Interpreting Proclus

This is the first book to provide an account of the influence of Proclus, a member of the Athenian Neoplatonic School, during more than one thousand years of European history (c.500–1600). Proclus was the most important philosopher of late antiquity, a dominant (albeit controversial) voice in Byzantine thought, the second most influential Greek philosopher in the later western Middle Ages (after Aristotle), and a major figure (together with Plotinus) in the revival of Greek philosophy in the Renaissance. Proclus was also intensively studied in the Islamic world of the Middle Ages and was a major influence on the thought of medieval Georgia. The volume begins with a substantial essay by the editor summarizing the entire history of Proclus' reception. This is followed by the essays of more than a dozen of the world's leading authorities in the various specific areas covered.

'… an immensely learned compilation of studies of major (and some very minor) acts of appropriation or, to use Gersh's own word, of the 'assimilation' of Procline Platonism.' Lloyd Gerson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 'This collective effort succeeds in making the strongest possible case for the grand narrative of over one thousand years of Proclus's influence in the West and East; and many of the highlighted essays are significant contributions to the scholarly literature in their own fields.' Daniel O'Connell, Journal of the History of Philosophy

Stephen Gersh is Professor of Medieval Studies and Concurrent Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Specializing in the Platonic tradition, he is the author of numerous monographs on ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy of which the most recent are Reading Plato, Tracing Plato (2005); Neoplatonism after Derrida: Parallelograms (2006); and Being Different: More Neoplatonism after Derrida (2014). He has edited, among other books, Medieval and Renaissance Humanism: Realism, Representation, and Reform (with Bert Roest, 2003) and Eriugena, Berkeley, and the Idealist Tradition (with Dermot Moran, 2006).