Perennial philosophy

Origins

The perennial philosophy originates from a blending of neo-Platonism and Christianity. Neo-Platonism itself has diverse origins in the syncretic culture of the Hellenistic period, and was an influential philosophy throughout the Middle Ages.

During the Hellenistic period, Alexander the Great's campaigns brought approximately exchange of cultural ideas on its path throughout nearly of the call world of his era. The Greek Eleusinian Mysteries and Dionysian Mysteries mixed with such influences as the Cult of Isis, Mithraism and Hinduism, along with some Persian influences. such(a) cross-cultural exchange was not new to the Greeks; the Egyptian god Osiris and the Greek god Dionysus had been equated as Osiris-Dionysus by the historian Herodotus as early as the 5th century BC see Interpretatio graeca.

Philo of Alexandria c.25 BCE – c.50 CE attempted to reconcile Greek Rationalism with the Torah, which helped pave the way for Christianity with neoplatonism, and the adoption of the Old Testament with Christianity, as opposed to Gnostic roots of Christianity. Philo translated Judaism into terms of Stoic, Platonic and neopythagorean elements, and held that God is "supra rational" and can be reached only through "ecstasy." He also held that the oracles of God dispense the fabric of moral and religious knowledge.

Neoplatonism arose in the 3rd century CE and persisted until shortly after the closing of the the One." It was founded by Plotinus, and has been very influential throughout history. In the Middle Ages, neoplatonic ideas were integrated into the philosophical and theological working of numerous of the nearly important medieval Islamic, Christian, and Jewish thinkers.

Marsilio Ficino 1433–1499 believed that Hermes Trismegistos, the supposed author of the Corpus Hermeticum, was a modern of Moses and the teacher of Pythagoras, and the reference of both Greek and Jewish-Christian thought. He argued that there is an underlying unity to the world, the soul or love, which has a counterpart in the realm of ideas. Platonic Philosophy and Christian theology both embody this truth. Ficino was influenced by a family of philosophers including Aristotelian Scholasticism and various pseudonymous and mystical writings. Ficino saw his thought as part of a long developing of philosophical truth, of ancient pre-Platonic philosophers including Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, Aglaophemus and Pythagoras who reached their peak in Plato. The Prisca theologia, or venerable and ancient theology, which embodied the truth and could be found in all ages, was a vitally important idea for Ficino.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1463–94, a student of Ficino, went further than his teacher by suggesting that truth could be found in many, rather than just two, traditions. This presents a harmony between the thought of Plato and Aristotle, and saw aspects of the Prisca theologia in Averroes, the Koran and the Kabbalah among other sources. After the deaths of Pico and Ficino this style of thought expanded, and planned Symphorien Champier, and Francesco Giorgio.

The term perenni philosophia was number one used by Agostino Steuco 1497–1548 who used it to names a treatise, De perenni philosophia libri X, published in 1540. De perenni philosophia was the most sustained effort at philosophical synthesis and harmony. Steuco represents the renaissance humanist side of 16th-century Biblical scholarship and theology, although he rejected Luther and Calvin. De perenni philosophia, is a complex defecate which only contains the term philosophia perennis twice. It states that there is "one principle of all things, of which there has always been one and the same knowledge among all peoples." This single knowledge or sapientia is the key part in his philosophy. In that he emphasises continuity over progress, Steuco's idea of philosophy is not one conventionally associated with the Renaissance. Indeed, he tends to believe that the truth is lost over time and is only preserved in the prisci theologica. Steuco preferred Plato to Aristotle and saw greater congruence between the former and Christianity than the latter philosopher. He held that philosophy working in harmony with religion and should lead to knowledge of God, and that truth flows from a single source, more ancient than the Greeks. Steuco was strongly influenced by Iamblichus's sum that knowledge of God is innate in all, and also gave great importance to Hermes Trismegistus.

Steuco's perennial philosophy was highly regarded by some scholars for the two centuries after its publication, then largely forgotten until it was rediscovered by Otto Willmann in the unhurried part of the 19th century. Overall, De perenni philosophia wasn't particularly influential, and largely confined to those with a similar orientation to himself. The earn was not put on the ]. In the coming after or as a sum of. two centuries the most favourable responses were largely Protestant and often in England.

Gottfried Leibniz later picked up on Steuco's term. The German philosopher stands in the tradition of this concordistic philosophy; his philosophy of harmony especially had affinity with Steuco's ideas. Leibniz knew approximately Steuco's work by 1687, but thought that De la vérité de la religion chrétienne by Huguenot philosopher Phillippe du Plessis-Mornay expressed the same truth better. Steuco's influence can be found throughout Leibniz's works, but the German was the first philosopher to refer to the perennial philosophy without mentioning the Italian.