Select Works, Section 199

The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.

Acknowledges a 'universal relationship' and 'celestial movement' while denying they coercively determine human action.

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

The text debates whether Necessity or human agency governs wickedness within the order established by the First Cause.

A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.

The relationship between the 'First Cause' and the 'Reason-Principle' implies a downward flow of principles.

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

The passage argues that evil is not rooted in Nature or the Reason-Principle but arises from human choice and lack of desire for good.

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

The text mentions the 'First Cause' as the ultimate source behind the sequence of existence.

The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.

[auto] The passage explicitly references the 'Reason-Principle of the universe' as a creator figure in its argument about evil.