Damascius' Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles.

Intro -- Contents -- Prolegomenon -- Note on the Translation -- Abbreviations -- Introduction to the Life and Philosophy of Damascius -- TRANSLATION OF DAMASCIUS' PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS CONCERNING FIRST PRINCIPLES -- PART ONE. ON THE INEFFABLE -- SECTION I. ON THE INEFFABLE -- Chapter 1. On the Ineffable and Its Relationship to All Things -- Chapter 2. The Transcendence of the Ineffable -- Chapter 3. Our Affinity with the Ineffable -- Chapter 4. Speculation Concerning the Ineffable -- Chapter 5. On Plato and the Language of Metaphysics -- Chapter 6. That the One Is Unknowable -- Chapter 7. On the Complete Overturning of All Discourse Concerning the Ineffable -- Chapter 8. Three Questions Concerning the Ineffable qua Its Status as First Principle -- SECTION II. ASCENT TO THE FIRST PRINCIPLE -- Chapter 9. First Method: Self-Sufficiency as the Criterion -- Chapter 10. Nature as a First Principle -- Chapter 11. The Irrational Soul -- Chapter 12. The Rational Soul and Intellect -- Chapter 13. The One Is Not the First Principle -- Chapter 14. Second Method of Ascent: From the Potential to the Actual -- Chapter 15. Digression: Does Irrational Soul Move Itself? -- Chapter 16. Irrational Soul and the Living Being -- Chapter 17. Self-Motion Defined -- Chapter 18. The Degrees and Kinds of Self-Motion -- Chapter 19. The Self-Mover is not the First Principle -- Chapter 20. Intellect is Not the First Principle -- Chapter 21. Being Is Not the First Principle -- Chapter 22. The One as the First Principle -- Chapter 23. Third Method of Ascent: The World as First Principle -- Chapter 24. The Unmanifest Diacosm Is Not the First Principle -- PART TWO. ON THE ONE -- SECTION III. ON THE ONE AND ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE ONE -- Chapter 25. Is There a Principle That Mediates between the One and the Ineffable? -- Chapter 26. The One Cannot Be Known.

Chapter 27. Cognitive Reversion Does Not Bring about Knowledge of the One -- Chapter 28. Excursus on Multiplicity -- Chapter 29. Unitary Knowledge -- SECTION IV. ON THE ONE AND ALL THINGS -- Chapter 30. Three Questions and Answer to the Third Question -- Chapter 31. Answer to the Second Question, Is the One All Things Equally? -- Chapter 32. Answer to the First Question, How Is the One All Things? -- Chapter 33. The One-All Is Both All-Inclusive and Determinate -- SECTION V. ON PROCESSION FROM THE ONE -- Chapter 34. On the First Differentiation -- Chapter 35. On the Origin of Distinction -- Chapter 36. The One Is Neither In All Things Nor Is It Before All Things -- SECTION VI. THE CAUSALITY OF THE ONE -- Chapter 37. Questions about the Cause of Differentiation -- Chapter 38. Chaldean and Iamblichean Language Concerning the Cause of Differentiation from the One -- Chapter 39. Doctrine of the Chaldeans Applied to the One's Procession -- Chapter 40. The One-All and Its Relationship to All Things -- Chapter 41. Conclusions about the One -- Chapter 42. The Three Henads as Remaining, Procession, and Reversion -- SECTION VII. ON THE MERITS OF IAMBLICHUS' POSITION CONCERNING THE NUMBER OF PRINCIPLES -- Chapter 43. On the Number of Principles before the Intelligible Triad -- Chapter 44. Arguments on Behalf of Iamblichus' Position -- Chapter 45. Arguments on Behalf of Iamblichus and contra Iamblichus -- Chapter 46. On the Pythagorean, Chaldean, and Platonic Methods of Referring to the Intelligible Realm -- Chapter 47. Critique of Iamblichus, Continued -- Chapter 48. Summary of Arguments and Evidence Concerning the Position of Iamblichus -- Chapter 49. Another Defense of Iamblichus' Position -- PART THREE. ON THE INTELLIGIBLE TRIAD -- SECTION VIII. LIMIT AND UNLIMITED -- Chapter 50. The Dyad as Second Principle after the Monad.

