Elements of Theology, Proposition 30
Jul. 20th, 2024 06:30 pm Everything which is produced from a certain thing without a medium, abides in its producing cause, and proceeds from it.
For if every progression is effected while primary natures remain permanent, and is accomplished through similitude, similars being constituted prior to dissimilars — if this be the case, that which is produced will in a certain respect abide in its producing cause. For that which entirely proceeds will have nothing which is the same with the abiding cause, but will be perfectly separated from it. But if it has anything in common with and united to it, it will abide in its cause in the same manner as that abides in itself. If, however, it abides only but does not proceed, it will in no respect differ from its cause, nor will it while that abides be generated something different from it. For if it is something different it is separated and apart from its cause. If, however, it is apart, but the cause abides, it will proceed from the cause in order that while it abides it may be separated from it. So far, therefore, as that which is produced has something which is the same with the producing cause, it abides in it; but so far as it is different, it proceeds from it. Being, however, similar, it is in a certain respect at once both the same and different. Hence it abides and at the same time proceeds, and does neither of these without the other.
COMMENTARY
Abiding and procession. Here we have two terms of another Platonic triad, that of Abiding, Proceeding, and Returning.
Proclus tells us that everything produced by any cause both abides in that cause and proceeds from it.
He demonstrates this using very simple logic. If A causes B, then we have three possibilities:
1. A and B are the same. If this is the case, then A doesn't cause B, A simply remains A, and there is no B to speak of. To return to the example of colors: Color As Such produces the various colors we know. But if there is nothing about them which is different from Color As Such, then there are no separate colors. They're all simply Color, or, we might say, simply Light.
2. A and B are entirely different. But if that is the case, then it is impossible for A to cause B, because they have nothing in common. Color as such produces red and green and blue, but it doesn't produce cats or 12 or the feeling of nostalgia.
3. A and B are both the same and different. So B has something of A in it, but also something which is different from A. Red is a color, but it is not Color Itself; it has something which is distinctly red about it. At the same time, a "part" of it-- not a physical part, of course-- remains color. That's why we call it "a color," and not a cat or the number 12 or an emotion.
Remember that this is a work of theology first and foremost. On this way of looking at things, every effect abides in its cause. And, as we have seen, this universe is hierarchically ordered, descending by degrees first from God through the panoply of Gods, then to intellectual Ideas, souls, natures, and all the things of our experience.
The One is the First Cause of all things.
And this means that a "part" of us-- not a physical part, of course-- always abides in the One. God is always present to us, by the very nature of reality; or we are always present to Him. An Orthodox saint or theologian-- I'm afraid I can't remember who, and can't find the reference-- once said that "If any soul suffers in Hell, you may be sure that Christ suffers with him." On Proclus's logic, this is necessarily the case. God is never distant; a part of us always abides with Him. "God," as Empedocles taught us, "is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere."
For if every progression is effected while primary natures remain permanent, and is accomplished through similitude, similars being constituted prior to dissimilars — if this be the case, that which is produced will in a certain respect abide in its producing cause. For that which entirely proceeds will have nothing which is the same with the abiding cause, but will be perfectly separated from it. But if it has anything in common with and united to it, it will abide in its cause in the same manner as that abides in itself. If, however, it abides only but does not proceed, it will in no respect differ from its cause, nor will it while that abides be generated something different from it. For if it is something different it is separated and apart from its cause. If, however, it is apart, but the cause abides, it will proceed from the cause in order that while it abides it may be separated from it. So far, therefore, as that which is produced has something which is the same with the producing cause, it abides in it; but so far as it is different, it proceeds from it. Being, however, similar, it is in a certain respect at once both the same and different. Hence it abides and at the same time proceeds, and does neither of these without the other.
COMMENTARY
Abiding and procession. Here we have two terms of another Platonic triad, that of Abiding, Proceeding, and Returning.
Proclus tells us that everything produced by any cause both abides in that cause and proceeds from it.
He demonstrates this using very simple logic. If A causes B, then we have three possibilities:
1. A and B are the same. If this is the case, then A doesn't cause B, A simply remains A, and there is no B to speak of. To return to the example of colors: Color As Such produces the various colors we know. But if there is nothing about them which is different from Color As Such, then there are no separate colors. They're all simply Color, or, we might say, simply Light.
2. A and B are entirely different. But if that is the case, then it is impossible for A to cause B, because they have nothing in common. Color as such produces red and green and blue, but it doesn't produce cats or 12 or the feeling of nostalgia.
3. A and B are both the same and different. So B has something of A in it, but also something which is different from A. Red is a color, but it is not Color Itself; it has something which is distinctly red about it. At the same time, a "part" of it-- not a physical part, of course-- remains color. That's why we call it "a color," and not a cat or the number 12 or an emotion.
Remember that this is a work of theology first and foremost. On this way of looking at things, every effect abides in its cause. And, as we have seen, this universe is hierarchically ordered, descending by degrees first from God through the panoply of Gods, then to intellectual Ideas, souls, natures, and all the things of our experience.
The One is the First Cause of all things.
And this means that a "part" of us-- not a physical part, of course-- always abides in the One. God is always present to us, by the very nature of reality; or we are always present to Him. An Orthodox saint or theologian-- I'm afraid I can't remember who, and can't find the reference-- once said that "If any soul suffers in Hell, you may be sure that Christ suffers with him." On Proclus's logic, this is necessarily the case. God is never distant; a part of us always abides with Him. "God," as Empedocles taught us, "is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere."