Plotinus and Neoplatonism

Plotinus (203?-269?) developed Neoplatonism to revive the idealist philosophy of Plato. In Plotinian cosmology, God absolutely transcends human existence -- it is the ONE, it is perfect, infinite, ineffable, transcending all distinctions etc. etc. The physical world is an emanation of the ONE, not a conscious creation. Plotinus uses the metaphor of sunlight illuminating objects to describe this emanation: the sun is not diminished by radiating sunlight (in terms of ancient physics, if not modern physics): it does so naturally, and in the process illuminates objects, or brings them into being, to continue Plotinus's metaphor.

However, there are more layers to this cosmology. The first emanation, or first layer out from the ONE, is Thought, or Mind; this is not the thought of an individual, but the location of all ideas. Thought or Mind is the layer in which distinctions first appear because it's slightly less perfect than the ONE. This first layer is still eternal, however; it exists in an infinite present.

From Infinite Thought or Mind, which Plotinus also terms Beauty (Greek for "Kosmos") emanates an incorporeal and indivisible Soul, and from this Soul emanates the soul of the physical world, or the World Soul, which is also called nature. So, there are two Souls: one closer to Infinite Thought and not touching the physical world, and the next embodying reflections of Infinite Thought in the physical world.

As the Soul has two layers corresponding to Infinite Thought and the physical world, so individuals embody two elements: one corresponding to Infinite Thought (namely the soul), and the other corresponding to the physical world (namely the body). Individual souls are bound together in the World Soul and are therefore immortal. While the union of soul with body represents a "fall" in Plotinian terms, an individual can re-unite the soul with the ONE; this is the moral imperative of Neoplatonism -- taking steps to ensure the ascension of the soul back into the ONE.

As if there weren't enough layers and divisions yet, Plotinus introduced three more layers in an individual soul: 1/the highest part, uncontaminated by matter; 2/the theoretical and intellectual element; 3/the will to ethical perfection. An individual achieves ascension through four stages: 1/freedom from bodily desire through virtuous living; 2/moving beyond sense-perception to awareness of Infinite Thought through study of philosophy; 3/moving beyond discursive thought to union with Infinite Thought; 4/losing self-consciousness in a mystical union with the ONE. Plotinus called this last stage "the life of gods and the godlike and happy among men; a quittance from things alien and earthly, a life beyond earthly pleasure, a flight of the alone to the Alone."

Plotinus's follower Porphyry systematized the Plotinian philosophy and emphasized the "salvation" attained through union with the ONE, and so Porphyry's work is almost as important as Plotinus's -- Thoreau read Porphyry instead of Plotinus.

Neoplatonism influenced thinkers as diverse as St. Augustine (a Neoplatonist at one point before he converted to Christianity), English metaphysical poets such as John Donne, and German and English Romanticists. Emerson was especially influenced by the idea of emanation from a perfect Unity into the physical world; he once wrote that "every natural fact is an emanation." He was also inspired by the notion of "a flight of the alone to the Alone," and used it to describe his own mystical experiences.

Sources:

Frederick Copleston, S.J., A History of Philosophy (Volume I)

Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Emerson: The Mind on Fire