00:00:00
for a myriad of reasons intellectual
00:00:02
productivity doesn't seem evenly
00:00:04
distributed through history certain
00:00:06
centuries and even decades are
00:00:07
especially witness to Titanic explosions
00:00:11
and philosophical and scientific
00:00:12
developments of those the third Century
00:00:15
of the Common Era was especially rich
00:00:19
the intellectual spiritual and
00:00:21
philosophical ferment of the Alexandria
00:00:23
milieu was truly profound this was a
00:00:26
world where no one intellectual
00:00:28
tradition had established hegemony much
00:00:31
less
00:00:33
state power to enforce a particular
00:00:35
Orthodoxy and everyone from the stoics
00:00:37
MR religions hermeticist Roman Imperial
00:00:40
religion indigenous Egyptian beliefs the
00:00:43
platonists various species of
00:00:45
emerging Christianity and Judaism among
00:00:48
many others vied for adherence in the
00:00:51
marketplace of both ideas and religious
00:00:54
devotion it was into this environment
00:00:56
that the Egyptian philosopher platonus
00:00:58
would emerge and at his school in Rome
00:01:01
would develop one of the most
00:01:02
influential philosophical systems in
00:01:05
history what Scholars Now call
00:01:07
neoplatonism however platonis's school
00:01:10
which he took to be the true and
00:01:13
authentic inheritance of all of accurate
00:01:16
Hellenic philosophy
00:01:19
derivative of course from the Divine
00:01:20
Plato became infiltrated one might say
00:01:24
with a rival religious philosophy
00:01:27
gnosticism in his most sustained polemic
00:01:30
platinus aims a substantial portion of
00:01:33
his famed any ads at precisely combating
00:01:36
the gnostics but what did he take their
00:01:39
beliefs to be and what were his Central
00:01:42
philosophical concerns while
00:01:44
proto-orthodox Christian polemics
00:01:46
against synosticism such as those
00:01:48
launched by irenaeus or hippolytus of
00:01:50
Rome are well known I've actually done a
00:01:52
whole episode on irenaeus in fact the
00:01:55
attack launched by platinus against the
00:01:57
gnostics is significantly lesser known
00:01:59
mostly because of its highly technical
00:02:02
nature and it's often very elliptical
00:02:05
style but with that in mind let's turn
00:02:08
to platinus's arguments against
00:02:10
gnosticism as part of a
00:02:13
massive collaboration on neoplatonism
00:02:16
here among religious studies YouTube
00:02:18
make sure to check out the description
00:02:20
for a full list of the episodes as part
00:02:23
of this collaboration but if you're
00:02:25
interested in Magic hermetic philosophy
00:02:27
Alchemy Kabbalah or the history of the
00:02:29
occult make sure to subscribe here to
00:02:31
esoterica and check out my other content
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on topics and other terrorism including
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curated playlists also if you want to
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support my work of providing accessible
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patreon which you can check out with a
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one-time donation with the super thanks
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option or you can even buy a esoteric
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shirt if you like that but now let's
00:02:54
turn to platinus's anti-nostic polemic
00:02:57
I'm Dr Justin Sledge and welcome to
00:03:00
esoterica where we explore the Arcane in
00:03:03
history philosophy
00:03:06
and religion
00:03:10
[Music]
00:03:17
[Music]
00:03:30
the eventual Triumph of state-backed
00:03:32
Orthodox Christianity over virtually
00:03:34
every other rival School of ancient
00:03:36
philosophy and religion often skews our
00:03:39
ability to see history with much in the
00:03:41
way of Clarity for instance it's easy to
00:03:44
think of gnosticism as much as it was a
00:03:46
particularism in any strong sense
00:03:48
primarily as just a
00:03:50
rival or a heresy of Christianity
00:03:53
