Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Neoplatonic philosophy'

Samuel Taylor Coleridge used theories of evil and creation from Plato, Plotinus and Proclus to refine his definitions of the Trinity and the Absolute and Apostate Wills, and to move beyond the Germanic Naturphilosophie concept of self-hood as achieved by a self-objectification which emphasised differences between the persons of the Trinity rather than their similarities. His use of specific classical Greek concepts allowed him to propose that the Absolute Will�s self-substantiative act established unity and distinction as simultaneous and interrelated equals. From this, Coleridge investigated how identity and relationship rely upon unity and distinction, as he believed that identity is a unified self distinct from others, and that relationship is the unified common ground of many selves. My first chapter explains my methodology in dealing with Coleridge�s problematic relationship with both Greek and German sources, and describes how Coleridge�s philosophical investigations into evil and creation resulted from personal crises oyer his sense of self and sin. I provide an overview of the system Coleridge devised to address these concerns, concentrating upon the aspects which he believed clarified humanity�s status in relation to evil and the divine. I demonstrate how Coleridge accounts for the origin of the Apostate Will, and I explain his view of identity and relationships between the persons of the Trinity, providing a relevant overview that allows me to point out his use of the fundamental Greek concepts that anchor the subsequent chapters on Plato, Plotinus and Proclus. My second chapter examines Coleridge�s statement that Plato had formulated a triune creative principle, a concept critical to Coleridge�s need to unite God to the created universe. After describing the Platonic structure of reality and its divine creative act, I focus on the Platonic triad of Difference, Unity and Being. Plato�s account of these three principles and how they arise from the divine principle activity influences Coleridge�s view of the Trinity, what it contains in terms of distinction and unity, and how the Trinity arises from the superessential Absolute Will. I explain how Coleridge refined his definition of Christ as pleroma by referencing the way that the Form of the Good simultaneously exhibits plurality and identity. My third chapter shows how the Plotinian theory of the One�s will-based self-substantiation influenced Coleridge�s definition of the Absolute Will. I determine that Plotinus�s concept of heterotes (otherness) informs Coleridge�s view of the origin of evil, and I show how his concept of redemption is influenced by Plotinus�s account of noetic contemplation. My fourth chapter explains how Coleridge used the Proclian concept of Bound to develop the actualising quality of the Logos, in relation to Christ as a successful plurality but also in terms of Christ�s role in the redemption. My conclusion surveys all four philosophers to demonstrate how concepts drawn from Plato, Plotinus and Proclus helped Coleridge to define the Absolute Will and the way that its activity is the unity, distinction, identity and relationship of the Trinity. These three distinct yet related systems influenced Coleridge�s view of evil, as well as his understanding of the Absolute Will�s self-creative act, its relation to the Trinity, and the simultaneously fallen and divine status of humanity.

My thesis examines philosophical questions about music according to Neoplatonism: what is music and what is the place of music in the structure of reality. I focus my examination of Neoplatonic music on the philosopher ProcIus. For ProcIus, music is something much richer than the phenomenon usually called music. My thesis studies this wide notion of music: music as art and as science, and furthermore music as a principle of order and harmony in the universe. Accordingly, music is intimately related to metaphysical principles: the WorldSoul and the Intellect. In Chapter I, I concentrate on the explanation of the mathematical proportions that are the basis for the musical scale of the Timaeus of Plato, according to ProcIus' commentary on this dialogue. Secondly, in Chapters II and III, I study ProcIus' metaphysical interpretation of the scale, understood as a symbol of the hierarchy of levels in Neoplatonism. In Chapter IV, I study what is the value of music for human life, in Proclus' commentary on the Republic. Neoplatonism is a philosophy of Unity, and in this context, music and hannony are a way of returning to Unity from multiplicity and division. I study how music can guide the human soul to come back to the origin of reality, with the help of musician gods such as Hennes, the Muses and Apollo. My dissertation shows the connection between philosophy, mathematics, art and mythology. Music is a privileged art because it is related by an essential kinship to the soul. I have applied the Boethian classification of music to the inner logic of my thesis in order to show that in Neoplatonism all these aspects are organized in a complex conception of music. Neoplatonic music is consequently understood as an encompassing phenomenon, which mirrors the encompassing nature of Neoplatonic philosophy.

