The Prometheus Trust has published anthologies of scholarly essays from the annual conferences of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies for many years. From 2019 we are enhancing our joint venture with the Society by making all articles published henceforward open access. This page will present every article published listed in alphabetical order by author’s name within any particular year’s anthology (with a short keyword summary to allow for searches). Volumes available:

Platonism and its Legacy

Platonic Interpretations

Plato in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times

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Platonism and its Legacy

Papers from the ISNS 2017 conference

held in Olomouc, Czech Republic

and published in 2019

Eros as Soul’s ‘Eye’ in Plotinus: What does it see and not see?  

Lela Alexidze

Keywords: Plotinus, Eros, eye, Plato, love, soul, intellect, One, vision, contemplation, activity, self

**

Neoplatonic Asclepius

Eugene Afonasin

Keywords: medicine in late antiquity, Proclus, Damascius, Neoplatonism, classical archaeology

 **

Georgius Raguseius against Astrology

Luka Boršić and Ivana Skuhala Karasman

Keywords:

**

Gender construction and social connections in Porphyry’s Ad Marcellam 

Mathilde Cambron-Goulet

Keywords: Porphyry, Marcella, Women, Neoplatonism, Education, Soul, Epistolography, Literacy, Marriage, Civic virtues, Purificateur virtue, Philosophy as way of life, Protreptic

 **

Comenius’ Pansophia in the Context of Renaissance Neo-Platonism

Jan Čížek

Keywords: John Amos Comenius, Tommaso Campanella, Francesco Patrizi, Renaissance philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Aristotelianism, pansophy, metaphysics

**

Why the Intelligibles are not Outside the Intellect 

Lloyd Gerson

Keywords: Plotinus, intelligibles, Demiurge, Timaeus, cognitive identity, Sophist, Parmenides, grades of oneness, non-representational knowledge

** 

Francesco Patrizi and the Oracles of Zoroaster: The Use of Chaldean Oracles in Nova de universis philosophia

Vojtěch Hladký

Keywords: Francesco Patrizi; Gemistos Plethon; Zoroaster; Chaldaean Oracles; Nova de universis philosophia; Panuagia; Panarchia; Pampsychia; Pancosmia; Ficino; metaphysics of light; philosophical cosmology; Renaissance philosophy; Middle Platonism; Proclus; Psellos; stoicism

 **

The Erotic Magus: Ficino’s De amore as a Guide to Plato’s Symposium

Angie Hobbs

Keywords: Daemon, daimōn, De amore, Eros, Erōs, Ficino, Iamblichus, magic, natural magic; Newton, Plato, Porphyry, Proclus, Symposium

 **

The Spirit of Nature and the Spirit of God

Jacques Joseph

Keywords: More, Henry; Cambridge Platonism; mechanicism; world soul; Holy Spirit; Neoplatonism; enthusiasm; Early Modern philosophy; natural philosophy; Spirit of Nature; metaphysics; dualism; emanationism; natural laws

 **

Eternity and Time in Porphyry, Sentence 44

Lenka Karfíková

Keywords: Porphyry, Plotinus, Time, Eternity

**

Psychological Effects of Henôsis

Bruce MacLennan

Keywords: active imagination, analytical psychology, Anima, Animus, archetype, complex, daimon, henosis, individuation, Jolande Jacobi, Jungian psychology, mandala, Shadow, theurgy

**

What kind of souls did Proclus discover? 

Svetlana Mesyats

Keywords: Neoplatonism, Proclus, Marinus of Samaria, Proclus’ psychology, horizontal-vertical procession, psychic series, hypercosmic souls, luminous body, Proclus’ theory of place, separate gods.

