George Gemistos Plethon was a Byzantine Philosopher, who lived during the 14th and 15th centuries before the fall of the Byzantine Empire. In his writings we can find the feeling of an intense Greek identity. Also, he can be considered as a genuine neoplatonist, who played a decisive role in the controversy between Platonists and Aristotelians in his era. He took part in the Council of Florence and the Council of Ferrara (1438-1439), where he gave a course of lectures on Platonic Philosophy, which was the cause for the founding of Academia Platonica by Cozimo de Medici (1459). His social and political ideas were very important and derived from an ideal for reforming the social reality of his country. But they weren’t appreciated, as he wished, in Peloponnesus, and especially in Mistra, where he lived for the most part of his life. Although his theology and ontology are based on a metaphysical determinism, the human being maintains his freedom because of the rational part of soul. Man and his soul are in a middle position between the intelligible and the sensible world. His ethics was developed on a wide theory of virtues, including the four main platonic virtues, from which derive twelve subdivisions. His anthropological, social and ethical theories belong in the neoplatonic line of thought and had a very large influence not only on Byzantium but also on the whole European culture of Renaissance.
Ο Γεώργιος Γεμιστός Πλήθων ήταν Βυζαντινός φιλόσοφος που έζησε την περίοδο πριν την πτώση της Βυζαντινής Αυτοκρατορίας. Ελαβε μέρος στη Σύνοδο της Φλωρεντίας και της Φερράρας (1438-1439), όπου έδωσε μια σειρά διαλέξεων σχετικά με την πλατωνική φιλοσοφία, η οποία έγινε αιτία για την ίδρυση της Πλατωνικής Ακαδημίας από τον Κόζιμο των Μεδίκων (1459). Η φιλοσοφία του Πλήθωνα χαρακτηρίζεται από ένα κοινωνικό και πολιτικό ιδεώδες που απορρέει από μια μεταφυσική αιτιοκρατία, στην οποία η ελευθερία της ψυχής είναι δυνατή μέσω της λογικής. Αυτή η νεοπλατωνικού τύπου φιλοσοφία άσκησε μεγάλη επιρροή όχι μόνο στο Βυζάντιο, αλλά και σε ολόκληρο τον πολιτισμό της Αναγέννησης.
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