Philosophia Antiqua Proclus on Whole and Part: A Reappraisal of Mereology in Neoplatonic Metaphysics

This book presents the first complete overview of part-whole relations in Proclus’ Neoplatonic philosophy, with a theoretical framework based not only on the metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle, but also on the arguments of influential modern scholars of mereology. No late ancient philosopher has written more extensively on part-whole relations than the Neoplatonic commentator Proclus. In Proclus on Whole and Part, Arthur Oosthout unfolds, for the first time, Proclus’ detailed and systematic analysis of (Neo-)Platonic mereology in full. Oosthout weaves together a great number of previously disconnected scholarly inquiries into Proclus, while adding many critical notes and new insights of his own. He bases this new synthesis on a detailed theoretical framework built not only on the metaphysical theories of Plato and Aristotle, but also on the arguments of prominent scholars of modern mereology.