Neoplatonism

The description of society, and especially religion in TBoNS is somewhat similar to the late Roman Empire. There are holy men, temples etc but there is no Church as one, unitary organization. The Autarch has an important religion function, in fact he is the highest priest in the Commonwealth.

Compare Julian the Apostate, who said:

"Divine government is not through a special society (such as the Christian Church) teaching an authoritative doctrine, but through the order of the visible universe and all the variety of civic and national institutions. The underlying harmony of these is to be sought out by free examination, which is philosophy."

Such names as Yesod, Briah, Tzadkiel etc show plainly the influence of Kabbalah. Kabbalah, despite all differences, was fundamentally based on Neoplatonism.

Neoplatonism wasn't interested very much in such things as improving life on earth. They tried to free spirit from the bonds of matter, not make its slavery to it more pleasant. It influenced also to some degree the Orthodox Church, which is much less interested than Western Church in reforming society etc.

Neoplatonism is strictly hierarchical. In fact, the name "hierarchy" - which means "the holy authority" or "the holy rule" is strictly connected with that philosophy. Neoplatonism was the ruling philosophy and religion of the Roman Empire and, in a version Christianized by Pseudo-Dionysius, of Byzantium (although the Orthodox authors tend to condemn Neoplatonism in its pure version).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism

According to Neoplatonism the world was created as a series of emanations of the One. Our task is to return to the One by ascending again the ladder of hierarchy; this can be done by mediation or by faithful service to the state (according to the pre-Neoplatonic astral piety as eg Somnum Scipionis of Cicero, the meritorious civil servants become the astral spirits, in fact - equal of gods).

The characteristic element was the wholly negative nature of evil. Evil does not have any independent existence; it is simply a lack of good, caused by the growing distance to the One. Each lower level is further from the One, and therefore worse.

An important part is that there is nothing like forgiveness, charity etc. Those that are lower, are lower because they are worse; the higher are nearer to the One or to his earthly image, the Emperor, and therefore are better. You can rise, best of all by philosophy or by service to the State, but if you do not, it is your own fault.

The Roman empire was organized exactly according to those rules. At top there was the Holy Emperor, below the hierarchy of offices glowing with His reflected light, below them the senatorial class, then the honestiores and at the end the humiliores, "humble ones" - serfs and indentured laborers.

The Imperial titulature shows this exacty. See eg Notitia Dignitatum:

http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~halsteis/notitia.htm

According to Neoplatonic (and also Christian) philosophy there are no evil things; everything which is, is good. But everything good can be perverted to evil. And the better thing is the worse it becomes if it is misused.

Contrary to modern view the good is infinitely stronger than evil (which is simply lack of good, not a separate thing). But if a very good thing is perverted it becomes very dangerous, and the less is the difference the more dangerous it is - since it retains much of the original good. And army of thieves and cowards is not very dangerous. An army of heroes commanded by experienced officers and serving a cruel madman is much more terrible.

This is expressed in the maxim "Corruptio optimi pessima - Corruption of the best is worst".

A very good information about Neoplatonism as it was reflected in the popular consciousness can be found in two books by CS Lewis - "Discarded Mirror" and "Allegory of Love". These are not philosophy books and are not primarily about Neoplatonism. They show however the popular worldview of late Antiquity and Middle Ages.

Lewis explains one very important feature of Neoplatonism - the doctrine of mediation. Two beings from different levels cannot meet directly; they always need a mediator, a "tertium quid". That is the reason the hierarchy is so important. I cannot meet God directly, the best I can achieve is to see his reflection in my superior in the hierarchy. Here, actually, Plotinus differs from the standard Neoplatonism, because he thought the direct mystical union with God possible.

A good popular introduction is Arthur Lovejoy's "The Great Chain of Being".

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chain_of_Being http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/re/chain.htm http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-45

Some more info http://classics.mit.edu/Plotinus/enneads.html The works of Plotinus http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/neoplato.htm a short, but very good, article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

See also Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite "On the Divine Names". http://www.ccel.org/ccel/rolt/dionysius.txt http://www.ccel.org/ccel/dionysius/works.txt

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