Freedom and Responsibility in Neoplatonist Thought

What does it mean to be free, and what are the metaphysical conditions for freedom? What are the prerequisites for being an agent who can be held responsible for their actions? What connection, if any, is there between freedom and responsibility? Ursula Coope poses these enduring questions to the Neoplatonists, who represent the dominant philosophical tradition in late antiquity, beginning with Plotinus in the third century AD and extending through figures such as Iamblichus and Proclus to Damascius and Simplicius in the sixth century AD. Her book carefully presents earlier ways of thinking about freedom and responsibility that shape Neoplatonic ideas, lucidly explains the distinctive puzzles that arise within the framework of a Neoplatonic worldview, and provides illuminating and often groundbreaking reconstructions of their varied and ingenious responses to these puzzles. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of several centuries of reflection on her twin themes—one that is at once...