The Universal and the Status of Genera-Species Division in Clement of Alexandria

Abstract

In this paper I will defend an interpretation of Clement of Alexandria’s teaching about categories, according to which the categories apply only to the material world, but not to intelligible and divine reality. I draw the parallel between Clement’s theory and a corresponding doctrine offered by Eunomius, the leader of Arianism in the second half of the fourth century, which he developed as a reaction to the Nicaean horizontal discourse of Triadology.