This thesis examines the life and thought of the influential Melbourne organist, teacher and music critic, Arthur Ernest Howard Nickson (1876-1964). Born in Melbourne, Nickson studied in England on the Clarke Scholarship at the Royal College of Music (1895-1899). During his studies in England, Nickson experienced the Catholic revival in the Church of England at its height. On his return to Australia in 1901 Nickson’s activities as a church musician, and later, as a teacher provided the platform for him to articulate views that were formed as a result of these influences. Beginning in 1904, Nickson’s 56-year career as a lecturer at the University Of Melbourne Conservatorium Of Music is important, as every student had to pass through his lectures at some point in their course. As music critic at the Age from 1927, Nickson played a decisive role in shaping public taste at the time of the establishment of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Heinze, who was also Ormond Professor of Music at the University of Melbourne (1926-57). Nickson’s essays form a distinct group of writings that are probably unique in Australia. The main published essays cover a forty-year period beginning in 1905, and show the development of Nickson’s thinking about the moral basis and spiritual nature of music, his views on the nature of the Church, and his worldview, based on Neoplatonic philosophy, which shaped his thinking about the process of creation. While Nickson’s view of the created order was shaped by Neoplatonic influences, his view of the redemptive function of art was expressed in terms of sacramental theology, and was related very closely to his Anglo-Catholicism. In his essays and lectures Nickson frequently worked with an abstracted concept of ‘Art’, rather than specific art objects. While reference was made to art objects, it is not clear how Nickson defined the term ‘artist’. Nickson’s attention in his discussions of ‘Art’ tended to focus on the artist, rather than the object. This was a result of his world view, which saw art objects as an emanation from the personality of the artist; this necessitated the cultivation of a disposition of mind, which was enabled by the acquisition of mystical intuition. While his description of the fine arts as consisting of architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry and music was in line with older views of art, his views on the artist are difficult to discern, which raises the question of whether Nickson saw himself as an artist. Clearly his vocation was not as a composer, as the discussion of his mass settings in Chapter 3 will demonstrate, while as an organ teacher he was more interested in interpretation than in the mechanics of playing the instrument. This thesis falls into two broad sections. The first three chapters seek to provide an adequate biography of Nickson, which has never previously been done. The fourth chapter examines Nickson’s worldview and the implications this had for his thinking about music, and falls into two parts. The first part follows Nickson’s worldview as it was expressed in his essays, and focuses attention on the concept of art as a process of sign making. The manner in which this sign making is understood is essential to its function, and in Nickson’s writings three understandings emerge: symbol, metaphor and sacrament. The second part of the discussion examines Nickson’s articulation of his worldview in relation to music, which he considered to be the most divine of the arts, drawing on lecture notes, student reminiscences and Nickson’s own. Nickson’s central claim was that art is a sacrament. This can be seen in relation to his faith, where the regular use of the Church’s sacraments was central. This claim is challenged by statements Nickson made about the faith of composers such as Beethoven and Bach. This raises questions about sacramental efficacy when applied to art, and some limitations implicit in viewing art as a sacrament. It will be argued that Nickson conceived of artistic creation as fundamentally a process of sign making. The sign may be regarded as a symbol, metaphor or sacrament, and the process of creating the sign reflects God’s own creative activity in human creative acts. Nickson conceived of human creative action as having a redemptive character, bringing the artist into closer unity with the godhead. This union was the ultimate aim of art, being the act of redemption that paralleled the union brought about by such sacraments as the Eucharist. This term also points to some tensions in Nickson’s worldview, where he expressed a view of the creation of the material world as being both a dynamic, continuing activity of emanation from God, and a single action of the will of God, such as the creation account of Genesis.

