Causation and Creation in Late Antiquity.
Marmodoro, Anna.
Causation and Creation in Late Antiquity. - 1 online resource (314 pages)
Cover -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I The Origin of the Cosmos -- Chapter 1 Two early Stoic theories of cosmogony -- The cosmogony in Zeno and Chrysippus -- t1: DL 7.142 (SVF 1.102 and 2.581 -- LS 46c -- BS 15.2) -- t2: DL 7.135-6 (SVF 1.102 and 2.580 -- LS 46b -- BS 15.3) -- t3: Stobaeus Ekl. (SVF 1.101, 1.497 and 2.471 -- BS 15.5) -- t4: Plutarch Stoic. rep. 1053b-c (SVF 2.605 -- LS 46f) -- t5: Cicero ND 2.118 (SVF 2.593 -- BS 18.2) -- t6: Plutarch Stoic. rep. 1052f-1053b (SVF 2.579 -- BS 15.8) -- t7: Scholia in Apollonii Rhodii Argonautica 44.4-6 (SVF 1.104 -- BS 15.6) -- t8a: Scholia in Hesiodi Theogoniam 117a (SVF 1.105) -- t8b: Hippolytus Ref. 1.16 (DK 38a3) -- The cosmogony in Cleanthes -- t9: Scholia in Hesiodum Theogoniam 115 (SVF 2.565) -- t10: Hermias Irrisio gentilium philosophorum 14 (DG 26-31 -- SVF 1.495) -- The philosophical grounds of the polemic -- t11: Alexander Lycopolis Man. 19.2-12 (LS 46i -- BS 18.1) -- Conclusion -- Chapter 2 Plotinus' account of demiurgic causation and its philosophical background -- Demiurgy and causation -- Plotinus and the second-century-school debate -- From demiurgy to gradualism: Plotinus' account of the nature of man -- Chapter 3 Creation and divine providence in Plotinus -- Introduction -- The framework for Plotinus' views about providence -- c1: Two-worlds epistemology -- c2: The perfect actuality of divine nous -- c3: The eternity of the cosmos -- The case against divine planning -- Providence without planning -- Problems for Plotinian providence -- A theory of providence? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4 Waiting for Philoponus -- Part I Three Gazan Christians waiting for Philoponus -- Three Christian attacks on Neoplatonism -- Aeneas on the food-chain objection to resurrection. Platonists for and Christians against an eternal world -- (i) Platonists Porphyry, Sallustius, Proclus: the Creator's eternal good will implies an eternal world created -- (ii) Proclus: otherwise he would sometimes be a potential, so imperfect, creator -- (iii) Christians: Zacharias, Procopius, Philoponus: being a creator depends on internal powers, not external products -- (iv) Christians Zacharias, Philoponus: God's will for a beginning is not a change of his beginningless will -- (v) Christians Maximus, Procopius, Philoponus: even Aristotle allows instances of white to come into being out of nothing -- (vi) Some Platonists: must not an endless world be beginningless? Reply: only if by nature endless -- (vii) Christians Basil, Zacharias, Procopius: would not an eternal world be co-eternal with God, and so have the same honorific status as its Creator? Replies: why same in all respects? And is God eternal in the same sense? -- (viii) Christians Procopius, Philoponus: is not effect chronologically later than cause? Reply: or only causally posterior? -- (ix) Platonist examples of effect with the same duration, but not status, as its cause: a shadow, light, a footprint -- (x) Christian objections to the analogy of shadow and light: Basil, Ambrose, Aeneas, Zacharias -- (xi) Philoponus, amplifying Aeneas: a shadow is not an effect -- (xii) Zacharias, Philoponus: sunlight is definitionally too close to the sun to be an effect -- (xiii) Do the Neoplatonists omit the role of the Ones will from their account of creation? -- What is so different about Philoponus? -- Part II Significance of the commentary tradition in Ammonius' school -- Chapter 5 Gregory of Nyssa on the creation of the world -- Introduction -- Does Gregory admit material bodies in his ontology? -- The challenge of the immaterial