simplicator indeed that's often how
00:03:55
gnosticism is taught through the blends
00:03:58
of the proto-orthodox polemics launched
00:04:00
by people like irenaeus or hippolytus of
00:04:02
Rome
00:04:03
despite this many so-called gnostics
00:04:05
would have understood themselves simply
00:04:06
as just
00:04:07
Christians and other variants that now
00:04:10
fondra fall under the category of
00:04:12
gnosticism would have likely thought of
00:04:13
themselves as completely independent
00:04:16
schools of thought however it's clear
00:04:18
that not only did some early Christians
00:04:21
find fault with what they termed
00:04:22
gnosticism but so did platinus though
00:04:26
for quite different reasons
00:04:28
but before turning to platonis's attack
00:04:31
on them what do we know about these
00:04:34
particular gnostics that he had in his
00:04:37
sights platinus's most sustained attack
00:04:39
can be found in his famous book of the
00:04:41
iniads to nine the last section of a
00:04:44
much larger treaties that Scholars now
00:04:47
know as the growth shrift however
00:04:49
despite his lengthy and Technical
00:04:51
polemic we actually learned very little
00:04:53
about the targets of his attack from the
00:04:56
attack itself unlike say irenaeus's
00:04:59
attack which actually proceeded by means
00:05:01
of religious expose explaining in
00:05:05
torturous detail the extremely Baroque
00:05:08
system of emanations precisely to show
00:05:10
just helped at least to his mind
00:05:12
ridiculous the Gnostic systems were
00:05:15
platinus's method is rather different
00:05:17
it's quite technical targeted strikes on
00:05:21
the philosophical tenets that
00:05:23
underpinned those very Gnostic systems
00:05:25
and he also just calls them a lot of
00:05:27
names he just makes fun of them just by
00:05:30
calling them friends at one point toward
00:05:32
the end I mean
00:05:34
with friends like platanus as the saying
00:05:36
goes however if we take behind us to
00:05:39
student porphyry it actually appears
00:05:40
that the Gnostic targets of platinus
00:05:42
were in fact Christian Heretics as
00:05:44
orphrey calls them for whom revelatory
00:05:47
texts attributed to zostrianos and
00:05:49
zoroaster were actually authoritative
00:05:51
further and surely much to the Chagrin
00:05:54
of platinus these nastics tell that
00:05:55
Plato had not really penetrated into the
00:05:58
depth of intelligible substance again at
00:06:01
least according to porphyry in fact we
00:06:03
learned that not only did platinus
00:06:05
attack these gnostics but so did his
00:06:07
students producing dozens of volumes to
00:06:10
refute the claims of these Revelations
00:06:12
texts like zostrianos and that sets up
00:06:15
the first set of elements that
00:06:17
platonists found unacceptable about the
00:06:19
gnostics that he aimed at first these
00:06:22
revelatory texts one of which actually
00:06:24
survives in the nakamati collections
00:06:26
austrianos are just that their
00:06:28
Revelation rather than philosophically
00:06:31
reasoned positions now platinus had no
00:06:34
problem with mystical ecstatic States He
00:06:37
underwent such States in his own life
00:06:39
but he maintained that the truths of
00:06:41
reality had to be settled through
00:06:44
reasonable philosophical analysis and
00:06:48
not just I saw it in a dream or a vision
00:06:51
secondly platinus despite his own
00:06:53
Egyptian Origins maintained a kind of
00:06:55
Hellenic chauvinism with Plato being the
00:06:58
sole authentic source of philosophical
00:07:00
wisdom thus
00:07:02
rejecting these vaguely Eastern even
00:07:05
Persian God forbid Persians as the
00:07:09
Greeks sources of wisdom simply put
00:07:12
zostrianos and zoraster were foreigners
00:07:15
and their Revelations barbaric stupidity
00:07:18
as platinus puts it
00:07:21
I'm not kidding he calls them bumpkins
00:07:22
at one point of course if that were all
00:07:25
of his arguments if it was just making
00:07:26
fun of them and saying it wasn't really
00:07:27
Greek then we'd find it rightly wanting
00:07:30
I mean
00:07:31
