Posidonius and Neoplatonism

Abstract

Both Iamblichus and Proclus are well aware that when they discuss the relation between soul and mathematicals they are treating a traditional problem. Both know that their solution concerning the identification of the soul with all kinds of mathematicals (three in Iamblichus, four in Proclus) is not the only one offered by philosophers. In both the Iamblichus passages we find representatives of three points of view: those who identify the soul with the arithmetical, those who identify it with the geometrical, those who identify it with the harmonical. Proclus enumerates representatives of only two points of view (arithmeticals and geometricals), and there are only two names (Severus and Moderatus) common to both lists. But both obviously feel that they are contributing to the solution of a traditional problem. The question is legitimate: How far back can we trace the problem ?

This chapter continues some of the ideas presented previously in: P. Merlan “Beitraege zur Geschichte des antiken Piatonismus”, Philologus 89 (1934) 35–53; 197–214 and idem, “Die Hermetische Pyramide und Sextus”, Museum Helveticum 8 (1951) 100–105.