Neoplatonism

While Neoplatonism is discussed in somewhat better detail elsewhere, it is misleading to say that this school was the last contribution of the Greek tradition. In fact, it would be very easy to view Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, with its fervently stoic perspective, as a much later product of Greek philosophy, despite the fact that it was written in Latin by a Roman. Moreover, that most famous of Medieval philosophers, St. Thomas Aquinas, leaned heavily upon Aristotle in his major works, the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles, which in turn led to a kind of renaissance of the Greek perspective.

Ne`o*pla"to*nism (?), n. [Neo- + Platonism.]

A pantheistic eclectic school of philosophy, of which Plotinus was the chief (A. D. 205-270), and which sought to reconcile the Platonic and Aristotelian systems with Oriental theosophy. It tended to mysticism and theurgy, and was the last product of Greek philosophy.

© Webster 1913.