Introduction

To understand Neoplatonism means to understand Neoplatonic metaphysics. is approach has guided our studies for a long time and has revealed a complex conceptual structure that has le us more o en than not scraping for answers and, refusing to admit defeat, willing to start from scratch again and again. But charting the main conceptual structure of Neoplatonic metaphysics (the rst perspective above) as a hierarchical organization of three underlying principles of existence – until recently commonly known as “the hypostases” of the One, Intellect and Soul and as of lately referred to as “layers”, “causal priority/posteriority” or “stops” of reality – has sketched very “dimly”, to borrow the Neoplatonists’ own expression, the main contours of their metaphysical map. But this map remains a map; that is, a two-dimensional representation of entities and not a “realtime” model of how these entities work. e further exploration of the main pillars on this map has required scholars to zoom in (i) microscopically into their internal structure and (ii) macroscopically into their interrelations. e results have unravelled a dynamic holistic system or, to borrow again from the Neoplatonic linguistic repertoire, a system which is “boiling with life”.