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10511645 No.10511645 [Reply] [Original]

What's the difference between Platonism and Neoplatonism?

>> No.10511660

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism

It seems Neoplatonism has more applications for Abrahamic spirituality.

In other words, it actually embraces one God.

Which is cool, because depending on which translations of Plato's work you read, he really does just refer to 'God' at times. It's great reading for Jews, Christians, or Muslims, because of the centrality of the belief. God exists, he is 'The Good' mentioned in The Republic many times, in my opinion.

Yeah.

Just read the wiki

>> No.10511732

>>10511660
(Plato is monotheistic and makes jokes about polytheists being stupid. Also, the main Neoplatonist, Plotinus, is very critical of Christianity. The heading of the document is Against the Gnostics, but this was added later by butt-hurt Christians, because the whole treatise is against the more superstitious Christians (not the Gnostics, but the form of Christianity that won history by force)). I would argue that the primary difference is the way in which things are stated (the aims are the same but ideas are expressed differently). Scholarship will create differences where there aren’t really differences because they need content for papers. Fuck them, they muddy the waters. Plotinus was trying to get all of the important ideas recorded because he understood that civilization was crumbling and wanted plato’s Ideas to survive the Christians’ efforts to burn all people and wisdom of value, whereas Plato intentionally withheld information and used a lot of irony and subtlety in the dialogues because the most important information was only conveyed orally, so there is a difference between Plato’s text and that of Plotinus with regard to content, style, and intent. It could also be argued that Neoplatonism had a stronger eastern influence (gymnosophists and meditation) but I believe Plato’s work was already strongly influenced by the same sources.

>> No.10511740

>>10511660
yes, Neoplatonism is centered on a revival of the theological elements of Plato's philosophy, which had been distilled down to chiefly logical and physical elements through post-Socratic schools, namely the Stoics and Cynics.
It ties directly into a wider fascination with Jewish monotheism and the professed direct link between subservience to YHWH and moral enlightenment.

Also worth reading are the Gnostic heretics, a later branch of Neoplatonic thought that involves a heavily esoteric reading of the Christian bible in which God's authority is critiqued along lines of Platonic logic and metaphysics.

>> No.10511769

>>10511660
>>10511732
>>10511740
Righto. So it's just theists who can't think outside of their faith, projecting bullshit onto the past.

>> No.10511785

>>10511769
...?

No, that's literally not what was said at all. The fact that you can even use a computer is impressive.

>> No.10511807

>>10511645
The prefix 'neo'.

>> No.10511820

>>10511645
Platonism is a misnomer. It doesn't actually refer to anything.

Neo-platonism is a fanfiction based on the assumption that "Platonism" refers to something concrete, which it doesn't because Plato was the most non-committal bitch in the history of philosophy

>> No.10512937

>>10511645
Myriad interpretations make Plato difficult, Plotinus is difficult ab ovo.

>> No.10513741

>>10511645
one is newer than the other