The Material World as an Aid for Proclus’ Imagination

Abstract

In this paper, I seek to answer whether the physical world plays a role in Proclus’s geometry as described in his commentary on Euclid's Elements, which is carefully situated and contextualized within his Neoplatonic ontological system. I argue that while geometry is formally independent from the sense world, the geometer is inspired by and utilizes things ontologically below true geometricals while making geometrical arguments, which is enabled by the structure of the Proclean system. This presents a novel approach that resolves the difference between Proclus’ progressive view of the abstract nature of geometry and his use of geometry in practice in the sense world.