Abstract

According to Plutarch, who is responsible for the ordering of the indeterminate precosmic matter? Is this activity imputable to the divine demiurgic intellect? Or are we to consider the Cosmic Soul as the force which firstly gave shape to the precosmic chora/hyle? By means of examining the iv Platonica Quaestio, I set out to maintain that, at a certain moment of his philosophical career, Plutarch thought it better to relieve the divine intellect from the task of firstly ordering the material substratum; this duty had to fall upon the Cosmic Soul. Thus, he would keep the divine intellect from any engagement in activities concerning the hyle.