The Many and the One

Abstract

In response to Plotinus’ treatment of the one and the many, Chapter 7 is devoted to the discussion of the same problem in the opening sections of Proclus’ Theologia Platonica II 1–3. Beginning the deduction of his grand philosophical synthesis with only two elements in reference to the first two hypotheses of Plato’s Parmenides, Proclus demonstrates that both the one and the many are necessary for the generation of the plurality of henadic, intelligible, psychic, and physical phenomena. While the many is dependent on the one and the one is not dependent on anything, the interaction between the one and the many is essential for the constitution of being. Through a number of precise and subtle arguments, Proclus further establishes the structure of participation as defined by the triad of the unparticipated–participated–participating, which is then applied to the clarification of a number of difficulties and implicit presuppositions in the text.