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Proclus seeks to make clear to himself the necessity of this irpoodos, and employs for that purpose a hint given by Plotinus, namely, that since unity excludes plurality, the latter must stand over against the former ; the negation of plurality which lies in unity is not to be conceived as a-reprjTiKrj, but as yevvtjriKti (Theol Plat, 108). Being, as the predicate of all, stands naturally before and above all. Since, however, life as well as being belong to the vovs, the & (as Plotinus himself has pointed out) must be placed before the latter, and thus obtains here the second place. This, too, must be thought of again as a system (CMCOOTOS), therefore as a triad, in which 8uva[us and vTrapis are the elements which unite themselves in the ((an vonni. As Plato was the guide in the first triad, Aristotle is in the second. prev next |