neoplatonism essays

neoplatonism articles As characterized by Funk and Wagnals, Neoplatonism is a kind of optimistic monism wherein a definitive truth of the universe is held to be a boundless, mysterious, flawless One. From this one radiates nous (unadulterated insight), whence thus is determined the world soul, the innovative movement of which causes the lesser spirits of individuals. The world soul is imagined as a picture of the nous, even as the nous is a picture of the One; both the nous and the world soul, in spite of their separation, are consequently consubstantial with the One. The world soul, be that as it may, in light of the fact that it is middle of the road between the nous and the material world, has the choice both of saving its trustworthiness and imaged flawlessness or of getting inside and out erotic and degenerate. A similar decision is available to every one of the lesser spirits. When, through obliviousness of its actual nature and character, the human spirit encounters a misguided feeling of separateness and autonomy, it turns out to be haughtily self-emphatic and falls into arousing and debased propensities. Salvation for such a spirit is as yet conceivable, the Neoplatonist keeps up, by ethicalness of the very opportunity of will that empowered it to pick its corrupt course. The spirit must converse that course, following the other way the progressive strides of its degeneration, until it is again joined with the source of its being. The genuine get-together is cultivated through a magical involvement with which the spirit knows an all-swarming delight. Doctrinally, Neoplatonism is portrayed by an all out restriction between the otherworldly and the bodily, expounded from Platos dualism of Idea and Matter; by the supernatural speculation of intervening organizations, the nous and the world soul, which transmit the heavenly force from the One to the many; by an antipathy for the universe of sense; and by the need of freedom from an existence of sense through a thorough parsimonious order. (Funk and Wagnalls) ... <!