The Historical Development of Philosophy

Greek Philosophy

Theosophical Directions in Hellenistic Philosophy (Neopythagoreans, Jewish Theosophers, Neoplatonists)

In the practical tendencies of the skeptical schools that emerged in the third century and persisted thereafter, there manifests a persistent religious need, one that intensifies over time as the hold of popular religion wanes among the people, while foreign, specifically Eastern notions of gods and their corresponding cults intermingle with and contend for dominance alongside it. This need is a longing for a new religious worldview that would dispel doubt and provide comfort and satisfaction during turbulent times; in the subsequent centuries, this yearning strongly captivates the minds of many, eventually giving rise to a distinctly theosophical direction within philosophy, which first clearly emerges in the last pre-Christian century. It draws from the philosophies of the past, such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, and the schools of the Academics and Peripatetics, which continue to exist with varying influence alongside these new directions, predominantly the philosophy of Plato, with which the theosophical movement feels a kinship in its pursuit of knowledge beyond the senses. Thus, this movement, which began in the first century BCE and extends into the third and fourth centuries CE, can broadly be characterized as Neoplatonism. However, it further divides into three relatively independent yet spiritually related currents: the Neopythagorean movement, which precedes the others (in the last century BCE) and arises from the remnants of the Pythagorean school, heavily influenced by Plato; the direction of Jewish theosophy, which emerges around the dawn of the Christian era with founders who are Jewish theologians nurtured by Hellenistic philosophy; and, finally, the movement of Neoplatonism in the strict sense of the term, the most recent of the three, which first appears in the third century CE. All these schools seemingly originated in Alexandria but later spread throughout the Hellenistic world. Prominent systems from this period include those of the Jewish theosopher Philo (around the turn of the era) and the Neoplatonist Plotinus (in the third century CE).

The central idea of Neoplatonism, which far outlives it and repeatedly influences both medieval Christian philosophy and modern thought, is that of emanation. This concept articulates the religious need of a thought process that operates more through imagination than reason, while simultaneously serving as a pure synthesis of the metaphysical perspectives that had developed in preceding philosophies. Plato’s doctrine of ideas represented a wholly transcendent system: ideas, as supra-sensible objects, stood in opposition to the sensory world, which contained only imperfect, hazy images of those ideas. Aristotle, on the other hand, taught the immanence of form in matter, a notion that the Stoics later fully developed: the spiritual exists within the material, and the divine dwells in the world. The notion of emanation encompasses both immanent and transcendent concepts. God, as a purely spiritual essence, exists beyond the world. From this divine source emanate beings that occupy a middle position between the divine and the material world: λόγος, λόγοι, or, in another terminology, νους, ideas, souls; from these, earthly things gradually emanate, culminating in matter. The entities that occupy this intermediary position between God and the world serve, in part, as concepts, as their names are borrowed from ancient philosophy, and, in part, embody personal beings, whereby Eastern cultic notions of angels and demons are directly integrated with Greek philosophical concepts like νοῦς from Anaxagoras and λόγος from Heraclitus.

Thus, the primary tendency of Neoplatonic systems shifts from a philosophical to a religious character. The very idea of emanation is a product of this religious need. The spiritually inclined soul seeks to venerate the divine as a transcendent force; however, at the same time, it yearns for unity with this divinity or, at the very least, desires to establish a relationship with it through intermediary beings. The concept of emanation adequately expresses this dual need. The Neoplatonists’ doctrine of knowledge similarly reflects this character: knowledge (γνωσις) is not an external but an internal process, mediated by the very act of emanation, which is primarily grasped by individuals during moments of internal illumination or ecstasy. Thus, this teaching on knowledge directly transitions into notions of religious mysticism and divination.

Neoplatonism marks the conclusion of the development of Greek philosophy. In its primary aim to satisfy religious aspiration, Neoplatonic theosophy engages in the struggle between religions and cults, during which philosophy must serve the religious need in the Roman Empire. Alongside Stoicism and Aristotelian monotheism, Neoplatonism primarily participates in this conflict as a philosophical system closely related to religious worldviews. In the teachings of the Gnostics, the ideas of emanation intertwine with Christian religious beliefs. Neoplatonism of the fifth century attempts, through such ideas, to revive ancient Greek folk religion once more. From this struggle among cults and philosophical systems, which arises on the foundations of Jewish monotheism and is refined through continuous interaction with Greek philosophical ideas, Christianity ultimately emerges as a victorious religious worldview, which from that moment on shapes the course of philosophy for a long time to come.