SCHOLE (Jan 2014)

THE IDEAS OF PROCLUS DIADOCHUS AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO MODERN CULTURE

  • Kulikov, Sergey

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 126 – 135

Abstract

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The paper defends the thesis that Proclus Diadochus' ideas are still relevant in modern culture. It appears that the ideas of Neoplatonism as a whole and these of Proclus' in particular matter at least in some aspects of modern culture (or ‘sets of ideals and norms’), such as the foundations of politics, the basic characteristics of philosophy and the fundamental aspects of understanding of the human existence. In the sphere of politics, one can note the ideas useful for creating of the non-totalitarian forms of ideology. In contemporary philosophy (esp. the phenomenological line of investigations) the Neoplatonic studies can be interpreted as one of the bases (or ‘sources’) of understanding of rational knowledge. The ideals of material harmony (true beauty) are essential for understanding of the human existence.

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