Proclus’ metaphysics: between worldview and language game. Reflections on the book of Radek Chlup

Abstract

While giving full credit to the obvious merits of R. Chlup’s monograph on Proclus, the reviewer points to some disputable issues. First of all, she criticizes the author’s, methodology which consists in an attempt to recognize behind metaphysical systems of the late Antiquity certain irrational and “unaccountable” worldview assumptions allegedly taken for granted by a given thinker. The reviewer shows that the definition of “worldview” as employed by R. Chlup is contradictory, and that the identification of worldviews with Wittgenstein’s “language games” is completely unjustified. Secondly, the reviewer disagrees with R. Chlup’s idea to divide Neoplatonism in two kinds, “western” and “eastern”, the first of which describes reality in more holistic terms, whereas the second analyzes it into a network of exactly defined relations. While arguing against this hypothesis, the reviewer shows that it leads the author to incorrect interpretation of main Neoplatonic doctrines such as participation, emanation and conversion, the soul’s union with the God and so on. As a result, the final picture of the arrangement of Proclus’ metaphysics seems to be incorrect.