I examine the relation between sensation and discursive thought (dianoia) in Plato, Plotinus, and Proclus. In Theaetetus, a soul whose highest faculty was sensation would have no unified experience of the sensible world, lacking universal ideas to give order to the sensible flux. It is implied that such universals are grasped by the soul’s t…[Read more]

According to his Cratylus commentary Proclus thinks that, although an oracle or a poet is the customary promulgator of a divine name, it is the philosopher who is the authoritative interpreter of that divine name. The reason for this is that the philosopher has the same access to the source of revelation as does the oracle or the poet, because the…[Read more]

In this paper I will examine Proclus’ Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato in order to shed light on his doctrine of the partial soul’s nous. Proclus’ epistemology is in many ways the heart of his system. The human soul is a microcosm, and because each of its faculties corresponds to one or other order of the macrocosm, the soul’s knowled…[Read more]

On pourrait avoir l’impression que dans l’interprétation de Proclus de la ligne divisée de Platon, il y a deux types de connaissance des objets supérieurs : une noêsis ascendante qui monte jusqu’au principe anhypothétique, et dont les objets sont les eidê simples, et une dianoia qui inclut les mathématiques, dont le mouvement est descendant e…[Read more]

In the 7th essay of his Commentary on the Republic of Plato, Proclus supplies the elements of a fairly robust Neoplatonic political philosophy. In general he agrees with Plato’s account of the tripartite soul and the four cardinal virtues, while introducing important nuances into the theory. The idea of the dominance of one part of the soul over a…[Read more]

Philosophy has as its task not only the discovery of the determinations into which all things fall, but also the explanation of how these determinations arise. In Proclus we may distinguish three related sorts of deter- minations. First, there are the determinations which emerge within any given taxis in the hierarchy of all things and which may…[Read more]

In this study I will show how Neoplatonism is not properly understood as a moment within the Hegelian dialectic. The Hegelian analysis obscures both the true character of the Neoplatonic One, and the Neoplatonic account of the relation between thought and its object, because it treats these positions as deficient versions of itself. We must r…[Read more]

For Proclus philosophical system is expressed in dianoetic terms. Thus while Proclus is a systematic thinker, the terms in which his system is written themselves fall short of the reality which they seek to express. Moreover, because dianoia is a thinking which never has a complete grasp on its object, the Procline system must be considered to be…[Read more]

Proclus discusses imagination (phantasia) in the second prologue to his Euclid commentary. In his discussion, he describes phantasia in terms which make it seem like a passive screen, onto which geometrical figures are projected. However, he also speaks of phantasia in this text in terms which make it seem active, as if it were the projector…[Read more]

A reconstruction of the Greek text of the final part of Proclus’ Commentary on the Parmenides, from the extant Latin, by Carlos Steel and Friedrich Rumbach, with an English translation by D. Gregory MacIsaac.

In Proclus dianoia is the Soul’s thinking activity, through which it makes itself into a divided image of Nous. Dianoia’s thoughts are logoi, because in the Greek philosophical tradition, logos came to mean a division of a prior unity (ch.I). Proclus’ theory of dianoia rejects induction, and is a conscious development of Plato’s theory of…[Read more]

Alfred the Great (1969) was the first, and remains the only, feature-length film portraying the West Saxon king and his conflicts with the Danes. Forty-seven years later, Bernard Cornwell’s novels have been adapted for television as The Last Kingdom (2015–). Despite being fictional adaptions of historical events, and despite the considerable sep…[Read more]

The public archaeology of death has frequently focused on the ethics and practices of excavating, displaying and curating human remains and mortuary contexts. Yet the focus of investigation is often restricted to whole, articulated bodies and tangible, complete monuments. Far fewer discussions have tackled the complex challenges of engaging the…[Read more]

This introductory chapter identifies the principal issues and themes in the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages, exploring the specific and compelling challenges of investigating and evaluating the early medieval past in contemporary society mediated by archaeology. In doing so, we review and contextualise the contributions to the 3rd…[Read more]

How museums and heritage sites in England display the early medieval past is the focus of academic and public interest and debate. Despite ever-pressured budgets and limited resources, the stories told about the early medieval past in these environments are of key importance for the story of this island, and have become increasingly important in…[Read more]

Opening the first volume of a new open-access peer-reviewed academic publication, we are pleased to introduce the Offa’s Dyke Journal. This venture stems from the activities of the Offa’s Dyke Collaboratory, a research network founded in April 2017 to foster and support new research on the monuments and landscapes of the Anglo-Welsh bor…[Read more]

By way of introduction to the book, this chapter sets out the principal recent developments and characteristics of public archaeology, focusing on the UK. By contextualising the chapters which originated as presentations in the 2017 student conference, as well as those contributions subsequently commissioned for the book, the specific theme of…[Read more]

Responding to the title of the seminar, “Nordic Art Education in Motion,” and to its theme, “Digital competences and computational thinking: preparing children, young people and adults for a digitalized society,” I discuss the “archaic identity of change” (to draw from Etel Adnan) present in calls for motion and preparation. I conceptualize art…[Read more]

The chapter outlines the rationale for the 2nd University of Chester Archaeology Student Conference – Archaeo-Engage: Engaging Communities in Archaeology. It serves as a companion chapter to this book’s Introduction. It reviews and contextualises the student presentations and keynote talks in relation to key current debates in public arc…[Read more]