International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 3 (1):26-57 (2009)
Abstract |
While the metaphysical aspects of Proclus' theory of evil have recently been studied by a number of scholars, its ethical implications have largely been neglected. In my paper I am analysing the moral consequences that Proclus' concept of evil has, at the same time using the ethical perspective to throw more light on Proclus' ontology. Most importantly, I argue that the difference between bodily and psychic evil is much more substantial that it might seem from On the Existence of Evils alone. Though both kinds of evil are characterized by their 'parasitical existence' , evil in bodies is unavoidable, resulting from a wide network of cosmic corporeal interactions that no partial being can ever have control of. Psychic evil, on the other hand, is a product of human choice and is independent of external circumstances, depending wholly on the soul's ability to keep its proper vertical hierarchy. In this regard it is evil in a much more serious sense of the word, being actively caused rather than just passively suffered. In the last section of my paper I throw further light on this more dangerous kind of evil, showing it as resulting from an essential bi-dimensionality of human beings.
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Keywords | NEOPLATONISM PROCLUS ETHICS EVIL |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1163/187254708X397405 |
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References found in this work BETA
Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism.Brad Inwood - 1985 - Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 42 (1):147-150.
Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism.Brad Inwood - 1985 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 179 (3):367-368.
Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism.Brad Inwood - 1985 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 50 (3):543-545.
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Citations of this work BETA
Conceptualizing the ‘Female’ Soul – a Study in Plato and Proclus.Jana Schultz - 2019 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27 (5):883-901.
Involuntary Evil and the Socratic Problem of Double Ignorance in Proclus.Danielle A. Layne - 2015 - International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 9 (1):27-53.
Proclus and Iamblichus on Moral Education.Robbert M. van den Berg - 2014 - Phronesis 59 (3):272-296.
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