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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books History of Western Philosophy 2.5.1 Jewish Greek Philosophy The main exponent is Philo [30 BCE-50 CE].

Philo read Greek philosophy, especially Platonism and Stoicism, into the Scriptures by the allegorical method which was common in Alexandria [founded by Alexander the Great in 333 BCE, which had become under the descendents of his general Ptolemy [328-181 BCE] the leading commercial and intellectual center of the world and the chief meeting place of Hellenic and Oriental civilization.

Here a great scientific museum with its celebrated library of 700,000 volumes was established under Ptolemy which attracted poets, men of science, philosophers from every region of the classical world].

The fundamental concept in the system of Philo is God and his powers are the Logos, the Divine reason or Wisdom, which we recognize through the logos in ourselvesMan, the most important piece of creation, is a microcosm which, like the universe, is composed of both soul and matter [the source of defects and evils in the world] 2.5.2 Neo-Pythagoreanism has its sources in Platonism.

Plato in his old age absorbed the number-theory and the religious mysticism of the Pythagoreans: his immediate successors in his school emphasized these latter day teachings. With the rise of Aristotelianism, the Academy abandoned Pythagoreanism.

The Pythagorean secret societies with their mysteries, continued to lead a precarious existence until they were revitalized by the religious upsurge which took possession of the Roman world in the first century CE and the spirit of the times encouraged them to devote themselves once more to philosophy.

The leaders in the movement, however, did not go back to early Pythagoreanism but to the doctrine as it appeared in Platonism and combined it eclectically with other elements of Greek philosophy, including Aristotelianism and Stoicism. All this they naively ascribed to Pythagoras. 2.5.3 Neoplatonism Generally regarded to have been founded by Plotinus [204-169 BCE.] derives from Pythagoreanism. Plato's system becomes the framework for a religious worldview.

The main figure is Plotinus [204-269 BCE].