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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Portrait of Proclus
Proclus

412 CE – 485 CE

Neoplatonist

Born Constantinople

The last great systematizer of pagan philosophy, who built Neoplatonism into a vast cathedral of being just as the ancient world was ending.

Portrait of Plotinus
Plotinus

c. 204 CE – 270 CE

Neoplatonist

Born Lycopolis

Reality overflows from a single source, the One, and the soul's task is the long climb back.

Connection

Plotinus Neoplatonist tradition Proclus — Proclus built the emanationist vision of Plotinus into a vast, rigorously deduced system.

Shared Ideas

BeingThe Intellect

Shared Places

Alexandria

Ideas

BeingThe Intellect
BeingThe IntellectReason

Words

“Everything that proceeds from a cause both remains in it and returns to it.”

— Proclus

“Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not yet find yourself beautiful, do as the sculptor does: cut away all that is excessive.”

— Plotinus

Key Moments

412 CE

Born in Constantinople

c. 437 CE

Head of the Academy

c. 450 CE

Elements of Theology

485 CE

Death in Athens

c. 204 CE

Born in Egypt

c. 232 CE

Studies in Alexandria

c. 245 CE

The School at Rome

270 CE

Death in Campania

Works

The Elements of Theology

The Enneads

Atlas of Thinkers

A story-first philosophy atlas. Explore history's greatest thinkers through place, time, movement, and ideas.

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One thinker, one idea, one passage, once a month.

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Volume I · Ancient Greece · 624-262 BCE