it's funny seeing it otherwise Sublime
00:07:33
philosopher like platin is calling is
00:07:35
another is Gnostic opponents idiotic
00:07:37
bumpkins
00:07:38
but it being funny doesn't really make
00:07:40
it a compelling objection to Gnostic
00:07:43
philosophy itself
00:07:45
generally speaking we can conclude the
00:07:47
specific gnostics that platinus targeted
00:07:50
were probably some species of Christians
00:07:52
who subscribed to a variant of
00:07:54
gnosticism that Scholars now recognize
00:07:56
as platonizing sethianism
00:08:00
that's a mouthful so-called because of
00:08:02
the salvific role played by the third
00:08:04
sign of Adam in its mythology and it was
00:08:08
heavily influenced by platonism
00:08:10
specifically the stoic Aristotle infused
00:08:13
platonism of that period that we now
00:08:15
call middle plagiarism but before
00:08:17
turning to platinus's objections it's
00:08:19
worth very briefly
00:08:22
very briefly to summarize that very
00:08:25
Gnostic mythology that he probably had
00:08:27
in his sights and to do so I'll be
00:08:29
recounting a variant most classically
00:08:31
described in a text called the
00:08:32
apocryphon of John in fact if you want
00:08:35
to dive deeper into that text in its
00:08:36
mythology I've made a whole episode
00:08:38
about it so feel free to check it out in
00:08:41
the card above but the basic myth begins
00:08:44
with the great invisible Spirit the
00:08:46
utterly Transcendent father monad gazing
00:08:48
into himself in a kind of primordial
00:08:50
water this inward gaze produces a
00:08:54
reflection the Divine mother or barbello
00:08:56
out of which the rest of reality will
00:08:58
flow indeed with the consent of the
00:09:01
father barbello actually emanates a
00:09:03
series of Aeons or eternities eventually
00:09:06
resulting in the production of the
00:09:07
Divine Sun or autogenes the
00:09:09
self-generated one
00:09:11
though it does come from babia who was
00:09:14
given authority over those very Aeons
00:09:16
from the Sun flow for further luminaries
00:09:19
from which 12 more Aeons also emanate
00:09:24
if you want Aeons they got Aeons they
00:09:26
got ions for days around here the last
00:09:28
of which is the Divine wisdom or Sophia
00:09:31
it's Sophia who actually sought out to
00:09:34
generate further reality though without
00:09:36
the consent of the father that
00:09:38
ultimately generates the horrible
00:09:40
demonic demiurge who and its jealous
00:09:43
blindness creates the physical universe
00:09:45
as we know it ruled over by the
00:09:47
horrifying planetary archons
00:09:50
Lovecraft time following the repentance
00:09:53
of Sophia a Divine spark is smuggled
00:09:55
into the physical creatures of clay made
00:09:58
by yald dimiurge
00:10:00
that'd be us human beings which can
00:10:02
guide them out of the prison world of
00:10:04
physical reality back to the true
00:10:05
spiritual World eventually the Savior
00:10:08
appears and teaches the truth which was
00:10:10
actually known and taught by Seth it's
00:10:12
the
00:10:14
set the in part of that middle
00:10:16
platonizing set the in gnosticism about
00:10:18
the origins and tragic fall of the world
00:10:20
out of its pure spiritual State until
00:10:22
the dungeon of physical existence
00:10:25
indeed it is knowledge or gnosis of this
00:10:28
reality and the possibility of Escape
00:10:30
that makes the system truly Gnostic it
00:10:34
is this esoteric gnosis or wisdom or
00:10:37
knowledge that proves ultimately
00:10:39
salvific in the system now to be sure
00:10:43
there are lots of variants of this myth
00:10:46
to be found even within the sethian
00:10:47
literature so strianos is
00:10:51
a mess of this kind of stuff but the
00:10:54
main features here the Primal try send
00:10:56
it monab the emanation of the Aeons the
00:10:59
tragedy of Sophia and the creation of
00:11:01
the demiurge and the physical Cosmos
00:11:03
along with the role of the saviors
00:11:05
especially Seth and Jesus to provide the
00:11:08
Divine salvific knowledge remain fairly
00:11:12
consistent and it's precisely along
00:11:15
