Neo Platonists

by Thomas Whittaker

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Hardcover

First published December 1, 1996

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Although it was published in 1918, this is a surprisingly readable account of the Neo-Plantonist school from Plotinus (and his ideological forerunners), up until Proclus and the end of the Athenian school. Whittaker is surprisingly sympathetic towards his subject, considering the era this was written in, and the usual overwhelming Christian bias of the time. Indeed, the chapter dealing with the conflict between Neo-Platonism and Christianity is the strongest in the book, and Whittaker seems to have an affinity with the polemic of Julian (the emperor), who is at the center of the narrative here. He does rather gloss over the theurgy of Proclus in favour of his scientific and philosophic ideas, but this at least balances out the popular argument that the Neo-Platonist school devolved into a morass of magic and lacked critical thinkers in its post Plotinus days. It is a tough read in places, and a classical background would be an advantage to get the most out of it, but given the scarcity of books on the Neo-Platonists, I would recommend it. It certainly deserves a quality reprint from a decent publishing house too.

[Edward Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old book, but a good one; there aren't very many good general introductions to Neoplatonism that include Proclus and get the details broadly right.