Summary
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. With:Angie HobbsAssociate Professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of WarwickPeter AdamsonProfessor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College LondonAnne SheppardProfessor of Ancient Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of LondonProducer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:36.0 | Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast. |
| 0:39.0 | For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy |
| 0:46.5 | the program. Hello of all the great thinkers of the ancient world few have been as |
| 0:51.0 | influential as Plato born in in the 5th century |
| 0:53.6 | BC, the founder of the Academy in Athens. |
| 0:56.6 | According to the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, quote, |
| 0:59.7 | the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. One of the most extensive and important of these footnotes is a school of thought known as the Neoplatanism which emerged in Rome in the |
| 1:15.0 | third century a d its central figure was the Egyptian-born philosopher Platinus who |
| 1:19.8 | with his followers developed the scholarship of Plato into a subtle and mystical system of thought. |
| 1:24.8 | Neoplatanism was the dominant philosophical tradition in Europe for centuries, and was an important |
| 1:29.9 | influence on the theology of Judaism, as well as on early Christianity and Islam. |
| 1:35.0 | With me to discuss Neoplatanism are Angie Hobbs, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Senior |
| 1:39.8 | Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, Peter |
| 1:43.9 | Adamson, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at Kings College London, and Anne Shepard, |
| 1:48.8 | Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. |
| 1:53.0 | Angi Hobbs, before we get into Neoplatanism, briefly tell us what Plato's importance was to that. |
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