Abstract
Although Neo-Platonism is understood as going back to Plato, it’s been a starting point for both Christian philosophy and Islamic philosophy in terms of interpreting the revelation with a philosophic language by synthesizing the thoughts of philosophers before him. With this important function the effects of Neo-Platonism’s effect on Islamic philosophers about God-universe relationship, soul’s state as an immortal and spiritual existence, happiness and salvation are also obvious. Nevertheless, Plotinus’ view of love as the source of existence and intelligence caused the development of love philosophy in Islamic thought. In fact, as a subject, which concerns that everything comes from the God and goes back to the God, love has been seen as the relation that is built by the one in the bottom with the one at the very top. The subject of love that had been systematically mentioned by Al-Farabi for the first time has an important resemblance with Plotinus’ understanding. However, there are also subjects that make Al-Farabi’s view of love original. In this article it’s aimed to evaluate the interactions and differences between Neo-Platonism’s and Al-Farabi’s understandings of love, which is based on Plotinus’ thoughts.
Keywords
Plotinus, Neo-Platonism, Sudur, Al-Farabi, Love.
