Neoplatonism

The history of Greek philosophy spans a period of roughly a thousand years from the time of the Pre-Socratic to the Neo-Platonists. The last great epoch in Greek philosophy, the Neo-Platonic period, includes such authors as Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus. The Neo-Platonists had an enormous influence on later authors: directly on Augustine, Nicolaus of Cusa, various Renaissance figures, the German idealists, particularly Hegel; and indirectly, through Dionysius the Areopagite, on such figures as Scotus Erigena, and Aquinas. This course will enable students to study Neo-Platonic texts both for themselves and in the context of their influence on later philosophical history.