Proclus: On the Existence of Evils

by Steel, Carlos; Opsomer, Jan

• ISBN13: 9781472557391
• ISBN10: 1472557395
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-04-10
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Proclus' On the Existence of Evils is not a commentary, but helps to compensate for the dearth of Neoplatonist ethical commentaries. The central question addressed in the work is: how can there be evil in a providential world? Neoplatonists agree that it cannot be caused by higher and worthier beings. Plotinus had said that evil is matter, which, unlike Aristotle, he collapsed into mere privation or lack, thus reducing its reality. He also protected higher causes from responsibility by saying that evil may result from a combination of goods. Proclus objects: evil is real, and not a privation. Rather, it is a parasite feeding off good. Parasites have no proper cause, and higher beings are thus vindicated as being the causes only of the good off which evil feeds.

Author Biography

Jan Opsomer is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, USA.
Carlos Steel is Emeritus Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and Director of 'Aristoteles Latinus'.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Textual Emendations
TRANSLATION
Notes
Bibliography English-Greek
Glossary Greek-English Index
Index of Passages Cited
Subject
Index