Plotinus' Philosophy in 18th Century Historiography The concept of a "system of emanation" in Dieterich Tiedemann's Geist der Spekulativen Philosophie and its postulated Eastern influences
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Abstract
The concept of a "system/doctrine of emanation" (Emanationssystem/Emanationslehre) was employed in a complex and somewhat vague way throughout the 18th century and into the 19th. A vague mention of certain "Oriental" sources as the origin of "emanative systems" by Jakob Brucker became a source of suggestions for later historiography. The Plotinian concept of "procession" fused with the historiographical concept of "emanation", which implied an equalization of different doctrines under a single overarching label. This label was applied to Plotinian philosophy as well as to the doctrines of Philo of Alexandria, to the Hebrew and Christian Kabbalah, to Gnosticism, to Hermeticism and, well into the 19th century, to Indian philosophy. As a consequence of this affiliation between the "system of emanation" and the "Orient", Plotinus' philosophy would initially be excluded from the Occidental philosophical canon, but would also become one of the main interpretative matrices for the reception of new philosophies from Africa and Asia.
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