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16 - Plotinus on Providence and Fate

from Part V - Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2022

By
Christopher Isaac Noble
Edited by
Lloyd Gerson  and
James Wilberding
Lloyd Gerson
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
James Wilberding
Affiliation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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Summary

According to Plato’s Timaeus, a benevolent divine craftsman creates the cosmos, guided by his intellect’s reasoning and his ‘forethought’ or ‘providence’ (pronoia, Tim. 30b) about how to make it as good as possible. Similarly, in Laws 10, a wise god is said to exercise oversight over the cosmos, and to have devised laws of fate that promote virtue by assigning souls to positions in the cosmos according to their deserts. These and other Platonic texts were important sources for later Platonist theories of providence, according to which beneficent divine thought ensures the best possible arrangement and management of the cosmos.

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The New Cambridge Companion to Plotinus , pp. 386 - 409
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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