Journal of the History of Philosophy

96 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY altruistic willing of the good of others. (Although this analysis made in the first chapter is striking, it does not seem to be much used in the rest of the book.) Chapters ~ and 3 treat the love of God and that of neighbor in relation to a "proper" love of self. At the conclusion of this section one finds what, on the surface, seems to be the obvious end of the study: "The Stoic program of the De doctrina Christiana and the Platonic program of the De Trinitate impose modifications upon the usual pattern, to be sure; but it remains the case that the man who would learn to love himself aright must sit down in the school of Christ and learn to love God." However, chapter 4 ("The Primal Destruction") raises new difficulties with this simplistic interpretation. O'Donovan finds that after the year 4oo Augustine began to stress the notion of a perverse self-love that is quite opposed to the love of God. This appears in comments on the forty-fourth Psalm, in the Literal Commentary on Genesis (bk.l 1), and in the famous passage from the City of God on the two loves and the two Cities. It becomes clear from this fine analysis that the mature Augustine had not completely overcome his difficulties in reconciling love of self and love of God. The last two chapters examine the love of neighbor and the eudaimonism stemming from the Greek philosophers. Earlier (p. 1o5) O'Donovan had offered a strong argument (against G. Hultgren) to the effect that self-love is not identical with original sin. He had also agreed (p. 57) with Ragnar Holte that self-love is not equivalent to the eudaimonist desire for ultimate happiness. So the study now concludes that, much as Augustine treasured the community of love among the divine Persons (De Trinitate 6.5.7) as a supreme ideal, his view of creation and redemption included a teleological movement toward self-fulfillment with definite metaphysical presuppositions . This interpretation makes O'Donovan's work significant for historians of philosophy as well as for theologians. Experts in Augustinian research will find this a very important study. Some may feel that the criticisms of previous interpreters of the love theme in Augustine are sometimes too harsh. The fact remains that we have here a first-rate piece of scholarship. VERNON J. BOURKE St. Louis University A. D. R. Sheppard. Studies on th'e Fifth and Sixth Essays of Proclus' Commentary on the "Republic." Hypomnemata, vol. 61. G6ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 198o. Pp. 214 . DM4~. Proclus's commentary on Plato's Republic was written when continuous commentary on complete works had not yet become the standard form of exposition. It is a set of disparate essays, some of which treat the same topic in different ways. In Studies on the Fifth and Sixth Essays of Proclus' Commentary on the Republic, A. D. R. Sheppard discusses two such essays, which deal with poetry. As Sheppard shows, Proclus's views on literature can be treated only in the context of his philosophy as a whole. Indeed, no part of a Neoplatonist's thought can be handled in isolation. But not every part of Proclus's oeuvre is an equally good starting point for a study of his thought or of late BOOK REVIEWS 97 Neoplatonism in general, so Sheppard's claim that these essays are "a good place to begin the serious study of Neoplatonism" (p. 12) is questionable. Much of their subject matter is extraordinary and presents the commentator with unusual difficulties in handling Platonic material. Sheppard begins by examining the relation of the two essays. Like GaUavotti, she concludes that the views set out in them are not the same. That is clearly correct. She differs in her assessment of their relation and sees them not as stages in a development but rather as different treatments for different audiences. The fifth essay is altogether more elementary; the sixth is intended for experts. She therefore considers them separately. Though she has shown that the sixth essay is not a development from the fifth, she does produce strong arguments for its being later...