Proclus on Nature

Of Proclus’ immense philosophical system, the part concerning the natural world may well be the most fascinating. Traditional scholarship tends to downplay that part of Neoplatonism, in favour of idealism, but recently this attitude is changing. This study contributes to that development by showing how Proclus’ natural philosophy relates to theology, while remaining a science in its own right. Starting from his Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, it presents a revision of Proclus’ metaphysics of nature and provides new insight into his surprisingly peripatetic philosophy of science, the role of mathematics, and the nature of discourse in natural philosophy. This book will be of interest both to students of the Platonic tradition, and to historians of natural science, metaphysics and epistemology.

Marije Martijn, Ph.D. (2008) in Philosophy, Leiden University, is lecturer at the VU University Amsterdam. She has published on different aspects of Proclus' work and is currently working on the metaphysical foundations of his scientific aesthetics.

"[...] scholars of late antique philosophy will be very grateful for the synthesis that Marije Martijn presents in this splendid new book on the subject. Philosophers who concentrate on Plato’s Timaeus itself, rather than its later reception, can also benefit from this book. [...] This is not an introductory book. It is, however, rich in erudition, philosophically rigorous, and highly original. In my view, Martijn’s first book announces her as a name to watch in the rapidly expanding field of late antique philosophy." Dirk Baltzly in BMCR, 20.4.2011

"[...] cette thèse est d'une extraordinaire richesse, d'une maîtrise incomparable, à la fois des concepts, et des auteurs, d'une érudition, sans commune mesure, dans leur maniement, leur évocation de l'essence de la Nature, au chapitre II, qu'au chapitre III, à propos de la méthode géométrique, là où elle part des définitions, des démonstrations, ou des axiomes, dans cette approche épistémologique très pointue, et au chapitre IV sur les mathématiques, les sens et la vue. Ce qui fait de l'ouvrage un instrument incomparable pour tous ceux qui voudraient entreprendre une recherche, à quelque niveau que soit sur le Commentaire sur le Timée de Proclus. Jean-Michel Charrue in Revue philosophique de Louvain 1/2012