Proclus on eternity and time

The starting point for Proclus's reflections on the nature of time is Plato's definition of time as “the image of eternity” (εἰκόνα αἰῶνος) in Timaeus (37 de). This definition seems aporetic to Proclus, since despite the fact that an image should be similar to its prototype, Plato focuses exclusively on the differences between time and eternity, calling the former “moving according number” and the latter immovable and “abiding in unity”. Proclus rejects as inconsistent the solution of Plotinus, who proposed to consider time as the ‘life’ of the Soul, just as eternity itself is the “life” of the divine Intellect. Analyzing the text of Timaeus, Proclus shows that, although eternity is the archetype of time, it cannot serve as its immediate cause; therefore between time and eternity there must be some kind of mediating hypostasis that combines the properties of both extremes, and is therefore both immovable and multiple. This kind of entity was first introduced into Neoplatonism by Iamblichus, who called it “intelligent time” in order, on the one hand, to distinguish it from the flowing time of the material cosmos, and, on the other hand, to show its belonging to the same level of reality as the demiurgic Intellect. The concept of intelligent time, developed by Iamblichus and elaborated further by Proclus, allowed the latter to resolve the difficulty with the definition of time in Timaeus, showing that Plato must have meant not the visible time of the material cosmos, but the immovable partial Intellect which proceeds from the Demiurge and in its procession determines the measures of movement and change of all generated things. Only such immaterial substantial time could be considered the true image of eternity. In this paper, I will attempt to outline the main features of the concept of intelligent time in its evolution from Iamblichus to Proclus, as well as to demonstrate that, contrary to the popular opinion, there were three paths that led the Neoplatonists to the invention of this concept, namely: the theory of participation, the exegesis of Plato’s Timaeus and the attempts to resolve Aristotle’s paradoxes of time.