Proclus' interpretation of the Timaeus confronts the question of whether the living being that is the Platonic cosmos perceives itself. Since sense perception is a mixed blessing in the Platonic tradition, Proclus solves this problem by differentiating different gradations of perception. The cosmos has only the highest kind. This paper contrasts Proclus' account of the world's perception of itself with James Lovelock's notion that the planet Earth, or Gaia, is aware of things going on within itself. This contrast illuminates several key differences between contemporary theories of perception and the neoplatonic world view. In particular, it argues that the neoplatonists had a radically different view of these matters because they assigned the property of truth not only to representations, but to objects as well. © 2009 Brill Academic Publishers.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Philosophy and Religious Studies
Research Group:	History and Philosophy of Specific Fields
Research Field:	History of Philosophy
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in Philosophy and Religious Studies
Author:	Baltzly, DC (Professor Dirk Baltzly)
ID Code:	92957
Year Published:	2009
Web of Science® Times Cited:	1
Deposited By:	Humanities
Deposited On:	2014-07-02
Last Modified:	2015-02-10
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