Greece & Rome · 412–485
Proclus
Head of the Platonic school in Athens and Neoplatonism’s great systematiser
Organised Neoplatonism into a deductive system of 211 propositions, in which every effect remains in, proceeds from and returns to its cause. Through Pseudo-Dionysius and the Arabic Book of Causes he shaped medieval theology.
Life and thought
Proclus was born in Constantinople in 412, grew up in Lycia and studied in Alexandria before moving to Athens, where he studied under Plutarch of Athens and Syrianus at the refounded Platonic school. He became its head around 437 and led it for nearly fifty years, until his death in 485. His biographer Marinus describes a life of ascetic discipline, prayer to many gods and immense productivity: commentaries on Plato and on Euclid, hymns and systematic treatises.
Proclus organised Neoplatonism into a precise, almost geometrical system. His Elements of Theology sets out 211 propositions with proofs, built around one pattern: every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it and returns to it. Between the One and the world he placed many intermediate levels, such as henads, intellects and souls, so that everything is linked by graded steps. Through the Christian writer Pseudo-Dionysius and the Arabic Book of Causes, long attributed to Aristotle, his system shaped medieval theology in East and West.