Proclos

Proclos , in Greek old Πρόκλος/ Próklos (Byzance v. 412 - Athens April 17th 485), called “Proclos the Successor”, neo-platonist Philosopher and grammairien.

Born in a rich person family from Byzance, he was educated in Lycie before deciding to continue his studies with Alexandria. He became the disciple of the Mathématicien aristotelician Olympiodore. To the twenty years age, it went to Athens to assist with the courses of the Platonic philosophers , primarily Syrianos and Plutarque the Young person, chief of the École of Athens. It studies there Aristote, Plato, the orphic written and the Oracles Chaldaïques. With died of this last, it replaced it (437). He then undertakes the vastest philosophical synthesis of the any end of Greek Antiquity. Its effort to counter the Christianisme dominating was worth one year of exile to him.

At Proclus, philosophy doubles of a théurgie. After having received the revelation of its vocation of the goddess Athéna itself, it proclaimed as a philosopher “the hiérophante whole world”. In all full knowledge of the facts, it was the first to work out the design which (until Jung), regards the theophanic forms called upon by the Démiurge as emanating from the center even of its heart. Besides all the work of Proclus consists in deploying the contents of our heart in metaphysical and theological form, the heart being “the medium and the center of all the beings”.

Its work is composed of many comments of dialogs of Plato, in particular on the Timée and the Parménide. This last has an particular importance, because it inaugurates the apophatic tradition of the Neo-Platonism: one is unutterable and one can express it only by one dialectical negative. He was also the author of vast “a Platonic Theology” on the Théologie of Plato and Plotin. The Éléments of theology are the first treaty of philosophy exposed according to the Euclidean method, starting from Théorème S followed by their demonstration. This method of scientific exposure will influence much the Moyen-âge, starting from Alain of Lille and later Spinoza. It confers on the thought of Proclus an order, a clearness, a systematicity which was lacking with all its predecessors. Proclus there affectionate the reductio ad absurdum which concludes with an assumption by eliminating all the others, which is not without analogy with the method of Nagarjuna, for example.

It was also devoted to the Astronomie, leaving a comment on the first book of Euclide and the small treaties on Hipparque and Ptolémée whose we kept only one translation Latin E. It is by the means of Photios that we have his Chrestomathie , devoted to the poets of the Trojan Cycle. The attribution of this work is prone to controversy, certain commentators estimating that it is different Proclos.

The influence of Proclus is enormous: in addition to its immediate successors (Damascius, Simplicius), his metaphysics directly inspires the Corpus Aréopagite (Denys Aréopagite) which influences all Christian negative theology and extends through the exceptional diffusion from the Livre from the Causes (wrongfully allotted to Aristote and restored with Proclus by saint Thomas d' Aquin), with all the tradition Neo-Platonist of Islam (cosmology of Avicenne, for example), with the Christian Scolastique (Alain of Lille, comments of Albert Large the and Thomas d' Aquin, Maître Eckart,) and with the Néo-platonisme of Rebirth (Nicolas de Cues, Marsile Ficin, Peak of Mirandole, Giordano Bruno).

Texts of Proclus

Comments on Timée . Volume 1, Livre I; tr. Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1966. (Library of the philosophical texts). 264p. ISBN 2-7116-0626-0.
Comments on Timée . Volume 2, Livre II; tr. Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1967. (Library of the philosophical texts). 344p. ISBN 2-7116-0627-9.
Comments on Timée . Volume 3, Livre III; tr. Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1967. (Library of the philosophical texts). 362p. ISBN 2-7116-0628-7.
Comments on Timée . Volume 4, Livre IV; Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1968. (Library of the philosophical texts). 204p. ISBN 2-7116-0629-5.
Comments on Timée . Volume 5, Livre V; tr. Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1969. (Library of the philosophical texts). 264p. ISBN 2-7116-0630-9.
Comments on the Republic . Volume 1, Livres 1-3; tr. Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1970. (Library of the philosophical texts). 224p. ISBN 2-7116-0632-5.
Comments on the Republic . Volume 2, Livres 4-9; tr. Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1970. (Library of the philosophical texts). 196p. ISBN 2-7116-0633-3.
Comments on the Republic . Volume 3, Livre 10; tr. Andre-Jean Festugière. Paris: J. Vrin-CNRS, 1970. (Library of the philosophical texts). 384p. ISBN 2-7116-0634-1.
Elements of theology ; tr. Jean Yellowbelly. Paris: Sapwood-Montaigne, 1965. (Philosophical Library). 192p.
Platonic Theology . Volume 1, Introduction. Deliver I; ED. and tr. Leendert Gerritt Westerink & Henri Dominique Saffrey. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1968. (Collection of the Universities of France). cxcv-298p. ISBN 2-251-00284-7.
Platonic Theology . Volume 2, Livre II; ED. and tr. Leendert Gerritt Westerink & Henri Dominique Saffrey. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1974. (Collection of the Universities of France). xcv-216p. ISBN 2-251-00285-5.
Platonic Theology . Volume 3, Livre III; ED. and tr. Leendert Gerritt Westerink & Henri Dominique Saffrey. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1978. (Collection of the Universities of France). cxix-261p. ISBN 2-251-00286-3.
Platonic Theology . Volume 4, Livre IV; ED. and tr. Leendert Gerritt Westerink & Henri Dominique Saffrey. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1978. (Collection of the Universities of France). xcix-316p. ISBN 2-251-00287-1.
Platonic Theology . Volume 5, Livre V; ED. and tr. Leendert Gerritt Westerink & Henri Dominique Saffrey. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1987. (Collection of the Universities of France). ciii-376p. ISBN 2-251-00386-X.
Platonic Theology . Volume 6, Livre VI. General index; ED. and tr. Leendert Gerritt Westerink & Henri Dominique Saffrey. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1997. (Collection of the Universities of France). cxxxiii-224p. ISBN 2-251-00462-9.

Three studies . Volume 1, Introduction. Ten questions concerning Providence; ED. and tr. Daniel Isaac. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1977. (Collection of the Universities of France). 310p. ISBN 2-251-00289-8.

Three studies . Volume 2, Providence. Fate. Freedom; ED. and tr. Daniel Isaac. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1979. (Collection of the Universities of France). 230p. ISBN 2-251-00290-1.
Three studies . Volume 3, existence of the evil; ED. and tr. Daniel Isaac. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1982. (Collection of the Universities of France). 296p. ISBN 2-251-00291-X.
Comments of Plato. Alcibiade . Volume 1; ED. and tr. Alain Philippe Segonds. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1985. (Collection of the Universities of France). cxlix-337p. ISBN 2-251-00388-6.
Comments of Plato. Alcibiade . Volume 2; ED. and tr. Alain Philippe Segonds. Paris: beautiful Letters, 1985. (Collection of the Universities of France). vii-424p. ISBN 2-251-00393-2.
Comment on Parménide of Plato . Volume 1 (two parts); ED. and tr. Alain Philippe Segonds, Steel and Concetta Luna. Paris, Beautiful Letters, 2007. (Collection of the universities of France). dxlvi-547p. ISBN 978-2-251-00538-6.
In Platonis Parmenidem Commentaria. Tomus I, Libros I-III continens , ED. C. Steel, C. Macé and P. of Hoine (Oxford classical texts series), Oxford, Oxford University Near, 2007. Volumes II and III are planned for April 2008.

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