On the eternity of the world

In the 5th century AD, Proclus served as head of the Academy in Athens that had been founded 900 years earlier by Plato.

Proclus was the last great systematizer of Greek philosophy, and his work exerted a powerful influence in late antiquity, in the Arab world and in the Renaissance.

His treatise "On the Eternity of the World" formed the basis for virtually all later arguments for the eternity of the world and for the existence of God; consequently, it lies at the heart of neoplatonic philosophy and the controversy between pagans and Christians at the end of antiquity.

Proclus's 18 Arguments were quoted within John Philoponus' polemic against him, written in the 6th century; but the opening pages of the sole extant manuscript, which contained the first Argument, have been lost.

In this book, Helen Lang and A.D. Macro present the 17 Arguments preserved by Philoponus and translate them as an independent work.

The first Argument, which survives in Arabic, is also included and makes this the only complete edition of "On the Eternity of the World" since antiquity. This bilingual edition comprises the 17 Arguments (II-XVIII) in Greek and English, along with an introduction, synopses and