Books by Carlos Steel
“This is one of three short works Proclus wrote, all of which deal with questions about the problems of evil, providence and freedom…On Providence is written in the form of a letter. Proclus addresses someone called ‘Theodore the Engineer’, who had a very mechanistic view of the universe. Theodore basically seems to have thought everything in the cosmos works mechanistically, like clockwork, and ‘everything’ here includes human beings. On this view, there is no human free will, and humans cannot rightly be praised or blamed for anything they do. This is the view Proclus sets out to refute. Proclus argues that if we are to understand what is wrong with Theodore’s view, we have to distinguish rational souls from physical bodies, and relatedly, we have to distinguish between Providence and Fate.” Read more...
The best books on Neoplatonism
Ursula Coope, Philosopher
Interviews where books by Carlos Steel were recommended
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1
Plotinus: An Introduction to the Enneads
by Dominic O’Meara -
2
Neoplatonism
by Pauliina Remes -
3
Ennead VI.8: On the Voluntary and on the Free Will of the One
by Plotinus, Kevin Corrigan, and John D. Turner -
4
On Abstinence from Killing Animals
Porphyry and Gillian Clark (translator) -
5
On Providence
by Proclus and Carlos Steel (translator)
The best books on Neoplatonism, recommended by Ursula Coope
The best books on Neoplatonism, recommended by Ursula Coope
To the modern reader, Neoplatonist thinkers can seem quite alien, but engaging with them helps us to understand ourselves and modern philosophy better, says Ursula Coope, Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford. She recommends five books to introduce readers to Neoplatonist philosophy, starting with Plotinus in the 3rd century.
