hypotheses of parmenides
TRANSCRIPT
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God as the monad in Divine NamesGod and the hypotheses of Parmenides
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Speaking contradictions on God
Dionysius in Divine names speak on God in contradictory terms:
absolute unity congaing in itself plurality
cause of creation completely dissimilar with it
known as the cause absolutely unknown
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Importance of Platos Parmenides
In dialogue of Plato - Parmenideswe can findthe scheme which was used by almost all
neoplatonic philosophers to describe God.
This dialogue is claimed to be the most
unclear and obscure of all dialogues.
Parmenides for Neoplatonists it become aprimal source of information on noetic realm.
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The first part of the dialogue is the discussion between
Parmenides and Socrates on the nature of ideas.Second part is the discussion between Parmenides andAristoteles on the nature of the One - supreme idea of Platos
system.
The second part of the dialogue can be divided in the three
following parts - three hypotheses.This difficult second part of the dialogue is generally agreed to
be one of the most challenging, and sometimes bizarre, pieces in
the whole of the Platonic corpus.
Content of Parmenides
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Hypothesis 1:If supreme idea is one
The one cannot be made up of parts and cannot be a single
part, because a part must be section of a whole, in order to be
different from many.
So it has not a beginning, a center or an end thus it cannot be
spherical or linear. Since the one cannot be touched because
has got no parts, it is neither anywhere nor into itself, because
it would be many.
Therefore the one cannot move and cannot dematerialize in
order to reappear in another place. The one must be itself and
cannot be different from it. The one does not take part in the
flowing of time so it is imperishable.
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Hypothesis 3: If the one is not
If the one is not it participates of everything different from him, so everything is partiallyone.
Similarity, dissimilarity, bigness, equality and smallness belong to it since the one is
similar to itself but dissimilar to anything that is, but it can be big or small as regardsdissimilarity and equal as concerns similarity.
So the one participates of the non-being and also of the being because you can think of it.Therefore the one becomes and perishes and, since it participates of the non-being, stays.
The one removes from itself the contraries so that it is unnameable, not disputable, notknowable or sensible or showable.
The other things appear one and many, limited and unlimited, similar and dissimilar, thesame and completely different, in movement and stationary, and neither the first nor thelatter thing since they are different from the one and other things. Eventually they are not.So if the one is not, the being is not.
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Neoplatonic interpretations
Neoplatonic philosophers commonly claimed
that third hypothesis is only the continuation of
the first, so for them there were only twohypotheses;First- if the One is not (containing first and third
hypotheses of second part of Parmenides)Second- if the one is (the same with second
hypothesis)
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Names of God
In his treatise Divine Names, Dionysius attributes thefollowing positive names to God to describe God as amonad:
Good
Being, Life, WisdomPower, Peace, Greatness and Smallness, Samenessand Difference, Similarity and Dissimilarity, Restand Motion, Equality
One
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Neoplatonists use of names
The Neoplatonists in commentaries to Platos Parmenides, used the names to
describe God and noetic realm.Plotinus and Iamblichus, assigned the positive characteristics of the
second hypothesis to the intelligible and intellectual realms, whileapplying the negations of the first to the OneFor Proclus positive attributes of the Parmenides should, be attributed
to the mediating intellectual orders, which are dependent upon the
One as its inferiors. The One itself, can be described only with thenegations formulated by the Parmenides.Only Porphyry does not observe this distinction between the first and
second hypotheses as referring to the One and the realm of the
Intellect.
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Dionysius use of names
Dionysius, like Porphyry, can be seen as applying the first
and second hypotheses of the Parmenidesto the same
supreme principle, dividing the hypotheses according to theappropriate functions of the divine:
the first hypothesis expresses God in his transcendent statethe second hypothesis describes God in his creative aspect
Dionysius is original in creating new - Christian vision, or is
he only following Porphyry?
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God described and beyond
description.
By using these names, Dionysius discusses the aspects of
God by which he is both the very essence of these names
and beyond them:In this way, Dionysius attributes both the second
hypothesis of Platos Parmenides (that the One is) and
the first hypothesis (that the One is not) to God.
