Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Neoplatonist

Neoplatonist

1 9.9
A person who follows later ideas based on Plato about spiritual reality
  • noun
  • /ˌniːoʊˈpleɪtənɪst/
  • Specialized
: neoplatonista
  • Neoplatonists believed that the soul... could ascend toward a union with the divine... through the contemplation of earthly beauty...

It is the Platonic world of the Forms understood not just say through Plato, but the way that Neoplatonists would understand it.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Without faith, the existence of evil isn't a theological problem at all; it's simply a fact that skews the idea of an absolute or perfect universe, a notion that Plato and the Neoplatonists were rather keen on.

    Academic text (2001)

  • It is an attempt to provide some intelligible content to Christian faith in the Triune God, in the face of both Arian and Neoplatonist objections as well as the intrinsic difficulties of the subject matter.

    Academic text (2005)

  • And Zeus's golden chain was adopted by the Neoplatonists as an image of the mind of God or of divine order in the universe.

    Stanford

  • Petrarchan conceits and Neoplatonist metaphysics are here rewritten.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Neoplatonist thought also comes under close scrutiny in the debate in a way that then clarifies its use in the elegies and sonnets.

    Academic text (1992)

  • They were Jewish Neoplatonists like Theo of Alexandria.

  • Finally, Job ends as a rational Neoplatonist who does not place "the ultimate remuneration for virtue in temporal goods but in spiritual goods after this life."

    Academic text (2006)

  • Upon reading the Neoplatonist works of Plotinus and others, and upon hearing Ambrose's sermons, he came to feel that the Manichean cosmology did not satisfactorily account for evil.

    Academic text (1990)

  • In his defense of Love in the Debate, Apollo advocates an idealized conception of love that is not unlike that of the Neoplatonists; as spokesman for Folly, Mercury offers a vision of love that is far more pragmatic.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The Neoplatonist believed that understanding beauty could lead to a deeper connection with the divine.

Synonyms

Platonist
vsNeoplatonist
2 9.1

A person who follows Plato's idea that perfect forms exist

focuses on the later developed tradition influenced by Plato
Neoplatonic
vsNeoplatonist
  • Specialized
9.9

A person who believes all things come from one spiritual source based on Plato's ideas

is the same meaning but used as a noun for a person

Surface Forms

Neoplatonist singular
Neoplatonists plural

Morphology

Neoplatonist = Platonist (semi-transparent) = neo + platon + ist

The element 'neo-' and 'Platonist' are clear components, but understanding the referent requires knowledge of Plato and the specific philosophical movement, so it is not fully transparent to average learners.

Etymology

Neoplatonist comes from neo- 'new' and Plato, the ancient Greek thinker, so a Neoplatonist is a person who follows a 'new' form of Plato's ideas and often looks for a deeper, spiritual reality behind the visible world.