De argumentatieve structuur in Proclus' Elementen van de theologie

In this dissertation, I show evidence arguing that the argumentative Proclus' Elements of Theology fills the criteria of texts following the method of the geometers. Identifying by the method of the geometers as hypothetico-deductive reasoning. Nevertheless, I claim that for Proclus the method of the geometers is not only applicable to geometry, but a method that Proclus also applies to physics and theology. The main reasons I provide to show this claim comes from the witnessess that appear primarily in his commentaries to Plato's Parmenides and to Euclid's Elements, where Proclus asserts that this method was thaught to the geometers by Plato. That Plato also made use of the methods of the geometrical method. And finally, that the application of the geometrical method varies between sciences due to the specific restrictions that each domain imposes on the object, and thus restricting the operations of the methods of the geometrical method to fit each domains' criteria. Therefore, the present study focuses on the argumentative structure of Proclus' Elements of Theology considering the systematicity, i.e., the systematical connection, of the contents of this work based on the critical analysis of Proclus' writings on this subject.