those lines or at least the
00:11:17
philosophical substructure of this myth
00:11:19
that platinus is going to take aim
00:11:23
but what's first striking and
00:11:25
interesting about platinus's objection
00:11:26
is that he basically never outlines or
00:11:29
even directly combats this rather
00:11:31
elaborate mythology unlike his Christian
00:11:33
counterpart irenaeus the reason for that
00:11:36
should be relatively clear from the
00:11:38
earlier discussion it's Revelation and
00:11:41
getting into a dogmatic dispute is is
00:11:43
pointless for platinus as it is for
00:11:46
as it is for anyone else what matters
00:11:48
for him are the philosophical
00:11:49
suppositions which underwrite that
00:11:52
mythology of course if he's able to show
00:11:54
the fundamentally illogical nature of
00:11:57
all these suppositions then he'll be
00:11:58
able to dispense with the whole
00:11:59
mythological superstructure as well if
00:12:02
you show the philosophy as nonsense then
00:12:04
the myth goes with it so what are his
00:12:07
actual philosophical objections in
00:12:10
general in the ads 2 9 contains about 20
00:12:13
philosophical objections to gnosticism
00:12:15
which can be
00:12:17
vaguely grouped into three interlocking
00:12:19
categories metaphysical objections
00:12:21
cosmological objections and moral
00:12:24
objections so let's tackle each of those
00:12:27
in turn
00:12:29
the metaphysical objection Center on the
00:12:31
triadic structure that platinus builds
00:12:34
out of Plato's metaphysics as a brief
00:12:37
reminder from the utterly Transcendent
00:12:39
one the first emanation flipatinus is
00:12:42
noose or the Divine mind or logos
00:12:44
typically identified both with the
00:12:47
demiurge and Plato's Timaeus but also
00:12:49
kind of the realm of the platonic forms
00:12:51
more generally from noose flows the
00:12:55
world soul of which there is a higher
00:12:57
and lower Dimension the lower Dimension
00:13:00
being identified with nature from the
00:13:03
lower World slow flows individual human
00:13:05
souls and finally hulae are matter the
00:13:08
lowest ontological register before
00:13:10
everything sort of tatters off into
00:13:12
non-being for platinus this triadic
00:13:15
structure of the one mind and soul is
00:13:18
both metaphysically and logically
00:13:20
exhaustive and thus the introduction of
00:13:23
any other metaphysical registers into
00:13:26
the system is either going to prove to
00:13:28
be redundant
00:13:30
unnecessary or just
00:13:32
mistaken
00:13:33
thus it follows that the introduction
00:13:36
into this elegantly triadic platonic
00:13:38
system of the Divine mother or barbello
00:13:40
and
00:13:41
all those Aeons
00:13:43
so many Aeons or Sophia as wisdom
00:13:46
distinct from noose or mind much less
00:13:49
the Hideous Creator demon yelled both
00:13:51
this all introduces not only entities
00:13:53
Beyond ontological necessity to kind of
00:13:56
crib William evacum but it also
00:13:58
introduces logical incoherence into the
00:14:01
imminentory process itself interestingly
00:14:04
enough this kind of critique is also
00:14:06
deployed by irenaeus as well we're both
00:14:09
polemises see logical contradictions and
00:14:11
how for instance noose or mind works in
00:14:13
the Gnostic mythology
00:14:15
that Sophia can be distinct from noose
00:14:17
is incoherent to them thus for
00:14:19
platonists not only are all these
00:14:21
Baroque hypostatic entities of the
00:14:22
Gnostic mythology unnecessary or
00:14:24
redundant they also confuse the very
00:14:27
process of emanation Itself by muddying
00:14:30
the ontological structural hierarchy and
00:14:33
by extension the very function of those
00:14:35
entities and the broader metaphysical
00:14:37
system in other words platinus feels
00:14:39
that the elegant triadic system he's
00:14:41
inherited or developed from Plato is
00:14:44
both necessary and sufficient for the
00:14:47
metaphysical ethical and soteriological
00:14:50
Analysis of reality and the Gnostic
00:14:52
mythology only serves to confuse what is
00:14:55
a
00:14:56