**

Johannes Kepler and His Neoplatonic Sources

Jiri Michalik

Keywords: Johannes Kepler, Plotinus, Proclus, mathematics, astronomy, renaissance science, neoplatonic philosophy, renaissance philosophy, harmonics 

**

Is self-knowledge one or multiple? Consciousness in ‘Simplicius’, Commentary on On the Soul 

Chiara Militello

Keywords: Damascius, desire, intellect, irrational soul, Priscian of Lydia, prosektikon, psychological powers, reason, self-knowledge, self-reversion, sense perception, Simplicius, synaisthêsis, syneidos

**

Lewis Campbell’s Studies on Plato and their Philosophical Significance 

Thomas Mróz

Keywords: L. Campbell, St Andrews, Plato, chronology of dialogues, the "Theaetetus", the "Sophist"

**

The Platonic Framework of Valeriano Magni’s Philosophy

Tomas Nejeschleba

Keywords: Valeriano Magni; 17th century philosophy; Platonism; Capuchin order; Augustinianism; Bonaventurianism; Antiaristotelianism; rationalism; light metaphysics; light of minds; introspection

**

Porphyry and the Motif of Christianity as παράνομος 

Ilaria Ramelli

Keywords: Porphyry of Tyre, Origen of Alexandria, the Hellene of Macarius of  Magnesia, Tertullian, Christianity's status in the pre-Constantinian Roman Empire, the notion of paranomos (illegal), the concept of pax deorum, Porphyry’s judgment on Origen

**

The Reception of Xenophanes’ Philosophical Theology in Plato and the Christian Platonists

Monika Recinová

Keywords: Xenophanes of Colophon; ancient reception of Xenophanes’ philosophical theology; patristic reception of Xenophanes’ philosophical theology; Xenophanean philosophical theology as topos; Plato’ reception of Xenophanean philosophical theology; reception of Xenophanean topos in Christian Platonists; Xenophanes Christianus; philosophical critique of Biblical anthropomorphism; god of philosophers in Christian thought; impact of Xenophanean theology on patristic thought. 

**

 Simplicius on De Anima 407b23-408a29

Carolina Sanchez

Keywords: Aristotle- Pseudo-Simplicius- Greek commentators of Aristotle- De Anima- Early Greek Psychology- Soul-Harmony - Ancient physicalism - Aristotle’s dialectics - Neoplatonic commentators

**

The Causality of the First Principle and the theory of Two Activities in Plotinus Enn. V.4 [7] 13 

Andrei Timotin

Keywords: Plotinus, Aristotle, causality, first principle, active power, actuality, potentiality, inelligible, first cause, negative theology, One, Intellect, Life

**

Cyril of Alexandria’s Theory of the Incarnate Union Re-examined

Sergey Trostyanskiy

Keywords: Mixture, Incarnation, Cyril of Alexandria, Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Neoplatonism, Plotinus, Proclus

**

Our concern though is not to be out of sin, but to be god - assimilation to god according to Plotinus - Thomas Vidart

Thomas Vidart

Keywords: Alcinous, Aristotle, Assimilation, Contemplation, Demon, Divinization, Escape, God, Humanity, Identification, Imitation, Intellect, Intelligible, Involuntary impulses, Life, Plato, Plotinus, Resemblance, Unification, Xenocrates

**

Ficino in the light of alchemy. Heinrich Khunrathʼs use of Ficinian metaphysics of light  

Martin Zemla

Keywords: Marsilio Ficino - Heinrich Khunrath – Paracelsianism – Renaissance - alchemy – metaphysics of light – light of nature – divine light – alchemical fire - burning mirrors – the Sun – solar rays – astrology – allegorical exegesis – Rudolfine Prague

Platonic Interpretations

Papers from the ISNS 2018 conference

held in Los Angeles, USA

and published in 2019

Nobility of the Complex - Suhrawardis Exposition on the Problem of Universals

Khashayar Beigi

Keywords: Suhrawardi, Light, Complexity, Universals, Incorporeals, Illuminationism, Illuminative Metaphysics, Platonic Forms, Arabic Platonism, Persian Platonism, Post-Avicennianism, the Principle of Noblest Possiblity

***

Platonism of Origen of Alexandria in Dutch-Arminian Theology

Andrea Bianchi

Keywords: Anti-trinitarianism - Arminianism - De-Platonization - Hellenization of Christianity - Jean Le Clerc - Origen of Alexandria

