Proclus
    Back to Cabinet
    Proclus

    Proclus(412–485 CE)

    Late antique Neoplatonist and one of the most systematic metaphysicians of the ancient world. He developed elaborate accounts of procession and return, causality, and the hierarchy of being, integrating philosophy with ritual theology. Proclus's commentaries and theological treatises profoundly shaped later Platonism in Byzantium, the Latin West, and early modern esotericism.

    Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading)

    5 titles in the Cabinet

    Commentaries on Euclid, by T. Taylor

    Full title[show]

    The philosophical and mathematical commentaries of Proclus, surnamed Plato's successor, on the first book of Euclid's Elements : and his life by Marinus

    The Dial's edition: London, 1788

    A Neoplatonic reading of Euclid that treats geometry as intellectual training for metaphysics, using the first book of the Elements to explain how mathematical reasoning lifts the mind toward first principles. Translated by Thomas Taylor.

    Full text

    Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading) & Emerson (see Emerson's Library)

    Commentaries on the Timæus of Plato, by T. Taylor

    Full title[show]

    The commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, in five books : containing a treasury of Pythagoric and Platonic physiology

    The Dial's edition: London, 1820

    Proclus's expansive, line-by-line Neoplatonic interpretation of Plato's Timaeus, presenting the doctrines of cosmos, soul, time, and the divine craftsman, and preserving a 'treasury' of Pythagorean and Platonic natural philosophy. Translated by Thomas Taylor.

    Full textSurvives at Concord Free Public Library

    Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading) & Emerson (see Emerson's Library)

    Fragments by T. Taylor

    Full title: The fragments that remain of the lost writings of Proclus, tr. by T. Taylor

    The Dial's edition: London, 1825

    A curated collection of surviving excerpts and testimonia from Proclus's otherwise lost works, presented in English to preserve scattered pieces of his metaphysics, theology, and philosophical method. Translated by Thomas Taylor.

    Full text

    Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Library)

    Ten Doubts, &c

    Full title[show]

    Two treatises of Proclus, the Platonic successor : the former consisting of ten doubts concerning providence, and a solution of those doubts ; and the latter containing a development of the nature of evil

    The Dial's edition: London, 1833

    Two focused works: one tackles classic aporiae about providence, fate, and freedom through ten 'doubts' and their solutions; the other develops Proclus's account of how evil can exist in a world ordered by the Good. Translated by Thomas Taylor.

    Full text

    Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Library)

    Theology, by T. Taylor

    Full title: The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato

    The Dial's edition: London, 1816

    A systematic map of Platonic theology (the hierarchy of gods and divine orders as Proclus reconstructs it from Plato), with an added 'seventh book' to supply a lost portion, plus Taylor's translation of the Elements of Theology and additional related treatises/extracts. Translated by Thomas Taylor.

    Full textSurvives at Concord Free Public Library

    Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading) & Emerson (see Emerson's Library)