ABSTRACT
It was once very fashionable to dismiss Neoplatonism as a philosophy of disengagement. More recently, however, along with a growth of interest in the study of late antiquity in general, the attitude of the Neoplatonists to the world around them and their role in that world has become a topic for discussion and reassessment. Although the Neoplatonists devoted their intellectual energies primarily to metaphysics rather than to ethics, it is now becoming clearer that they not only made room in their curricula for the study of ethical subjects but also had a coherent theory of ethical conduct. Since this theory did not itself rest on newly developed specific ethical theories but rather on metaphysical ideas its importance has been overlooked.
