ABSTRACT
Physics, or the study of nature, is the fastest-growing area in Neoplatonic studies in the last two decades, if not even before. ere is one principal reason, with two opposite e ects, for this most welcome development: metaphysics. e constitutive role of metaphysics as the Neoplatonic “science” of a hierarchically organized universe, shaped and governed “from above”, casts a long shadow over the role of the physical world in such a highly structured universe which, in turn, has cast an even longer shadow over the scholarship on the subject. In this sense, metaphysics is the proverbial stepmother of physics which at an initial, perfunctory, glance degrades the signi cance of the natural world to a mere passive receptor of higher underlying principles or causes. is imbalance of ontological value between the metaphysical and physical realms (to stick with the Neoplatonic order of priority) has naturally a ected the scholarly evaluation of the Neoplatonists’ contribution to what is called today the “natural sciences”, to the extreme of denying any research in them. is is the negative side of the story.
