Platon und Aristoteles in der Kosmologie des Proklos

English summary: Despite their transmission in a treatise presented as Christian apologetics, Proclus' 18 arguments for the eternity of the world are not - in their entirety - an attack on the Christian concept of creation. In fact, they document the extraordinary exegetical efforts Neoplatonists made to clarify the relationship between Plato and Aristotle. Instead of dismissing Aristotle as an apostate, later Platonists not only attempted to integrate his insights into their own...
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English summary: Despite their transmission in a treatise presented as Christian apologetics, Proclus' 18 arguments for the eternity of the world are not - in their entirety - an attack on the Christian concept of creation. In fact, they document the extraordinary exegetical efforts Neoplatonists made to clarify the relationship between Plato and Aristotle. Instead of dismissing Aristotle as an apostate, later Platonists not only attempted to integrate his insights into their own system, but also intended to prove their origin in Plato's own teaching, thus presenting Aristotle as the first and foremost Platonist. In spite of all the distortions this may entail in the details of their interpretations, their exegeses show an admirable intuition for the kinship between Plato's and Aristotle's views on nature, which also proves to be of value for modern historical research. German description: Anders als ihre Ubermittlung in einem als christliche Apologetik prasentierten Traktat suggeriert, bieten die 18 Argumente des Proklos fur die Ewigkeit der Welt insgesamt keine Polemik gegen die christliche Schopfungslehre, sondern dokumentieren vielmehr in exemplarischer Weise die fur den Neuplatonismus charakteristischen intensiven exegetischen Bemuhungen um das Verhaltnis von Platon und Aristoteles. Dabei zeigt sich, in welch uberraschend hohem Masse der spatere Platonismus darum bemuht war, die sachlichen Einsichten des Aristoteles nicht nur in sein eigenes System zu integrieren, sondern auch als dem Gehalt nach platonisch und damit Aristoteles selbst als den herausragendsten Schuler Platons darzustellen. Aller Gewaltsamkeit in der Einzelinterpretation zum Trotz beweisen Platons Erben in der Akademie dabei eine bewundernswerte Intuition fur die Verwandtschaft platonischer und aristotelischer Naturbetrachtung, von der auch die moderne philosophiehistorische Forschung noch lernen kann.