generating material bodies, without violating the LCL principle. C. God created both immaterial qualities and material bodies, with no violation of the LCL principle -- How the immaterial generates the material -- Conclusions -- Chapter 6 Simplicius on elements and causes in Greek philosophy: critical appraisal or philosophical synthesis? -- A question of origin(s): explaining cosmic causation -- Tracing the elements and defining matter -- Causes, cosmos and the natural world -- Epilogue -- Part II The Origins of Human Agency -- Chapter 7 Divine and human freedom: Plotinus' new understanding of creative agency -- Chapter 8 Consciousness and agency in Plotinus -- Consciousness -- Agency -- Conclusion -- Chapter 9 Neoplatonists on the causes of vegetative life -- Chapter 10 Astrology and the will in Porphyry of Tyre -- Porphyry's concept of free will: the argument of the fragments -- Freedom under the stars: 'soft astrology' and human agency -- Conclusion -- Chapter 11 Proclus on the ethics of self-constitution -- Introduction: individuality and consciousness -- Roadmap -- Setting the stage: unity and normativity -- Plotinus' two persons -- Turning upward: later Neoplatonism's ladder of virtues -- Developing virtue -- First Cycle of Ten Dialogues -- Self-knowledge and the journey from multiplicity to unity: Proclus on the Greater Alcibiades -- Proclus on unity -- Conclusion: self-unification as a moral goal -- Chapter 12 Deficient causes: Augustine on creation and angels -- Chapter 13 Willed causes and causal willing in Augustine -- Sources of guilt -- Ancestral vices -- Afterword -- References -- Index locorum -- General index.
This book explores ancient thinking about causation and creation, considering the perspectives of key Christian and pagan thinkers.
Available electronically via the Internet.
9781316249895
Causation.
Cosmogony.
Cosmology.
Creation.
Electronic books.
180
Causation and Creation in Late Antiquity. - 1 online resource (314 pages)
Cover -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I The Origin of the Cosmos -- Chapter 1 Two early Stoic theories of cosmogony -- The cosmogony in Zeno and Chrysippus -- t1: DL 7.142 (SVF 1.102 and 2.581 -- LS 46c -- BS 15.2) -- t2: DL 7.135-6 (SVF 1.102 and 2.580 -- LS 46b -- BS 15.3) -- t3: Stobaeus Ekl. (SVF 1.101, 1.497 and 2.471 -- BS 15.5) -- t4: Plutarch Stoic. rep. 1053b-c (SVF 2.605 -- LS 46f) -- t5: Cicero ND 2.118 (SVF 2.593 -- BS 18.2) -- t6: Plutarch Stoic. rep. 1052f-1053b (SVF 2.579 -- BS 15.8) -- t7: Scholia in Apollonii Rhodii Argonautica 44.4-6 (SVF 1.104 -- BS 15.6) -- t8a: Scholia in Hesiodi Theogoniam 117a (SVF 1.105) -- t8b: Hippolytus Ref. 1.16 (DK 38a3) -- The cosmogony in Cleanthes -- t9: Scholia in Hesiodum Theogoniam 115 (SVF 2.565) -- t10: Hermias Irrisio gentilium philosophorum 14 (DG 26-31 -- SVF 1.495) -- The philosophical grounds of the polemic -- t11: Alexander Lycopolis Man. 19.2-12 (LS 46i -- BS 18.1) -- Conclusion -- Chapter 2 Plotinus' account of demiurgic causation and its philosophical background -- Demiurgy and causation -- Plotinus and the second-century-school debate -- From demiurgy to gradualism: Plotinus' account of the nature of man -- Chapter 3 Creation and divine providence in Plotinus -- Introduction -- The framework for Plotinus' views about providence -- c1: Two-worlds epistemology -- c2: The perfect actuality of divine nous -- c3: The eternity of the cosmos -- The case against divine planning -- Providence without planning -- Problems for Plotinian providence -- A theory of providence? