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Causation and Creation in Late Antiquity.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextDescription: 1 online resource (314 pages)ISBN:
  • 9781316249895
Subject(s): Additional physical formats: Print version:: Causation and Creation in Late AntiquityDDC classification:
  • 180
Online resources:
Contents:
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.
Summary: This book explores ancient thinking about causation and creation, considering the perspectives of key Christian and pagan thinkers.
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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.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

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