Torstein Theodor Tollefsen: ‘The logoi of beings, principles of knowledge and principles of making.’

John Philoponus criticises Proclus for holding the logoi of beings in the Demiurge simply to be a paradigm of the cosmos. Proclus’ opinion betrays a weak notion of divine will and therefore beings emerge just because the Demiurge is what he is. According to this view the cosmos exists everlastingly. Philoponus tries to justify the Christian notion of a temporal beginning of the cosmos, and claims therefore that the logoi have a double aspect: on the one hand they are principles of knowledge and on the other hand they are principles of making. The presentation is mainly devoted to show that a similar distinction occurs in Maximus the Confessor’s thought.