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Article: Proclus. On the Existence of Evils.(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Review of Metaphysics
- Article date:
- March 1, 2007
- Author:
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PROCLUS. On the Existence of Evils. Translated by Jan Opsomer and Carlos Steel. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003. 159 pp. Cloth, $73.50--It seems to be of little importance whether one speaks of evil or of evils, but for the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus it made all the difference. In his treatise On the Existence of Evils (De malorum subsistentia = DMS), Proclus argued that Plotinus, who had famously concluded that prime matter is absolute evil and the cause of all evils in the physical, as well as in the psychical realm (Enn. 1.8), was wrong, and that, in fact, there existed no absolute evil at all, but only individual evils. With Plotinus and against some ...