Iamblichus of Chalcis
c.245-c.325 · Middle & Neo-Platonism · Prominent
Iamblichus was a Syrian Neoplatonist who broke with Plotinus and Porphyry, the Platonists before him, over how a soul reaches God. Contemplation was enough, they had said. He answered that a soul stuck in a body cannot reason its way back to gods who lie beyond reason, so it needs theurgy: ritual prayer, sacrifice and the use of sacred names. Ritual does the lifting that argument cannot.
Signature
The position Iamblichus is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence
- Authority
- Sacred Tradition / Wisdom
Positions on the 13 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- strongly leans Purposeful (96 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain (100 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- mildly between Describable and Indescribable (47 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- leans Objective (89 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Universals
- strongly leans Realism (3 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- mildly leans Unchanging (32 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (96 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- strongly leans Vertical (5 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (12 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (94 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (100 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (88 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
7 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Iamblichus refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Polytheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Good Real, Evil Privative
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - Perception
- Eidetic Intuition / Symbolic Forms
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Receptive Intellect
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Virtue
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Hierarchical Will / Synergism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Emanation
What is the origin of reality? - Authority
- Sacred Tradition / Wisdom
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Sacred Speech / Logos
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Apophatic Pointer / Coincidentia Oppositorum
What is the status of paradox? - Law
- Sacred Law / Natural Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Ascent of the Soul / Union with the One
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Path to the Divine
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei / Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?