The fragments that remain of the lost writings of Proclus, surnamed the Platonic successor / translated from the Greek, by Thomas Taylor.
- Proclus
- Date:
- 1825
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The fragments that remain of the lost writings of Proclus, surnamed the Platonic successor / translated from the Greek, by Thomas Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![Generation and Corruption. And this his hos- tility to the doctrine of ideas* is much more apparent in his Metaphysics ; because the dis- cussion there is concerning principles : for there he adduces numerous arguments against ideas, in the beginning, middle, and end of that treatise. In his Dialogues, also, he most manifestly ex- claims, that he cannot assent to this dogma, though some one may think that he speaks against it for the purpose of contention. Th e maker always existing, that which is gene- rated by him likewise always exists. For either God does not always make ; or, he indeed always makes, but the universe is not always generated or, he always makes, and the universe is always generated. But if God does not always make, he will evidently be [at a certain time] an efficient in capacity, and again an efficient in energy, and he will be an imperfect Demiurgus, and indigent of time. If, however, he always makes, but the * See my Dissertation on the Philosophy of Aristotle, in which the opposition of Aristotle to Plato’s doctrine of ideas is shewn to have been employed for the purpose of guarding from misapprehension, and not of subverting that doctrine. -f Proclus here uses the word ymrai, generated, because the universe, on account of the flowing condition of its nature, is always rising into existence, or becoming to be.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22402068_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
