98 Chapter 3
3.3 Philosophical Perspectives During
Neoplatonism
A modern term used to designate
a tradition of philosophy that
arose in the third century C.E. and
persisted until shortly after the
closing of the Platonic Academy in
Athens in c.e. 529. Neoplatonists
were heavily influenced both by
Plato and by the Platonic tradition.
saint augustine (354–430)
­Christian philosopher and bishop of
Hippo in Northern Africa. Augustine’s
synthesis of Platonic and Christian
concepts was a major influence in the
development of medieval Christian
doctrine and Western philosophy.
His writing includes a spiritual
­autobiography, The Confessions and a
discussion of the spiritual path, The
City of God. Augustine was ­canonized
by the Catholic Church in the
­fourteenth century.
the Middle Ages
Saint Augustine’s Synthesis of Plato and Christianity
Plato’s (and Socrates’s) metaphysical views were revolutionary and included:
• The existence of an immaterial reality separate from the physical world.
• The radical distinction between an immaterial soul and physical body.
• The existence of an immortal soul that finds its ultimate fulfillment in union with
the eternal, transcendent realm.
However, these ideas would have died had they not been adopted and perpetuated
by subsequent cultures. The Roman Empire both conquered and absorbed Greek cul-
ture, preserving much of its extraordinary accomplishments in the arts, philosophy, and
politics. Plato died in 347 b.c.e., and more than 500 years, later a Roman philosopher
named Plotinus (205–270 c.e.) breathed new life into Plato’s ideas, spearheading an in-
tellectual movement that came to be known as Neoplatonism. Plotinus based his views
on Plato’s core concepts believing, for example, that “the soul, since it is a spiritual sub-
stance in its own right and can exist independently of the body, possesses a categorical
superiority over the body.” Plotinus was so fervently committed to his Platonic ideas re-
garding the imperfection of his physical body, in contrast to the perfection of his eternal
soul that he refused to celebrate his birthday. His reasoning was that he was ashamed
that his immortal soul had to be contained in such an imperfect vessel as his body, and
that celebrating its birth was a cause for regret, not celebration. Similarly, he refused to
have his physical likeness painted or sculpted, as he wanted no permanent record of his
physical self. His disdain for his body led to his neglect of his physical health, resulting
in the loss of his voice and pus-laden sores and abscesses that covered his hands and
feet. Because he was a teacher with his own school and had a penchant for embracing
his students, his physical deterioration ended up driving his students away.
In any case, Plotinus’s ideas had a profound influence on one of the great an-
cient philosophers, Saint Augustine, and through him on all of Western consciousness.
This extraordinary and far-reaching influence was the result of Augustine integrat-
ing the philosophical concepts of Plato with the tenets of Christianity. Augustine
was convinced that Platonism and Christianity were natural partners, going so far
as to contend, “If (the Platonists) could have had this life over again with us . . . they
would have become Christians, with the change of a few words and statements.” He
enthusiastically adopted Plato’s vision of a bifurcated universe in which “there are
two realms, an intelligible realm where truth itself dwells, and this sensible world
which we perceive by sight and touch,” but then adapted this metaphysic to Christian
beliefs. Thus, Plato’s ultimate reality, the eternal realm of the Forms, became in Au-
gustine’s philosophy a transcendent God. In the same way, Plato’s vision of immortal
souls striving to achieve union with this eternal realm through intellectual enlighten-
ment became transformed by Augustine into immortal souls striving to achieve union
with God through faith and reason. The transient, finite nature of the physical world
described by Plato became in Christianity a proving ground for our eternal destinies.
Plato’s metaphysical framework thus provided philosophical justification for Chris-
tian beliefs that might otherwise have been considered far-fetched.
Augustine was a complex and fascinating figure. Born to successful parents in
northern Africa, he spent much of his youth and young adulthood carousing with
friends, indulging in numerous love affairs, and even fathering an illegitimate child.
But he also had a powerful and curious intellect, and his explorations ultimately led
him to conversion to Christianity when he was thirty-three years old. His personal
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 who are you? 99

