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Proclus: On the Existence of Evils - (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle) by Carlos Steel & Jan Opsomer (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- Proclus' On the Existence of Evils is not a commentary, but helps to compensate for the dearth of Neoplatonist ethical commentaries.
- About the Author: Jan Opsomer is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, USA.
- 256 Pages
- Philosophy, Free Will & Determinism
- Series Name: Ancient Commentators on Aristotle
Description
About the Book
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?
Book Synopsis
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.
About the Author
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'.