Proclus: On the Existence of Evils (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle) - Hardcover

Carlos Steel; Jan Opsomer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0715631985 ISBN 13: 9780715631980

Publisher: Bristol Classical Press, 2003

Synopsis

Proclus' <I>On the Existence of Evils</I> 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.

About this title

About the Author

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Bristol Classical Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0715631985
• ISBN 13: 9780715631980
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256