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88The Bundle Theory in Gregory of Nyssa’s Apologia in hexaemeronIn Johannes Zachhuber & Anna Marmodoro (eds.), Gregory of Nyssa: _On the Hexaëmeron_. Text, Translation, Commentary, Oxford. forthcoming.This paper looks at Gregory of Nyssa's so-called "bundle theory" sensible individuals and matter (as recently argued by Gerd Van Riel and Thomas Wauters in a 2020 article) amidst the broader context of Gregory's view of created beings and his reception of Neoplatonist, Stoic, and Aristotelian conceptions of particulars and matter. I argue that Gregory's position is closer to an Aristotelian position, despite the parallels to Plotinus and other contemporaneous bundle theory positions: in arguing …Read more
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60Damascius and Pseudo-DionysiusIn Gheorghe Pascalau (ed.), Damaskios: Philosophie, Religion und Politik zwischen Ost und West, Universitätsverlag Winter. 2023.In a 1997 paper, Salvatore Lilla pinpointed multiple textual parallels between Damascius and the Pseudo-Dionysius, showing certain conceptual parallels. For instance, both Ps.-Dionysius and Damascius speak of the first cause, or God, as being all things, i.e. as “encompassing” (περιληπτική) or as “anticipating” (προληπτική) all things, at the same time that God transcends all things. In my chapter I expand on Lilla’s findings by showing how Ps.-Dionysius’ conception of God fits more closely with…Read more
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101In the newly-discovered “On Principles and Matter”—we can definitely ascertain by Porphyry—the author concludes that there must be two principles responsible for all beings, or at least all sensible beings: God (the active cause) and matter (the passive cause). In large part this agrees with Atticus’ position, which the text also quotes, and which we also know Porphyry engaged with vigorously, from Proclus’ Timaeus Commentary. However there is a something odd about this text’s Porphyry: we seem …Read more
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5Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works by Dominic O’MearaReview of Metaphysics 74 (2): 399-400. 2020.
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20The Aporetic Method of Aristotle’s Metaphysics B in Damascius’ De Principiis: A Case Study of the First aporiaHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 24 (1): 161-209. 2021.Damascius has become well-known in recent scholarship for his unique, radical use of the aporetic method, both to highlight the inherent limits of human thought and to reveal crucial tensions in Neoplatonic metaphysics. Though much attention has been paid to the subjective or skeptical aspects of Damascius’ aporiai, little has been noted of the parallels between Damascius’ aporetic strategy in the De Principiis and Aristotle’s own in Metaphysics B. This article analyzes the parallel by looking a…Read more
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404Reason, Revelation, and Sceptical Argumentation in 12th‐ to 14th‐Century ByzantiumTheoria 87 (1): 165-201. 2021.In middle to late Byzantium, one finds dogmatic-style sceptical arguments employed against human reason in relation to divine revelation, where revelation becomes the sole criterion of certain truth in contrast to reason. This argumentative strategy originates in early Christian authors, especially Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215 CE) and Gregory Nazianzen (c. 329–390 CE), who maintain that revelation is the only domain of knowledge where certainty is possible. Given this, one finds two strikin…Read more
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34In The First Principle, Jonathan Greig examines the philosophical theology of the two Neoplatonists, Proclus and Damascius (5th–6th centuries A.D.), on the One as the first cause. Both philosophers address a tension in the Neoplatonic tradition: namely that the One was seen as absolutely transcendent, yet it was also seen as intimately related to other things as the source of their unity and being. Proclus’ solution is to posit intermediate causes after the One, while Damascius posits a distinct…Read more
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61Proclus on the Two Causal Models for the One’s Production of Being: Reconciling the Relation of the Henads and the Limit/UnlimitedInternational Journal of the Platonic Tradition 14 (1): 23-48. 2020.In Proclus’ metaphysics, the One produces Being through a mediated set of principles which are the direct causes of Being. While the henads feature prominently as these principles, Proclus posits a second set of principles, the Limit and Unlimited, to explain the aspects of unity and plurality found in all beings. Initially there seems to be a tension in these two sets of principles: Proclus does not immediately clarify how they interact with each other or their relationship to each other. In El…Read more
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1839The First Principle in Late Neoplatonism: A Study of the One's Causality in Proclus and DamasciusDissertation, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. 2017.One of the main issues that dominates Neoplatonism in late antique philosophy of the 3rd–6th centuries A.D. is the nature of the first principle, called the ‘One’. From Plotinus onward, the principle is characterized as the cause of all things, since it produces the plurality of intelligible Forms, which in turn constitute the world’s rational and material structure. Given this, the tension that faces Neoplatonists is that the One, as the first cause, must transcend all things that are character…Read more
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469Proclus’ Doctrine of Participation in Maximus the Confessor’s Centuries of Theology I.48–50Studia Patristica 75 137-148. 2017.In the Centuries of Theology I.48–50, Maximus states that there are two kinds of works that belong to God: one which corresponds to beings having a temporal, finite beginning, and one which corresponds to perfections of beings which have no beginning and are therefore eternal. Maximus labels the latter as participated beings (ὄντα μεθεκτά) and the former as participating beings (ὄντα μετέχοντα), with God transcending both as their cause. The structure of God-as-cause, participated beings, and pa…Read more
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44Proclus and Plotinus on Self-Constitution in the OneDissertation, University of Edinburgh. 2014.In his commentary on Plato's Parmenides, Proclus critiques an unnamed predecessor for attributing self-constitution to the One, claiming that the notion necessitates duality in its subject. Proclus almost certainly has in mind Plotinus in Ennead VI.8.13-22, where the latter attributes self-causation and determination to the One. However in the latter context, Plotinus is rather attempting to show how the One's unity entails that it is the cause of such self-determinative activity manifested in I…Read more
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94Plotinus and Aristotle on the Simplicity of the Divine IntellectDissertation, University of Edinburgh. 2013.Aristotle and Plotinus both demonstrate the existence of a first principle as cause of the existence of all things. Aristotle puts forward that this first principle is a divine intellect which thinks on itself, and in being the highest being in complete actuality and without potentiality, it is also absolutely simple. Plotinus, on the other hand, sees reason to assert that the divine intellect can not be absolutely simple but a duality of some sort, and thus the first principle, as a cause of un…Read more
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KU LeuvenPost-doctoral Fellow
Leuven, Belgium
Areas of Specialization
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Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Aristotle |
Plato |
Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy |
Neoplatonists |
Aristotelian Commentators |
Proclus |
Peripatetics |
Areas of Interest
11 more