negative liberty See POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FREE -. DO. Nemesius of Emesa (fl. c.390–400), Greek Christian philosopher. His treatise on the soul, On the Nature of Man, translated from Greek into Latin by Alphanus of Salerno and Burgundio of Pisa (c.1160), was attributed to Gregory of Nyssa in the Middle Ages, and enjoyed some authority; the treatise rejects Plato for underplaying the unity of soul and body, and Aristotle for making the soul essentially corporeal. The soul is selfsubsistent, incorporeal, and by nature immortal, but naturally suited for union with the body. Nemesius draws on Ammonius Saccas and Porphyry, as well as analogy to the union of divine and human nature in Christ, to explain the incorruptible soul’s perfect union with the corruptible body. His review of the powers of the soul draws especially on Galen on the brain. His view that rational creatures possess free will in virtue of their rationality influenced Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus. J.Lo.