Editing Plotinus (section)

=== Plotinus's Relation to Plato ===
{{See also|Allegorical interpretations of Plato}}

For several centuries after the [[Protestant Reformation]], neoplatonism was condemned as a decadent and 'oriental' distortion of Platonism. In a 1929 essay, [[E. R. Dodds]] showed that key conceptions of neoplatonism could be traced from their origin in Plato's dialogues, through his immediate followers (e.g., [[Speusippus]]) and the neopythagoreans, to Plotinus and the neoplatonists. Thus Plotinus' philosophy was, he argued, 'not the starting-point of neoplatonism but its intellectual culmination.'<ref>E. R. Dodds, 'The Parmenides of Plato and the Origin of the neoplatonic One,' ''The Classical Quarterly'', v. 22, No. 3/4, 1928, pp. 129–142, esp. 140.</ref> Further research reinforced this view and by 1954 Merlan could say 'The present tendency is toward bridging rather than widening the gap separating Platonism from neoplatonism.'<ref>Philip Merlan, ''From Platonism to Neoplatonism'' (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1954, 1968), p. 3.</ref>

Since the 1950s, the [[Plato's unwritten doctrines|Tübingen School]] of Plato interpretation has argued that the so-called [[Plato's unwritten doctrines|'unwritten doctrines' of Plato]] debated by Aristotle and the [[Old Academy]] strongly resemble Plotinus's metaphysics. In this case, the neoplatonic reading of Plato would be, at least in this central area, historically justified. This implies that neoplatonism is less of an innovation than it appears without the recognition of Plato's unwritten doctrines. Advocates of the Tübingen School emphasize this advantage of their interpretation. They see Plotinus as advancing a tradition of thought begun by Plato himself. Plotinus's metaphysics, at least in broad outline, was therefore already familiar to the first generation of Plato's students. This confirms Plotinus' own view, for he considered himself not the inventor of a system but the faithful interpreter of Plato's doctrines.<ref>Detlef Thiel: ''Die Philosophie des Xenokrates im Kontext der Alten Akademie'', München 2006, pp. 197ff. and note 64; Jens Halfwassen: ''Der Aufstieg zum Einen. ''</ref>