Der Mittelplatonismus

Middle Platonism is a historiographical notion referring to the phase in the history of Platonism between the decline of the Sceptical Academy (Ist century B.C.) and the composition of Plotinus’ Enneads (IIIrd century A. D.). Usually, philosophers such as Eudorus, Plutarch, Gaius, Albinus, Alcinous, Atticus, Apuleius, Severus, Taurus, Numenius are considered Middle Platonists. Middle Platonism is therefore not a unitary school, but a general trend within which individual authors develop autonomous doctrines. Despite this, some common elements are discernible: a) the refusal of the sceptical interpretation of Plato and the tendency to assign to Plato a pro-positive, i. e. dogmatic, thought; b) the revival of the conception of ideas (i. e. transcendent forms); c) the primacy of theology over ontology, and the thesis that the first principle of reality is a God and that ideas depend on him (sometimes because they are God’s thoughts); d) the hierarchization of reality: first God - transcendent ideas - second God - immanent forms - sensible objects; e) the doctrine that establishes assimilation to God as the goal of human existence.