Library

The Six Books of Proclus on the Theology of Plato, Volume 1

Contents

Project Gutenberg EPUB edition Proclus and Taylor, Thomas
Open passage
What the truth is in the Gods; and whence falsehood is introduced in the participations of the Gods by secondary natures.
Open passage
From the axioms in the Phædrus concerning every thing divine [it follows] that every thing divine is beautiful, wise, and good.
Open passage
A discussion of the dogmas concerning the goodness [of the Gods,] and an investigation of the elements of the good in the Philebus.
Open passage
What the wisdom of the Gods is, and what elements of it may be assumed from Plato.
Open passage
Concerning divine beauty, and the elements of it, as delivered by Plato.
Open passage
What the triad is which is conjoined with the good, the wise, and the beautiful, and what auxiliaries to the theory of it, Plato affords us.[68]
Open passage
Concerning the axioms delivered in the Phædo,[69] respecting an invisible nature. What the divine nature is. What the immortal, and the intelligible[70] are; and what order these possess with reference to each other.
Open passage
What the uniform and indissoluble are, and how sameness of subsistence [and the unbegotten are] to be assumed in divine natures.
Open passage
How paternal, and how maternal causes are to be assumed in the Gods.
Open passage
Concerning divine names, and the rectitude of them as delivered in the Cratylus.
Open passage
CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF BOOK II.
Open passage
A method leading to the superessential principle of all things, according to the intellectual conception of the one and multitude.
Open passage
A second method unfolding the hypostasis of the one, and demonstrating it to be exempt from all corporeal and incorporeal essences.
Open passage
Many arguments in confirmation of the same thing, and evincing the irreprehensible hypothesis of the one.
Open passage
A confutation of those who say that the first principle is not according to Plato above intellect, and demonstrations from the Republic, the Sophista, the Philebus, and the Parmenides, of the superessential hypostasis[71] of the one.
Open passage
What the modes are of ascent to the one according to Plato; and that the modes are two, through analogy, and through negations. Likewise, where Plato treats of each of these, and through what cause.
Open passage
By what, and by how many names Plato unfolds the ineffable principle, and why he unfolds it by such and by so many names. And how these names accord with the modes of ascent to it.
Open passage
What the assertions are in the Republic concerning the first principle, through its analogy to the sun; where also it is shown, how it is celebrated as the good, and as the most splendid of being. How the sun is the offspring of the good; and that according to each order of divine natures, there is a monad analogous to the first principle. And how the first principle is the cause of all beings, and is itself prior to power and energy.
Open passage
What Plato in his Epistle to Dionysius says the first king is. And admonitions, that the first God is discussed in that Epistle.
Open passage
What the three conceptions are which are delivered [in that Epistle] concerning the first king. How all things are about him. How all things are for his sake. How he is the cause of all beautiful things. What the order is of these conceptions. And from what hypotheses they are assumed.

Source attribution

The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning providence, and a translation of extracts from his treatise on the subsistence of evil; as preserved in the Bibliotheca Gr. of Fabricus, Project Gutenberg eBook #77393

Introduction Explanation of Terms