Abstract
The New England Trancendentalists initiated a significant Neoplatonic movement in nineteenth-century America. They read most of their Neo-platonic texts in the translations of Thomas Taylor, a Neoplatonic revivalist and enthusiast. Taylor’s work suggests that he was, metaphorically at least, a ‘reincarnation’ of Proclus. His translations of all Greek philosophers evoke the Greek style of Proclus transliterated into English, as it were. New England intellectuals, therefore, read Plato, and Plotinus as well, through ‘Procline spectacles’.
Thou shalt read … Proclus
Proclus says: ‘beauty swims in the light of forms’
Emerson
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© 2009 Jay Bregman
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Bregman, J. (2009). Proclus Americanus. In: Vassilopoulou, P., Clark, S.R.L. (eds) Late Antique Epistemology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230240773_14
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