otherwise perfectly fine platonic
00:14:59
project further platinus projects the
00:15:02
idea that any Soul can fall in any
00:15:05
metaphysical sense or become alienated
00:15:07
from its source for him Soul remains
00:15:10
Soul regardless of how it becomes
00:15:12
associated with the physical body while
00:15:14
he does admit of a kind of
00:15:17
logical distinction between higher and
00:15:20
lower registers of Seoul he rejects the
00:15:23
idea that this logical distinction
00:15:25
tracks any kind of conditional shift in
00:15:28
the quality of the Soul as such though
00:15:32
frankly I'm not sure the gnostics did
00:15:34
either the Gnostic concept of the soul
00:15:36
is that it is a Divine spark smuggled
00:15:39
into physical reality which allows human
00:15:42
beings a chance out salvation despite
00:15:43
being born into this whole prison Cosmos
00:15:47
business so insofar as it is actually a
00:15:50
Divine spark it is
00:15:52
it's divine and not fallen in the
00:15:55
ontological sense but that's platonus's
00:15:58
mistake to make not ours I think he also
00:16:00
just doesn't like the idea of Soul being
00:16:02
somehow alienated from its nature but
00:16:05
again I'm not sure the gnostics make
00:16:07
that mistake
00:16:09
of course this purely metaphysical line
00:16:11
of objection leads directly into the
00:16:14
most famous objection by platonix
00:16:16
against the gnostics their metaphysical
00:16:18
denigration of the physical Cosmos as I
00:16:21
mentioned earlier most versions of this
00:16:23
Gnostic mythology have the creation of
00:16:25
the world the kind of end result of
00:16:27
Sophia's mistaken production of the
00:16:30
horrible blind demiurge that demiurge or
00:16:33
bald or saklas the blind one is the
00:16:36
jealous God of the Old Testament itself
00:16:38
goes on to create the physical world to
00:16:40
rule over in his ignorance of the higher
00:16:42
spiritual reality from which all things
00:16:44
truly flow thus for the gnostics that
00:16:48
platinus has in mind this Cosmos is a
00:16:51
kind of prison ruled over by evil
00:16:54
planetary archons
00:16:55
this is profoundly mistaken according to
00:16:58
plot platinus in his system the
00:17:01
emanation of the cosmos is an extension
00:17:03
of the spiritual goodness and beauty of
00:17:06
those higher spiritual Realms not a
00:17:08
tragic break with those Realms in
00:17:11
keeping with the traditional position of
00:17:13
Plato as it's found in the Timaeus
00:17:15
neoplatonous demiurge impressed upon
00:17:17
matter the absolute best forms they were
00:17:20
able to thus given the ontological
00:17:23
limitations of matter again while the
00:17:25
lowest ontological register before you
00:17:28
know becoming non-being but certainly
00:17:30
matter isn't evil for Plato or platinus
00:17:33
although they kind of talk like that
00:17:35
sometimes the physical Cosmos simply has
00:17:37
certain limitations inherent to the
00:17:39
nature of matter itself and that's not
00:17:41
the fault of the demiurge in other words
00:17:43
the plotinian demiurge created the best
00:17:46
possible World given the building
00:17:48
materials at hand those limitations are
00:17:51
to be spiritually overcome not
00:17:54
denigrated as matter as somehow how
00:17:56
inherently evil as the gnostics had it
00:17:59
at least the gnostics at platinus is
00:18:01
arguing with in fact just as in Plato
00:18:04
it's precisely by first recognizing the
00:18:07
beauty of the physical world even just
00:18:10
beautiful people beautiful people that
00:18:13
our souls awakened the possibility of
00:18:14
contemplating Beauty and goodness as
00:18:18
such beauty and goodness in themselves
00:18:20
the forms of beauty and goodness
00:18:21
something utterly unimaginable for the
00:18:24
gnostics for whom again matter was just
00:18:26
purely and simply Evil by extension far
00:18:29
from being malevolent archons the
00:18:31
planetary beings are exalted and
00:18:34
beneficent extending and communicating
00:18:36
the influence of Divine Providence down
00:18:38
the chain of being to us I mean stars
00:18:42
