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PLUTARCH

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 860 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PLUTARCH , of See also:

Athens (c. 350-430), See also:Greek philosopher, See also:head of the Neoplatonist school at Athens at the beginning of the 5th See also:century, was the son of See also:Nestorius and See also:father of Hierius and Asclepigenia, who were his colleagues in the school. The origin of See also:Neoplatonism in Athens is not known, but Plutarch and his followers (the " Platonic See also:Succession ") claim to be the disciples of See also:Iamblichus, and through him of See also:Porphyry and See also:Plotinus. Plutarch's See also:main principle was that the study of See also:Aristotle must precede that of See also:Plato, and that the student should be taught to realize primarily the fundamental points of agreement between them. With this See also:object he wrote a commentary on the De anima which was the most important contribution to Aristotelian literature since the See also:time of See also:Alexander of Aphrodisias. His example was followed by See also:Syrianus and others of the school. This See also:critical spirit reached its greatest height in See also:Proclus, the ablest exponent of this latter-See also:day See also:syncretism. Plutarch was versed in all the theurgic traditions of the school, and believed in the possibility of attaining to communion with the Deity by the See also:medium of the theurgic See also:rites. Unlike the See also:Alexandrists and the See also:early See also:Renaissance writers, he maintained that the soul which is See also:bound up in the See also:body by the ties of See also:imagination and sensation does not perish with the corporeal See also:media of sensation. In See also:psychology, while believing that See also:Reason is the basis and See also:foundation of all consciousness, he interposed between sensation and thought the See also:faculty of Imagination, which, as distinct from both, is the activity of the soul under the stimulus of unceasing sensation. In other words, it provides the raw material for the operation of Reason. Reason is See also:present in See also:children as an inoperative potentiality, in adults as working upon the data of sensation and imagination, and, in its pure activity, it is the transcendental or pure intelligence of See also:God.

See See also:

Marinus, Vita Procli, 6, T2; See also:Zeller's See also:History of Greek See also:Philosophy; Bouillet, Enneades de Plotin, ii. 667-668; Windelband, History of Philosophy (trans. J. H. Tufts, p. 225).

End of Article: PLUTARCH

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PLUTARCH (Gr. llXoi rapxos) (c. A.D. 46–120)

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