The Platonism of Proclus

Shows how Proclus' extant commentaries on Plato's dialogues provided the foundation for his complex metaphysical system.

The first comprehensive study of the extant commentaries on Plato's dialogues along with a detailed analysis of how they provide the foundation for Proclus complex metaphysical system. Shows that the works of Proclus are not an impediment to understanding Plato but an indispensable guide.This book argues that the key to understanding the philosophical connections between Plato and Proclus is found in Proclus' extant commentaries on the dialogues. Although none are complete, they comprise some 3000 pages of detailed exegesis and philosophical argument. Lloyd P. Gerson examines each of these commentaries and demonstrates how Proclus' constructive metaphysics is dedicated to filling in 'gaps' in Plato's own presentation of a philosophical system, gaps that Plato himself repeatedly flags in the dialogues. He shows that Proclus draws out many of the implications of what Plato says, supplies major premises in arguments that are missing, and makes crucial distinctions in terminology that are only implicit in Plato. Gerson asks whether Plato's philosophy and Proclus' philosophy stand or fall together and argues that the answer is highly relevant to understanding the nature of the dominant philosophical doctrine in the West for 2,000 years, namely, Platonism.