Historical Introduction to Philosophy

• Happiness


  Pursued for its own sake
• Theoria


  Theoretical knowledge
• Phronesis


  Practical wisdom, requires practice, habit, and virtue
• Virtue


  • A mean between two extremes, with the right mean depending on the situation, requiring phronesis and rationality
• What is the structure of reality in Neoplatonism according to Plotinus?

  • Neoplatonism describes reality as emanating from the "One Good" through four stages:

  1. The Intellect – the world of ideas.
  2. The Soul – which seeks the One Good.
  3. The Sensible World.
  4. Matter – lacks the ability to create other realities but is not inherently evil.Neoplatonism combines Platonic idealism, Aristotelian empiricism, and Hellenic ethics, forming a basis for later Christian philosophy.