and planets are pretty to look at
00:18:43
they're beautiful this platinian theory
00:18:46
of evil as privation of course would be
00:18:48
taken up by Augustine with Orthodox
00:18:50
Christianity generally in agreement with
00:18:53
the rejection of metaphysical evil as
00:18:56
such evil is a privation in this
00:18:58
philosophy and not only does platonus
00:19:00
reject the idea that physical creation
00:19:02
is evil but he also takes the idea of
00:19:04
creation and Beth being a moment in time
00:19:07
or a creation by a demonic gnostic
00:19:09
demiurge
00:19:10
it's just being logically nonsensical if
00:19:13
the Transcendent one is beyond all space
00:19:15
and time a position that actually
00:19:17
platonus and the Gnostic shared in fact
00:19:19
then it makes no logical sense to speak
00:19:22
of a creation outside of Eternity what
00:19:25
is the ontological totality toon
00:19:28
including matter is simply always
00:19:31
already in the sea of Eternity
00:19:33
all in all given the imminentory system
00:19:36
employed by both platinus and the
00:19:38
gnostics to some degree platonix felt
00:19:40
that it was a logical and metaphysical
00:19:41
mistake to conclude that the physical
00:19:43
Cosmos was in any way evil or that our
00:19:45
souls Were Somehow ontologically
00:19:48
marooned or alienated from the Divine
00:19:50
etiology while embodied indeed for
00:19:53
platoninous this mistake on the part of
00:19:55
the gnostics LED to his final political
00:19:57
attack against them but the gnostics
00:19:59
were not only wrong about first
00:20:01
philosophy or metaphysics in the
00:20:03
physical Cosmos but that those eras LED
00:20:05
them to become morally erroneous
00:20:08
misunderstanding and failing to achieve
00:20:10
what was most important in human life
00:20:13
for that life to be lived virtuously the
00:20:17
basic moral failure on the part of the
00:20:19
gnostics for a platonix at least was
00:20:21
twofold and pretty classically Greek
00:20:24
moral failures the first was the moral
00:20:26
failure of hubris which flows from the
00:20:28
Gnostic cosmology and the second flowing
00:20:30
from that hubris was a uniquely bivalent
00:20:33
failure of quietism on the one hand and
00:20:37
antinomianism on the other let's take
00:20:39
both of these in turn because the
00:20:42
gnostics take the physical world to be
00:20:44
evil only their souls and recall that
00:20:47
some Gnostic even felt that only a tiny
00:20:50
group of human beings the pneumatics or
00:20:52
spirituals could ever really be redeemed
00:20:54
but their souls and their souls alone
00:20:57
were the only good things in the entire
00:21:00
Cosmos thus for platanus these gnostics
00:21:04
exalt their own Souls over and against
00:21:06
all of the rest of the cosmos including
00:21:09
what he took to be the planetary and
00:21:10
Stellar beings those of a much higher
00:21:13
spirit dignity given their greater
00:21:15
proximity to the spiritual realm up
00:21:17
there thus for platinus the gnostics
00:21:20
were guilty of among the worst sins
00:21:23
aside from you know mucking up Plato
00:21:25
which he really can't abide they were
00:21:28
guilty of hubris for thinking that their
00:21:30
souls and their souls alone were the
00:21:32
only ontologically good entities in the
00:21:34
whole of the universe
00:21:35
of course the gnostics also posited what
00:21:37
they and mother Christians held to be
00:21:39
the new Earth this is another realm of
00:21:41
spiritual fiction which the spirituals
00:21:43
or pneumatics escaped to after physical
00:21:45
death or would come at the end of the
00:21:47
world as a release from this realm in
00:21:51
fact he also attacks the idea that the
00:21:52
gnostics could use magic or charms to
00:21:55
manipulate the higher planetarium or
00:21:56
astral beings because those astral
00:21:59
beings were spiritually inferior to the
00:22:02
spiritual gnostics now this issue of
00:22:05
magic and theology would go on to prove
00:22:07
pretty decisive as neoplatonism
00:22:10
developed but
00:22:12
go check out Angela's episode for that