***

Origen of Alexandria - Spheres, Squares and Other Abstract Objects

Robert M. Berchman

Keywords: Logos, prayer, philosophy of mind, language, discursive, non-discursive, philosophy of god, likeness unto god, limits of thought, limits of language, causality, intentionality, negative theology, epistemology

***

Hermias on the Vehicle of the Soul

John F. Finamore

Keywords: Hermias, Proclus, Damascius, Iamblichus, soul, vehicle, daimon, ascent

***

Alcibiades, the Bad Lover - The Ethics of Platos Erotic Philosophy

Elizabeth Hill

Keywords: Plato, Eros, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades I, Lysis, Gregory Vlastos, Interpersonal eros, Ethics, Particularity

***

Platos Cosmology - Conflicting Theories

George Latura

Keywords: Interpretations, Timaeus, Different, Same, Equator, Zodiac, Ecliptic, Republic, Planets, Milky Way

***

Iamblichus Theory of Divination and Divine Inspiration - Nature and Hydromancy at Claros

Andreea-Maria Lemnaru-Carrez

Keywords: Neoplatonism, divination, possession, enthusiasm, oracle, panentheism

***

The Psychodynamics of the Numbers

Bruce MacLennan

Keywords: Analytical psychology, archetypal numbers, archetypes, arithmology, Jung, numerology, numerosity, Pythagoreanism, symmetry, Theology of Arithmetic, von Franz

***

Porphyry and Iamblichus on the Ochema-Pneuma and the Purification of the Soul

Julio Cesar Moreira

Keywords: Neoplatonism, Iamblichus, Porphyry, soteriology, Theurgy, asceticism, De Mysteriis, De Abstinentia, ochema-pneuma, phantasia

***

Philipp Melanchthons Twofold Reception of Platonism

Giovanni Tortoriello 

Keywords: Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther, Reformation, Plato, Aristotle, Origen, Augustine, immortality of the soul

***

Foundations of Ecology in Plotinus Neoplatonism

Michael Wagner

Keywords: Ecology, ecosystems, environmentalism, essentialism, world soul, Plotinus, Neoplatonism

Plato in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages

and Modern Times

Papers from the ISNS 2019

conference held in Ottawa, Canada

and published in 2020

On Evil Daemons in Iamblichus De Mysteriis

Julio Cesar Moreira

Keywords: Iamblichus; daemons; theurgy; theory of evil; sacrifice 

The Personal Daimon in Iamblichus De Mysteriis - Astral Origins, Ritual and Divinization

Akindynos Kaniamos

Keywords: Iamblichus, personal daimōn, divinization, theurgy, astrology, Helios, oikodespotēs, cosmocrators, Fate

Divine love, mediation and the ontological status of humans in Hierocles’ commentary on the Golden Verses

Donka D. Markus

Keywords: Divine hierarchy, daimones, philosophical teachers, becoming like god, virtues, eros

The descent of the soul in Macrobius and William of Conches

L. Gregory Bloomquist

Keywords: William of Conches (Guillaume), Macrobius, Plato or Timaeus, Integumentum, Fabula

Theurgy as a Contemporary Practice - the example of Jungs Red Book

Bruce MacLennan

Keywords: active imagination, Jung, katabasis, Red Book, theurgy

Ruddy Stargazers - Centaurs, Philosophers, and a Life Worth Living

Anne J. Mamary

Keywords: Alchemy; Centaurs; Cloak of Invisibility; Elder Wand; Gyges’ ring; Myth of the Metals; Sorting (Hogwarts); Stargazers; Tale of the Three Brothers 

Metaphysical Status of Physical Laws

Alexey Burov and Lev Burov

Keywords: Pythagoreanism, Biblical cosmism, laws of nature, discoverability, anthropic principle, scientism, Epimenides Paradox.

Non-probabilistic Approach to Anthropic Principle and a Fallacy of the Fine-Tuning Argument

Alexei Tsvelik

Keywords: Anthropic principle, multiverse hypothesis, fine tuning hypothesis

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