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4 Waiting for Philoponus -- Part I Three Gazan Christians waiting for Philoponus -- Three Christian attacks on Neoplatonism -- Aeneas on the food-chain objection to resurrection. Platonists for and Christians against an eternal world -- (i) Platonists Porphyry, Sallustius, Proclus: the Creator's eternal good will implies an eternal world created -- (ii) Proclus: otherwise he would sometimes be a potential, so imperfect, creator -- (iii) Christians: Zacharias, Procopius, Philoponus: being a creator depends on internal powers, not external products -- (iv) Christians Zacharias, Philoponus: God's will for a beginning is not a change of his beginningless will -- (v) Christians Maximus, Procopius, Philoponus: even Aristotle allows instances of white to come into being out of nothing -- (vi) Some Platonists: must not an endless world be beginningless? Reply: only if by nature endless -- (vii) Christians Basil, Zacharias, Procopius: would not an eternal world be co-eternal with God, and so have the same honorific status as its Creator? Replies: why same in all respects? And is God eternal in the same sense? -- (viii) Christians Procopius, Philoponus: is not effect chronologically later than cause? Reply: or only causally posterior? -- (ix) Platonist examples of effect with the same duration, but not status, as its cause: a shadow, light, a footprint -- (x) Christian objections to the analogy of shadow and light: Basil, Ambrose, Aeneas, Zacharias -- (xi) Philoponus, amplifying Aeneas: a shadow is not an effect -- (xii) Zacharias, Philoponus: sunlight is definitionally too close to the sun to be an effect -- (xiii) Do the Neoplatonists omit the role of the Ones will from their account of creation? -- What is so different about Philoponus? -- Part II Significance of the commentary tradition in Ammonius' school -- Chapter 5 Gregory of Nyssa on the creation of the world -- Introduction -- Does Gregory admit material bodies in his ontology? -- The challenge of the immaterial generating material bodies, without violating the LCL principle. C. God created both immaterial qualities and material bodies, with no violation of the LCL principle -- How the immaterial generates the material -- Conclusions -- Chapter 6 Simplicius on elements and causes in Greek philosophy: critical appraisal or philosophical synthesis? -- A question of origin(s): explaining cosmic causation -- Tracing the elements and defining matter -- Causes, cosmos and the natural world -- Epilogue -- Part II The Origins of Human Agency -- Chapter 7 Divine and human freedom: Plotinus' new understanding of creative agency -- Chapter 8 Consciousness and agency in Plotinus -- Consciousness -- Agency -- Conclusion -- Chapter 9 Neoplatonists on the causes of vegetative life -- Chapter 10 Astrology and the will in Porphyry of Tyre -- Porphyry's concept of free will: the argument of the fragments -- Freedom under the stars: 'soft astrology' and human agency -- Conclusion -- Chapter 11 Proclus on the ethics of self-constitution -- Introduction: individuality and consciousness -- Roadmap -- Setting the stage: unity and normativity -- Plotinus' two persons -- Turning upward: later Neoplatonism's ladder of virtues -- Developing virtue -- First Cycle of Ten Dialogues -- Self-knowledge and the journey from multiplicity to unity: Proclus on the Greater Alcibiades -- Proclus on unity -- Conclusion: self-unification as a moral goal -- Chapter 12 Deficient causes: Augustine on creation and angels -- Chapter 13 Willed causes and causal willing in Augustine -- Sources of guilt -- Ancestral vices -- Afterword -- References -- Index locorum -- General index.
This book explores ancient thinking about causation and creation, considering the perspectives of key Christian and pagan thinkers.
Available electronically via the Internet.
9781316249895
Causation.
Cosmogony.
Cosmology.
Creation.
Electronic books.
180