“All beings, are beings due to the One”. Unity and multiplicity in the Jamblique principle of universal causality

Abstract

The universal causality problem is exposed and solved by the neoplatonic philosophers of the later ancient period, according with the principle that all being gets his own origin from a superior and transcendent principle: the One. However, on this join line, this principle works as an explanation of several architectures of the real that are not superposed. In the paragraph of the Letter to Macedonius, of Johannes Stobaeus' Anthologion (I 5. 17 pp. 80. 10-81-6 W.), Iamblichus takes literarily Plotinus's statement that "all beings, are beings due to the One" (tratise 9, 1. 1), but he submit it to a sensitive and divine hierarchy, alien to Plotinus's philosophy. Indeed, he uses it to describe the modality in which are based the constitution of the diferent levels of reality that pertains to his own system: from the first being form —the so called "what is in a primary way"—, to the destine, through the principles of universal types of beings —"total causes"—, and natural causes. In each one of these levels, the participated unity is placed on the origin of the ontological line derived from her, and constitutes its fundament, Morover, it constitutes the fundament of causes themselves: it confers to them her efficient power, and provides the relation model to all that is a precedent to them, also the modalities that regulate their reciprocal correspondences. Finally, that paradigm works for the sake of a definition of "destiny" as a previous order of the ordenered things; an order which is one, simple and superior.