Chapter 51. What is the Cause of the Dyad? -- Chapter 52. Seven Questions Concerning the Intelligible Dyad -- Questions 1-4 -- Chapter 53. On the Three Henads: Questions 5-7 -- Chapter 54. On the Symbolic Nature of the Henads -- SECTION IX. ON THE THIRD HENAD -- Chapter 55. Questions Concerning the Third Principle -- Chapter 56. The Mixed Is Not a Combination of the Two Prior Principles -- Chapter 57. Pythagorean Analogies for the Third Henad -- PART FOUR. ON BEING AS THE UNIFIED -- SECTION X. ON THE UNIFIED SUBSTANCE -- Chapter 58. On Being and on the Mixed -- Chapter 59. The Unified as the Summit of Beings -- Chapter 60. On the Third Principle in Relation to Unity and Multiplicity -- Chapter 61. On the Chaldean Designation for the Third Principle -- Chapter 62. What Does the Word "Being" Denote? -- Chapter 63. On the Kinds of Being -- Chapter 64. Power and Act -- Chapter 65. Participation in the Unified -- Chapter 66. Conclusions Concerning Being -- SECTION XI. INTELLIGIBLE BEING -- Chapter 67. Exegetical Considerations: Iamblichus and Plato -- Chapter 68. Is the Unified Intelligible Being? -- Chapter 69. On the One-Being -- Chapter 70. Iamblichus' Doctrine Concerning Intelligible Being -- PART FIVE. ON REVERSION -- SECTION XII. ON THE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE UNIFIED -- Chapter 71. Is There Knowledge in the Unified? -- Chapter 72. How Did the Unified Become Differentiated? -- Chapter 73. Transcendent Differentiation -- Chapter 74. Puzzles Concerning Procession -- Chapter 75. What Is the Nature of Reversion? -- Chapter 76. Resolutions for the Preceding Puzzles -- Chapter 77. Two Questions Concerning the Three Moments of Remaining, Procession, and Reversion -- Chapter 78. On the Subtypes of Reversion -- Chapter 79. On the Assimilation of What Reverts to Its Cause -- SECTION XIII. ON KNOWLEDGE.

Chapter 80. Ten Questions on the Nature of Reversion as Knowledge -- Chapter 81. On Intellectual Reversion or on Knowledge -- Reply to Question 10 -- Chapter 82. Replies to Questions 9 and 8 -- Chapter 83. Replies to Questions 7, 6, 5, and 4 -- Chapter 84. Replies to Questions 3, 2, and 1 -- PART SIX. ON THE MANY -- SECTION XIV. ON PARTS -- Chapter 85. What Does the Term "Many" Denote? -- Chapter 86. On Ones -- Chapter 87. On Specific Forms -- Chapter 88. On Elements and the Elemental -- Chapter 89. On the Origin of the Many -- SECTION XV. ON THE PROCESSION OF THE UNIFIED -- Chapter 90. Seven Questions on the Procession of the Unified, Questions 1-3 -- Chapter 91. On the Possibility of Procession, Questions 4-7 -- Chapter 92. Answer to Sixth Question -- Chapter 93. Answers to Fifth and Fourth Questions -- Chapter 94. Answer to Fourth Question, Continued -- Chapter 95. Answer to Third Question: Four Ways of Constructing the Issue -- Chapter 96. Manifestation versus Generation -- SECTION XVI. ON THE INTELLECTIVE PROCESSION -- Chapter 97. On the Nature of Procession from Subsistence -- Chapter 98. Summary Concerning Internal Procession and Aporia: How Does the Intellective Proceed from the Unified? -- Chapter 99. First Method of Reply, Triads and Multiplicity in the Unified -- Chapter 100. Second Method of Reply, Proceeding from the Lower Realities and Ascending -- Chapter 101. Third Method of Reply: Other-Moved, Self-Moved, and Immobile -- Chapter 102. The Self-Moving -- Chapter 103. The Henads and the Characteristics of Individuals -- Chapter 104. Conclusions Concerning the Ascent from the Lower Realities to the Unified -- Chapter 105. On the Unified as Cause of the Intellective Procession -- Chapter 106. Purification of Our Conceptions Concerning the Unified -- Chapter 107. On the Undifferentiated Many.

Chapter 108. On the Absolute One and Absolute Many -- Chapter 109. On the Relationship between the Unified and the One -- Chapter 110. Conclusion Concerning the Unified as Principle of Procession -- PART SEVEN. SUMMARIES AND COMPARISONS -- SECTION XVII. ON THE INTELLIGIBLE TRIADS -- Chapter 111. Chaldean Theology -- Chapter 112. On the Intelligible Diacosms -- Chapter 113. On the Substance of the Intelligible-Intellective World -- Chapter 114. On Being, Life, and Intellect -- Chapter 115. On the Relationship between the Henads and the Intelligible Triad -- Chapter 116. On the Distinction between Relative and Absolute within the Intelligible Order -- Chapter 117. Answers to Puzzles Raised in Chapter 112 Above -- Chapter 118. On the Language of the Absolute -- Chapter 119. Damascius' Criticisms of Proclus' Arrangement of the Intelligible Triads -- Chapter 120. On the Configuration of the Intelligible Triad -- Chapter 121. On Subsistence -- Chapter 122. Summary of the Chaldean Description of the Unified -- Chapter 123.1. The Theology of the Orphic Rhapsodies -- Chapter 124. The Orphic Theology According to Eudemus -- Chapter 125. Non-Greek Theologies -- Notes -- Glossary -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- H -- I -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- Bibliography -- Index Nominum -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- T -- Z -- Index Locorum -- A -- C -- D -- E -- H -- L -- P -- R -- S -- T.

Damascius was head of the Neoplatonist academy in Athens when the Emperor Justinian shut its doors forever in 529. His work, Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles, is the last surviving independent philosophical treatise from the Late Academy. It has never before been translated into English.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.