternally upon The One.

Remarks: Notice in the doctrine of Plotinus the accommodation of Plato’s theory of ideas, especially in the end of man as the contemplation of The One. Plato said that man was meant for the happiness of contemplating the idea of the Good; but he is vague as to the character of the contemplation. Plotinus, on the contrary, clearly teaches that such vision is to be intuitive—a direct vision. Where did Plotinus get this doctrine? Certainly, from the Christian dogma of the Beatific Vision. Recall that his teacher, Ammonius, was an apostate Christian. Plotinus must have been taught much about the details of Christian belief. For the rest, notice the Oriental cast of this philosophy with its asceticism and its theory of rapt ecstasy. Notice also the old Ionian hylozoism, the Stoic doctrine of a world-soul, the Pythagorean theory of transmigration or metempsychosis. We may briefly characterize the Neoplatonism of Plotinus by calling it eclectic, mystical, and pantheistic.

c) Other Neoplatonists of the Alexandrian School were:

i. Porphyry, born in Syria in the year 233. He was the most illustrious of Plotinus’ pupils. He wrote Commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato, The Isagoge or Introduction to Aristotle’s Categories, and Sentences or teachings in exposition of the doctrine of Plotinus. Porphyry tried to popularize the mystical Neoplatonism of his master, and introduced into the Ethics of Plotinus some practical directions which involve the use of magic and superstitious practice. He made an earnest effort to show that there is no disagreement between Neoplatonism and the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.

ii. Amelius, an Etruscan, flourished about 250. All his writings are lost. Secondary sources assure us that Amelius knew much of Christian doctrine, and that his description of the Neoplatonic trio (The One, Nous, World-Soul) brings this into clear resemblance to the Blessed Trinity.