Neoplatonism

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in the opposite direction the successive steps of its degeneration, until it is again united with the
fountainhead of its being. The actual reunion is accomplished through a mystical experience in which the soul knows an all-pervading ecstasy.
Doctrinally, is characterized by a categorical opposition between the spiritual and the carnal, elaborated from Plato's dualism of Idea and Matter; by the metaphysical hypothesis of mediating agencies, the nous and the world soul, which transmit the divine power from the One to the many; by an aversion to the world of sense; and by the necessity of liberation from a life of sense through a rigorous ascetic discipline. (Funk and Wagnalls)
History of
Neoplatonism began in Alexandra, Egypt, in the third century AD. Plotinus was the founder of Neoplatonsim and was born in Egypt. He studied at Alexandra with the philosopher Ammonium Saccus. Along with 224 others he helped carry the Neoplatonic doctrine to Rome, where he established a ...

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