00:22:13
and I'll be working on it myself in the
00:22:15
future but for platinus all of this was
00:22:19
an outrage because it mistook the
00:22:22
ontological hierarchy which was
00:22:23
precisely what he took to be evidence of
00:22:26
the providential goodness and Beauty
00:22:28
emanated by the one the one the gnostics
00:22:32
also allegedly believed in as well by
00:22:35
elevating themselves Above This World
00:22:37
they were engaging in
00:22:39
a Titanic moral blunder blasphemy really
00:22:42
against the very one they thought they
00:22:45
were escaping to
00:22:47
at least according to platinus
00:22:49
further that the world could be divided
00:22:51
into spirituals and intellectuals and
00:22:54
the fundamentally irredeemable folks
00:22:56
like myself probably was logically
00:22:58
nonsense atop hubris and so far as all
00:23:00
human beings were emanated as a species
00:23:02
and dealt with soul and intellect
00:23:04
equally to some degree
00:23:07
in this way platonix is a kind of
00:23:09
metaphysical egalitarian men also a kind
00:23:12
of Hellenic conservative which is an
00:23:14
interesting combination but wait
00:23:16
there's more
00:23:18
from this hubris also developed again at
00:23:20
least according to platinus a further
00:23:23
bivalent moral failure of quietism and
00:23:26
antinomianism quietism or the failure to
00:23:29
act in the pursuance of virtue or the
00:23:31
avoidance of Vice was the precisely the
00:23:34
result of the belief that physical
00:23:36
action takes place in the theater of the
00:23:38
physical world which again
00:23:41
is utterly evil and thus utterly
00:23:43
incapable of being redeemed or reformed
00:23:46
the goodness of the soul is at a
00:23:49
profound ontological remove from it all
00:23:52
according to these gnostics thus the
00:23:54
external world even the from the
00:23:57
indifference of the external goods and
00:23:59
ills the diaphora that were the subject
00:24:01
of a lot of criticisms against
00:24:04
my stoic buddies was simply not worth
00:24:06
interfering in at all thus platinus kind
00:24:10
of ribs them by wondering out loud that
00:24:12
they just don't go escape reality as
00:24:14
soon as they learn the truth about all
00:24:15
this evilness of realities go jump off a
00:24:18
pyramid or something thus no action in
00:24:21
the physical world could ever be good
00:24:23
ever because it was fundamentally and
00:24:26
ontologically evil to begin with so why
00:24:28
not just go
00:24:30
jump off a building to escape all of
00:24:33
this for platinus that the gnostics
00:24:35
would remain in this world at all much
00:24:38
less have families or children aside
00:24:40
from perhaps to
00:24:42
spread the Gnostic truth to other
00:24:44
pneumatics or spiritual types kind of
00:24:46
Gnostic bodhisattva style was just
00:24:50
profound hypocrisy on their part on the
00:24:53
other hand if the world is just evil and
00:24:54
the Divine spark within us is never
00:24:56
affected by our contact with the
00:24:58
physical world then why not just indulge
00:25:00
in all the pleasures of the body while
00:25:02
we're
00:25:03
while we're in one
00:25:07
thus platonus along with some Christians
00:25:09
actually accused some of the gnostics of
00:25:12
the worst kinds of moral and sexual
00:25:14
outrages you know simply enjoying
00:25:17
rampant physical pleasure because again
00:25:18
physical bodily pleasure can in no way
00:25:21
contaminate the Divine spark within the
00:25:24
gnostics at least according to the
00:25:26
Christians and platinus here thus they
00:25:29
accuse the gnostics of engaging in every
00:25:32
kind of sexual debauchery and general
00:25:35
antinomianism you know
00:25:37
stuff like eating babies and incest
00:25:40
looking at you carpet creations
00:25:43
I don't think they did it yeah of course
00:25:45
this is just a damning criticism from
00:25:48
platonix who was famously ashamed to be
00:25:50
in a body according to his student
00:25:52
porphyry which kind of sounds like a
00:25:55
Gnostic humbleflex if we're being honest
00:25:58
regardless the final outcome
