Aquinas and Neoplatonism
The Influence of Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius on Thomistic Realism
Feb 5, 2009
Almost anyone who has taken Philosophy 101 will tell you: "Thomas Aquinas was an Aristotelian." It's in all the text books, and most professors who teach Thomistic philosophy would concur. Throughout history, Catholicism's greatest thinker has undoubtedly been cast in the light of Aristotelianism.
But a slightly more careful read of Thomas' work unlocks an entirely new perspective on his thought. In the Summa Theologica, Aquinas' magnum opus, the mediaeval doctor makes more recourse to Augustine than he does to Aristotle. And as those same Philosophy 101 students will tell you: "Augustine was a Neoplatonist."
Plotinus—A Major Influence
Perhaps the most notable Neoplatonist of them all was Plotinus, whose thought provided in no small way a basis for Aquinas' philosophy of reality. Plotinus (b. 204AD) was an interpreter of the philosophy of Plato, who lived about 600 years before. As most know, Plato's ideas of "formality" and "participation" shaped the intellectual landscape for a long time after his death. Both theories attempted to reconcile the problem of unity existing in discrete, independently intelligible objects. Plotinus took up this viewpoint and modified it, introducing the theory of the three "hypostases" -- Being, Intellect and Soul (or in some understandings, Intelligence, Soul and Life). Plotinus' theory of emanation -- or the procession of one reality from that above it -- revolutionized the Platonic outlook on formal participation, and provided a much sturdier foundation for philosophical questioning, grounded on a more complex theory of the hierarchy of being.
Pseudo-Dionysius—A Christian Interpretation of Plotinus
In the early middle ages, writings were discovered of a Christian thinker, who called himself "Dionysius." Some believe that this Dionysius was the same man St. Paul encountered in his journeys to Greece in the first century AD, but the likelihood is that he was actually a much later writer, coming after Plotinus (hence, "Pseudo"-Dionysius). Dionysius' adaptation of Neoplatonic thought into more theistic terms is most readily evident in his major work, De Divinis Nominibus ("The Divine Names"), where he reformulates the Plotinian notion of triadic emanation in accordance with the Christian understanding of the Trinity. By reinterpreting the meaning of the three "hypostases" in light of the already established Christian tradition of the processions and generations constituting the Trinitarian relations, Dionysius offered a critical link between what had previously been entirely secular philosophy and the budding theology of the middle ages.
Neoplatonism in Aquinas—A Dynamic Model of Realism
While Thomas Aquinas is certainly indebted to Aristotle for a great number of things, it is clear that he draws from the Neoplatonic philosophers just as much. In fact, Thomas' combined citations of Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius far outnumber his references to Aristotle, which indicates a great dependence on their insights for his own investigation. What is most impressive, though, is the way in which Aquinas holds together, in a sort of fruitful tension, the (sometimes) radically different views of Aristotle and the Neoplatonists.
This tension, or suspense, is most visible in Thomas' doctrine of realism—how it is that a thing really exists as an independent, intelligible object. On the one hand, Aquinas' supports the Aristotelian view that each particular object, in order to exist independently and as a true individual, must possess some sort of "inherent" formality; that is, each object must have an internal principle of its form that sustains its intelligibility and makes it what it is. On the other hand, he also asserts the Neoplatonic position that such singular objects—since they can be grouped and categorized by the mind into species and genuses, according to their qualities—must in some way participate in an "exemplary" form, held in the divine mind and constituting the perfection of the discrete individual. In sum, Thomas believes that individual objects are given their form both by an internal and external principle of intelligibility.
Thomas Aquinas' doctrine of realism is perhaps one of the most intriguing, since it falls in the middle of two extremes. Because of his revolutionary fusion of two of the most prolific philosophical systems in history, Aquinas will always be regarded by his fellow thinkers as a serious force to be reckoned with.
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