Platonism and Neoplatonism eBooks Collection PDF

Platonism and Neoplatonism eBooks Collection

Infomation

Platonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. Platonism also refers to the philosophy that affirms the existence of abstract objects, which are asserted to "exist" in a "third realm distinct both from the sensible external world and from the internal world of consciousness, and is the opposite of nominalism."

In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism. The central concept of Platonism is the distinction between that reality which is perceptible, but not intelligible, and that which is intelligible, but imperceptible; to this distinction the Theory of Forms is essential. The forms are typically described in dialogues such as the Phaedo, Symposium and Republic as transcendent, perfect archetypes, of which objects in the everyday world are imperfect copies. In the Republic the highest form is identified as the Form of the Good, the source of all other forms, which could be known by reason. In the Sophist, a later work, the forms being, sameness and difference are listed among the primordial "Great Kinds". In the 3rd century BC, Arcesilaus adopted skepticism, which became a central tenet of the school until 90 BC when Antiochus added Stoic elements, rejected skepticism, and began a period known as Middle Platonism. In the 3rd century AD, Plotinus added mystical elements, establishing Neoplatonism, in which the summit of existence was the One or the Good, the source of all things; in virtue and meditation the soul had the power to elevate itself to attain union with the One. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought, and many Platonic notions were adopted by the Christian church which understood Platonic forms as God's thoughts, whilst Neoplatonism became a major influence on Christian mysticism, in the West through St Augustine, Doctor of the Catholic Church whose Christian writings were heavily influenced by Plotinus' Enneads, and in turn were foundations for the whole of Western Christian thought

Neoplatonism is the modern (19th century) term for a school of mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas. Neoplatonism focused on the spiritual and cosmological aspects of Platonic thought, synthesizing Platonism with Egyptian and Jewish theology. However, Neoplatonists would have considered themselves simply Platonists, and the modern distinction is due to the perception that their philosophy contained sufficiently unique interpretations of Plato to make it substantially different from what Plato wrote and believed

The Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Porphyry has been referred to as in fact being orthodox Platonic philosophy by scholars like John D. Turner. This distinction provides a contrast with later movements of Neoplatonism, such as those of Iamblichus and Proclus, which embraced magical practices or theurgy as part of the soul's development in the process of the soul's return to the Source. Possibly Plotinus was motivated to clarify some of the traditions in the teachings of Plato that had been misrepresented before Iamblichus

Neoplatonism took definitive shape with the philosopher Plotinus, who claimed to have received his teachings from Ammonius Saccas, a philosopher in Alexandria. Plotinus was also influenced by Alexander of Aphrodisias and Numenius of Apamea. Plotinus' student Porphyry assembled his teachings into the six sets of nine tractates, or Enneads. Subsequent Neoplatonic philosophers included Iamblichus, Hypatia of Alexandria, Hierocles of Alexandria, Proclus (by far the most influential of later Neoplatonists), Damascius (last head of Neoplatonist School at Athens), Olympiodorus the Younger, and Simplicius of Cilicia

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A PDF collection of 484 eBooks about Platonism and Neoplatonism
eBooks are sorted on publisher's name

Aarhus University Press Plotinus on Selfhood, Freedom and Politics (2005).pdf
Academia Verlag Gorgias and Menon, Selected Papers from the 7th Symposium Platonicum (2007).pdf
Academia Verlag Plato's Philebus, Selected Papers from the 8th Symposium Platonicum (2010).pdf
Acumen Publishing Neoplatonism (2008).pdf
Algora Publishing Plato's Dreams Realized, Surveillance and Citizen Rights from KGB to FBI (2006).pdf
Amsterdam University Press The Architectonic of Philosophy, Plato Aristotle Leibniz (2007).pdf
Ashgate Publishing Dionysius the Areopagite and the Neoplatonist Tradition, Despoiling the Hellenes (2007).pdf
Ashgate Publishing Myth, Metaphysics and Dialectic in Plato's Statesman (2007).pdf
Ashgate Publishing Origen Against Plato (2002) (no OCR).pdf
Ashgate Publishing Plato and Aristotle's Ethics (2003) (Scan, OCR).pdf
Ashgate Publishing Plotinus on the Appearance of Time and the World of Sense, A Pantomime (2007).pdf
Ashgate Publishing Protagoras and the Challenge of Relativism, Plato's Subtlest Enemy (2007).pdf
Ashgate Publishing Word and Meaning in Ancient Alexandria, Theories of Language from Philo to Plotinus (2008).pdf
Barkhuis Publishing Lectiones Scrupulosae, Readings of Apuleius' Metamorphoses in Honor of Maaike Zimmerman (2006).pdf
Basic Books The Republic of Plato 2nd (1991) (no OCR).pdf
Blackwell Publishing A Companion to Plato (2006).pdf
Blackwell Publishing A History of Literary Criticism and Theory, From Plato to the Present (2005).pdf
Blackwell Publishing Greek Popular Morality, In the Time of Plato and Aristotle (1974) (no OCR).pdf
Blackwell Publishing Guide to Plato's Republic (2006).pdf
Blackwell Publishing Understanding Plato's Republic (2010).pdf
Brill Publishing A Study of Spiritual Motion in the Philosophy of Proclus (1973) (Scan, OCR).pdf
Brill Publishing Akrasia in Greek Philosophy, From Socrates to Plotinus (2007).pdf
Brill Publishing An Alexandrian Platonist against Dualism, Alexander of Lycopolis' Treatise Critique of the Doctrines of Manichaeus (1974) (no OCR).pdf
Brill Publishing Aristotle On the Life-Bearing Spirit De spiritu, A Discussion with Plato and his Predecessors on Pneuma as the Instrumental Body of the Soul (2008).pdf