Neoplatonism

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Neoplatonism, the school of thought founded in the 3rd century AD by the philosopher Plotinus. Born in Egypt, Plotinus was brought up in the Platonic tradition, studying and reinterpreting the works of the Greek thinker Plato. After he moved to Rome Plotinus became the most influential member of a group of thinkers dedicated to Platonic scholarship. The Neoplatonists - a term only coined in the nineteenth century - brought a new religious sensibility to bear on Plato’s thought. They outlined a complex cosmology which linked the human with the divine, headed by a mysterious power which they called the One. Neoplatonism shaped early Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious scholarship, and remained a dominant force in European thought until the Renaissance.

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Guests

• Angie Hobbs 24 episodes
  Associate Professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick
• Peter Adamson 7 episodes
  Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London
• Anne Sheppard No other episodes
  Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London

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Programme ID: b01g62w1

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g62w1

Auto-category: 180 (Ancient, medieval, & eastern philosophy)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. Of all the great thinkers of the ancient world, few have been as influential as Plato, born in the 5th century BC, the founder of the Academy in Athens.