The Divine Namesis, then, an exposition of the supremacy
of the Godhead, both as to how it encompasses and how
it simultaneously surpasses the totality of creation.
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God as the Good
In Chapter 4 of the Divine Names, Dionysius speaks on
name of good. This is averring name for the others like:
light, beautiful, love, ecstasyand zeal.
For platonic tradition Sun was always the best way to
describe God.
Sun makes all things visible and gives life to all things.It cannot be perceived itself because it blinds the
observing eye.
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God as the One
God is principally oneness in and of himself, and he existsin a state of remaining within himself (mon). Even whenGod processes outward to create the universe, he remains
within himself.His oneness shapes the universe. This quality of unity isshared with the rest of the universe in so far as everything
has some degree of unity which it derives from itsparticipation in the divine oneness.Name of the One is connected with the name Perfect,because to be perfect means to be One.
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Beginning, middle and the end
Dionysius says that God is the creative source, middle, and end ofall things (DN 824A) he follows Proclus:The first principle is beginning and middle and end, but he is nothimself divided into beginning and middle and end; for he is thebeginning of all things because all things are directed towards him;for all pangs of desire and all natural striving are directed towardsthe One, as the sole Good; and he is the middle because all the
centres of existent things, whether intelligible, intellectual, psychicor sensible, are established in the One; so that the One is thebeginning, the middle and the end of all things, but in relation tohimself he possesses none of these, seeing that he possesses no othertype of multiplicity. (Komentarz do Parmenidesa1115, 271116, 1)
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Being, life and wisdom
The Platonic triad of Being, Life and Intellect plays a central role in the
Dionysian system, (chapters 57 of the Divine Names). It was also of the
most importance in pagan systems.In systems of Athenian Platonists (Proclus) this triad serves to describe
noetic realm, which is divided to triads and enneads which corresponds
pagan gods.
Unlike the Athenian Platonists, but like Porphyry, Dionysius places Being,
Life and Wisdom within the One as its attributes.
Dionysius uses the triad of Being, Life and Intellect (replacing Intellect
with Wisdom) to Christianize the Neoplatonic triad, so that it refers to
God himself, not to an aspect of the second hypostasis and noetic cosmos.
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Status of Divine Names
For Dionysius and all ancient authors who knew neoplatonicphilosophy it was obvious that he only speaks on God inneoplatonic manner.Everybody understood that they were names of God and thesupreme ideas, and paradigms of all things.
However in all Christian tradition Christ himself was the Logoscontaining all ideas and paradigms in himself. For Dionysius
Christ is a person of Trinity which is above all, also above names,because Trinity is above all.
So if God is transcendent can we see Divine Names as mediative
beings existing separately between God and creatures?
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What Dionysius says about the
status of Divine names
They are paradigms (paradeigmata) - forms of all creationsThey are providences (pronoias), because they are
expression of Gods intentions (designs) of how the world
will be created.They are acts of God s will (energeias) they are specific
acts of unmeasured and infinite activity of God.They are active symbols playing important role in
ascension of the soul to God.
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Names as ideas (exemplars)
The exemplars (paradeigmata) of everything
preexist as a transcendent unity within It. It brings forth
being as a tide of being. We give the name of "exemplar"to those principles which preexist as a unity in God and
which produce the essences of things. Theology calls
them predefining, divine and good acts of will which
determine and create things and in accordance withwhich the Transcendent One predefined and brought
into being everything that is. (DN V, 8, 824 C).
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Names as providences
I do not think of the Good as one thing, Being as another,Life and Wisdom as yet other, and I do not claim that there arenumerous causes and different Godheads (theothetas), all
differently ranked, superior and inferior, and all producingdifferent effects. No. But I hold that there is one God for allthese good processions and that he is the possessor of thedivine names of which I speak and that the first name tells of
the universal Providence of the one God, while the othernames reveal general or specific ways in which he actsprovidentially. (DN V, 2, 816 C 817 A)