00:26:02
for platinus is that Gnostic hubris
00:26:05
prevents them from cultivating the
00:26:07
spiritual virtues which actually does
00:26:10
allow for the soul to reach back up
00:26:13
through the process of emanation and
00:26:15
recession to become reunited with the
00:26:18
Primal Unity of goodness Beauty and
00:26:21
truth without those virtues you don't
00:26:24
get to go back to the one and the
00:26:26
Gnostic simply eschew virtue entirely in
00:26:29
the end platonus Lycans has disagreement
00:26:31
with the gnostics by appealing to the
00:26:33
analogy of the house two people are born
00:26:36
into the same house one only sees the
00:26:38
Perfections and deficiencies and judges
00:26:40
the house horrible and its Builder even
00:26:43
worse the other person also notices the
00:26:46
imperfection of the house but sees its
00:26:48
beautiful elements as well realizing
00:26:51
that the Builder did the best they could
00:26:53
with the materials at hand making the
00:26:56
best of the situation they're still
00:26:58
looking forward to the day in which they
00:27:00
get to move out but in the meantime
00:27:03
they're going to make the best it's a
00:27:05
subtle but important distinction between
00:27:07
how platinuses himself and how he sees
00:27:10
the gnostics as they view this world we
00:27:12
often think of the gnostics primarily as
00:27:14
the targets of attack by the so-called
00:27:16
early proto-orthodox church but it's
00:27:18
interesting to see the criticisms of
00:27:20
gnosticism by a perfectly good pagan
00:27:24
perfectly good pagans a long strangely
00:27:27
similar but also distinctly
00:27:29
non-Christian platonic lines as well one
00:27:33
also suspects that a very similar line
00:27:35
of attack would have actually been taken
00:27:36
up by hermetic philosophers as well but
00:27:39
no such political texts survive they
00:27:41
were probably
00:27:42
too busy cleaning their soles of
00:27:44
diamonds or something probably
00:27:46
regardless while gnosticism is a game
00:27:49
some degree of popularity is a more
00:27:51
Pagan friendly or Pagan adjacent variant
00:27:54
of Christianity it's important to note
00:27:56
that who's come down to us as the
00:27:58
premier Pagan philosopher of that period
00:28:01
also had sustained and Powerful
00:28:04
criticisms of the gnosticism in his
00:28:07
milieu and in that way it only enriches
00:28:10
my profound appreciation of the third
00:28:13
Century intellectual philosophical and
00:28:15
religious ferment
00:28:17
the literature around platonus and the
00:28:19
gnostics is truly vast first I just go
00:28:22
read the apocryphan of John and
00:28:24
zosterianos and the nakamati library and
00:28:27
then I turned to platonus attacks and
00:28:29
iniad29 or if you're really hardcore
00:28:32
you'd read the entire growth shrift to
00:28:34
see how platinus sets up his philosophy
00:28:36
in some ways as a giant counter to what
00:28:39
he takes to be gnosticism in general
00:28:41
it's a pretty amazing text once you
00:28:44
reshuffle the deck after porphry
00:28:46
scrambled everything so it's an amazing
00:28:49
text and perhaps the best of platinus
00:28:51
for a sustained study of platinus and
00:28:53
hypnostic targets the study by Burns is
00:28:56
a truly powerful analysis and well worth
00:29:00
the effort it's highly specialized
00:29:02
however but
00:29:04
I mean you're watching this episode
00:29:05
aren't you I also again check out the
00:29:09
other episodes in this amazing vast
00:29:12
neoplatonism collaboration with other
00:29:14
fine folks here on religious studies
00:29:16
YouTube I have to say I'm truly humbled
00:29:19
and blessed to be in their digital
00:29:21
presence so check out the links in the
00:29:23
description and go watch their videos as
00:29:25
well for a
00:29:27
neoplatonism Extravaganza but until soon
00:29:31
more neoplatonism and gnosticism content
00:29:34
to come so stick around for that until
00:29:38
then I'm Dr Justin Sledge and thank you
00:29:41
for watching esoterica where we explore
00:29:44
the Arcane in history philosophy
00:29:48
and religion
