Plotinus
All reality flows out of a single perfect source, the One, and the goal of the soul is to return to it in inner union.
Placement
Founder of Neoplatonism: everything emanates from the One and strives back toward it.
Key ideas
- The One
- Emanation
- Mystical union
Students: Porphyry
Influence
Influenced by 3
Parmenides
influenced by
Plotinus cited Parmenides’ ‘thinking and being are the same’ and found the One, Intellect and Soul in the first hypotheses of Plato’s Parmenides (Enneads V.1.8). Plotinus, Enneads V.1.8; Parmenides, DK 28 B3; SEP “Plotinus”
Evidence: AI draft
Parmenides › c. 515–450 BCE
Aristotle
influenced by
Plotinus took over Aristotle’s self-thinking divine intellect as his second principle, Intellect, but set the One above it; Porphyry notes Aristotle’s Metaphysics is condensed in the Enneads. Porphyry, Life of Plotinus 14; Plotinus, Enneads V.3, VI.1–3; Aristotle, Metaphysics XII.9; SEP “Plotinus”
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Influenced 15
Porphyry taught
taught ✓
Attested by Porphyry himself: his Life of Plotinus tells how he joined Plotinus’ circle in Rome in 263 and later edited the Enneads (Life of Plotinus 4–5, 24). Porphyry, Life of Plotinus 4–5, 24
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Porphyry › c. 234–305
Augustine
influenced
Augustine took from Plotinus, read in Latin, the turn inward and upward to an immaterial God and evil as privation of good (Confessions VII). Augustine, Confessions VII.9.13–10.16, VII.12.18; Plotinus, Enneads I.6, I.8; SEP “Augustine”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Augustine › 354–430
Proclus
influenced ✓
Proclus systematised the hierarchy of One, Intellect and Soul he inherited from Plotinus, adding henads and triadic procession, and rejected Plotinus’ undescended soul (Elements of Theology 211). Proclus, Elements of Theology, prop. 211; SEP “Proclus”
Proclus › 412–485
al-Farabi
influenced ✓
Al-Farabi’s emanation of intellects from the First Cause draws on Plotinian Neoplatonism, known in Arabic through a paraphrase circulating as the Theology of Aristotle. P. Adamson, The Arabic Plotinus (2002); SEP “al-Farabi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
al-Farabi › c. 872–950
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
influenced ✓
Avicenna wrote notes on the Theology of Aristotle, the Arabic Plotinus, and his scheme of emanation from the Necessary Existent continues Plotinian Neoplatonism. P. Adamson, “Non-Discursive Thought in Avicenna’s Commentary on the Theology of Aristotle”, in J. McGinnis (ed.), Interpreting Avicenna (2004); SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) › 980–1037
Henri Bergson
influenced ✓
Bergson lectured on Plotinus at the Collège de France; The Two Sources (1932) saw in him the height of contemplative mysticism, which stops short of action. H. Bergson, Les Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion (1932); lectures on Plotinus, Collège de France; SEP “Henri Bergson”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Henri Bergson › 1859–1941
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Hypatia
influenced ✓
The church historian Socrates says Hypatia succeeded to the Platonist school derived from Plotinus; her own writings were mathematical, and her philosophical teaching is known through Synesius. Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History VII.15; Synesius, Letters; E. J. Watts, Hypatia (2017)
Hypatia › c. 355–415
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
influenced
Through Proclus’ Neoplatonism Dionysius inherited the Plotinian One beyond being and made it the unknowable God of his negative theology (Divine Names; Mystical Theology). Pseudo-Dionysius, De divinis nominibus; De mystica theologia; SEP “Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite”
Evidence: AI draft
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite › c. 480–530
al-Kindi
influenced
The Arabic paraphrase of Plotinus known as the Theology of Aristotle was made in al-Kindi’s circle and corrected by him; its account of the One shaped his metaphysics. P. Adamson, The Arabic Plotinus (2002); P. Adamson, Al-Kindi (2007); SEP “al-Kindi”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
al-Kindi › c. 801–873
Solomon ibn Gabirol
influenced
Ibn Gabirol’s Fountain of Life follows a Neoplatonic scheme of procession from the One, adding universal matter and the divine will between God and creation. Solomon ibn Gabirol, Fons vitae (Meqor hayyim); SEP “Solomon Ibn Gabirol [Avicebron]”
Evidence: AI draft
Solomon ibn Gabirol › c. 1021–1058
Marsilio Ficino
influenced
Ficino translated and commented on all of Plotinus’ Enneads (printed 1492), reading him as the interpreter who unlocked Plato. M. Ficino, Plotini Enneades (Florence, 1492), proem; SEP “Marsilio Ficino”
Evidence: AI draft
Marsilio Ficino › 1433–1499
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
influenced
Pico included fifteen theses ‘according to Plotinus’ among those of the later Platonists in his 900 Conclusions (1486), alongside theses after Porphyry, Iamblichus and Proclus. G. Pico della Mirandola, Conclusiones (Rome, 1486); S. A. Farmer, Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses (1998)
Evidence: AI draft
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola › 1463–1494
Giordano Bruno
influenced
In the second dialogue of De la causa (1584) Bruno reproduced passages of Plotinus, read in Ficino’s Latin, for his universal intellect and world soul. G. Bruno, De la causa, principio et uno (1584), dialogue II; Plotinus, Enneads III.8, II.9 (Ficino’s translation); S. Carannante, ‘Writing against the Gnostics: World Soul, Universal Animation and Natural Production in Giordano Bruno’s Reading of Plotinus (De la causa II)’, Rinascimento 64 (2024)
Evidence: AI draft
Giordano Bruno › 1548–1600
Ralph Waldo Emerson
influenced
Emerson took the motto of Nature (1836) from Plotinus: nature is ‘but an image or imitation of wisdom, the last thing of the soul’. R. W. Emerson, Nature (1836), motto; SEP “Ralph Waldo Emerson”
Evidence: AI draft
Ralph Waldo Emerson › 1803–1882
Albert Camus
influenced ✓
Camus’s thesis Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism (1936) treated Plotinus’ union of reason and mystical ascent as a bridge from Greek thought to Augustine’s Christianity. A. Camus, Métaphysique chrétienne et néoplatonisme (1936); SEP “Albert Camus”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Albert Camus › 1913–1960
Works
- c. 270Enneads
From the One through Intellect and Soul down to matter – and back.
Position
Plotinus founded Neoplatonism. At the summit of reality stands the One, utterly simple and beyond all being and thought. From it everything flows forth in stages, like light from the sun: first Intellect (nous), which contains the Forms, then Soul, which animates the cosmos, and finally matter, the point furthest from the source. The human soul belongs to this hierarchy and can return upward through virtue, philosophy and contemplation, ultimately to a mystical union with the One, which Porphyry says Plotinus attained several times. His thought shaped Augustine, Christian and Islamic mysticism and Renaissance Platonism.
Life & context
Plotinus was probably born in Egypt and studied philosophy in Alexandria for eleven years with Ammonius Saccas. He joined Emperor Gordian III’s campaign against Persia, hoping to learn the wisdom of the East, and from 244 CE taught in Rome, admired by senators and by the emperor Gallienus. His pupil Porphyry edited his writings and wrote his biography.
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