odyssey is recorded in one of the most extraordinary and compelling books of its
kind, his Confessions. He spent the remainder of his life in his home country, serving
as bishop of Hippo and writing books and letters that helped shape the theology of
Christianity for subsequent centuries.
Like Plato and Plotinus, Augustine believed that the physical body was both radically
different from and inferior to its inhabitant, the immortal soul. Early in his philosophical
development, he describes the body as a “snare” and a “cage” for the soul. He considers
the body a “slave” to the soul, and sees their relation as contentious: “The soul makes war
with the body.” As his thinking matured, Augustine sought to develop a more unified
perspective on body and soul. He ultimately came to view the body as the “spouse” of the
soul, with both attached to one another by a “natural appetite.” He concludes, “That the
body is united with the soul, so that man may be entire and complete, is a fact we recog-
nize on the evidence of our own nature.” Nevertheless, as for Plato, Plotinus, and all the
other Neoplatonists, body and soul remain irreconcilably divided, two radically different
entities with diverging fates: the body to die, the soul to live eternally in a transcendent
realm of Truth and Beauty. In the following passage, Augustine reflects on the intricacies
of the soul and body and their relationship to being a “man” or “woman”:
Therefore, let us ask what is better than man. That of course will be hard to find
out, unless we first consider and discuss what man himself is. I do not think a
definition of man is demanded of me. What seems to be asked of me at this point
is rather the following: since there is almost universal consensus—or at least it is
agreed on between me and those I am now dealing with, and that suffices—that
we are composites of soul and body, what [then] is the man himself? Is he both of
the things I [just] mentioned, or the body alone, or the soul alone? For although
soul and body are two things, and neither would be called a “man” if the other
did not exist (for neither would the body be a man if the soul did not exist, nor in
turn would the soul be a man if a body were not animated by it), nevertheless it
can happen that one of these should be regarded as the “man” and called [such].
Therefore, what do we call the “man”? [Is he] soul and body, like a “team” [of
horses] or a centaur? [Is he] the body alone, which is being used by a soul that
rules it, like a “lantern”, [which is] not the flame and the container together but
only the container, although we call it [a lantern] because of the flame? [Or] do
we call nothing but the soul the “man”, but on account of the body it rules, just
as we call a “rider” not the horse and the man together but only the man, yet
[only] insofar as he is suited to governing the horse? It is hard to decide this
issue. Or if it is easy to figure out, [in any case] it requires a long explanation.
We do not have to accept and take on that job and delay [here]. For whether
both, or only the soul, takes the name of “man”, the best thing for the man is not
what is best for the body. Rather what is best for the soul and body together, or
for the soul alone, that is best for man. On the Customs of the Catholic Church.
(De moribus ecclesiae catholicae, 1, 4, 6, PL 32, col. 1313)
Therefore man, as he appears to man, is rational, immortal and earthly
soul using a body. (1, 27, 52, PL 32, col. 1332)

In melding philosophy and religious beliefs together, Augustine has been character-
ized as Christianity’s first theologian, a term derived from the Greek theos (God) and logos Theologian
(study of)—the study of God. His ideas influenced the structure of Christianity for the A term derived from the Greek
next 1,500 years, but by serving as a conduit for Plato’s fundamental ideas, Augustine’s in- theos (God) and logos (study of)—
fluence extended beyond Christianity to the cultural consciousness of Western civilization the study of God.
as a whole. Following our exploration of St. Thomas Aquinas in the next section, we will
see Augustine’s direct impact on the thinking of the French philosopher René Descartes.
In addition to establishing the groundwork for Descartes’s thinking regarding the soul
and the body, Augustine also foreshadowed Descartes’s theory of knowledge. Engaging
in a similar quest for certainty that was to consume Descartes 1,200 years later, Augustine
identified as a first principle, “I am doubting, therefore I am,” a statement eerily prescient
of Descartes’s famous pronouncement, cogito, ergo sum—“I think, therefore I am.”

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