This thesis explores the theology and philosophy, metaphysics and mystical approach to life as 'being and gift' in the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. As a popular writer of fantasy, it is my hypothesis that he developed in that fantasy a radical metaphysics of giftedness in created being, in that all creation participates and subsists in the One, and yet demonstrates a freedom in its subjectivity apart from the One. There is none of the fatalism in Tolkien's world which he encountered in key texts such as Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon psyche, and a corollary of human being in Tolkien's world implies freedom from both theological and corporeal determinism. 1 have explored and assessed the extent to which Tolkien utilised various forms of Christian Neoplatonism, influenced as they are by the Platonic and Aristotelian classical traditions, alongside Old and Middle English texts which were available to him in his professional career. In particular, I have made significant connections between Tolkien's cosmogonic drama in his creation myth and the musica universalis tradition of Latin writers such as Augustine, Boethius and Aquinas. As such, I have demonstrated that for Tolkien. materiality is not a lapsus or declension from some transcendent Godhead, but a divine extravagance in its gratuitous emanation. As Tolkien was writing as a Catholic, it shall be demonstrated that his use of 1 homism reflects the twentieth century theological revision, inspired by Jacques Maritain and his contemporaries. Furthermore, I have sought to demonstrate how Tolkien's more mystical episodes are inspired by sources which were used also by John Scottus Eriugena, alongside Alfred Siewers' reading of them. Tolkien's own published, unpublished, and posthumously published works, comprise a deep well of inspiration and, given the near absence of supporting scholarly material associated with them, then this thesis relies significantly upon those primary sources.

Examen, dans la tradition néoplatonicienne, et plus particulièrement dans l’œuvre de Proclus, des différentes méthodes de traitement philosophique des données mythologiques recueillies dans diverses traditions du paganisme, et mise en évidence de l’avènement d’une théologie « scientifique ».
Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation philosophie
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This thesis contrasts the Plotinean attitude towards transcendence at the cosmological level with that of certain Kabbalistic authors of the 13th-17th century. Special emphasis is placed on the different approaches taken by each of the two sides to addressing the origin of otherness. Following a brief introduction to the notion of the question of transcendence, the first major part (chapter II) is dedicated to an exploration of the Plotinean conception of metaphysical "descent" from the One to subsequent hypostases. The second major part (chapter III) focuses on Kabbalistic conceptions of the descent from the indefinite infinite to the finite (limited) realm. Finally, I attempt to illustrate the questions and concerns common to each of the two cosmologies. In so doing, I make use of semiotic concepts to clarify the contrast between the two models.

Notre recherche interroge la manière dont la question métaphysique des premiers principes a été soulevée dans la philosophie grecque de l’Antiquité tardive (IIIe-VIe s. E.C.) ainsi que dans la pensée chinoise des IIIe-IVe s. E.C. Nous définissons cette question comme un complexe d’interrogations quant aux fondements et à l’origine de tout, ainsi que quant aux conditions premières de l’ordre et de la cohérence des choses, cet ordre définissant le cadre où l’homme peut connaître et agir. Cette question soulève nombre de difficultés. Afin qu’il soit vraiment principe de tout, le principe devra être pensé à la fois comme différant de tous ses dérivés et comme antérieur à toutes les modalités de l’être. Non-causé, non-fondé, non-étant, le principe ne doit posséder aucun caractère propre à ce qu’il fonde. Or, s’il n’est rien de cela, c’est-à-dire s’il n’est rien du tout, comment garantir qu’il en soit le principe ? Un tel principe risque en effet d’apparaître à ce point étranger à ce qu’il fonde et à ce point distinct de ce qui en dérive que nous perdrions la possibilité même de le dire « principe ».Cette question fut soulevée avec une acuité particulière en Grèce par les philosophes néoplatoniciens et en Chine par les penseurs du courant de l’étude du mystère (玄學 xuanxue). Dans ces deux traditions, Damascius (458/462-538) et Guo Xiang 郭象 († 312) sont à la fois éminemment représentatif et critique des tendances philosophiques de leur temps. L’étude conjointe de leur pensée respective par le prisme de la question des premiers principes permet de mettre en lumière des conceptions originales et contrastées du principe, de la question elle-même et de sa valeur. Par une approche inspirée des méthodes en histoire de la philosophie (notamment l’archéologie développée par M. Foucault puis par A. de Libera) et des études comparatives en histoire des sciences (en particulier celles de G.E.R. Lloyd), nous contextualisons les deux auteurs étudiés et les abordons « dans leur volume propre », afin d’établir entre eux un « espace limité de communication ».La thèse compte six chapitres. Les trois premiers visent à inscrire Damascius et Guo Xiang dans leur époque et dans leur paysage philosophique respectif. Chaque chapitre est un diptyque où le premier volet est consacré au contexte grec et le second au contexte chinois. Les trois chapitres suivants sont une lecture détaillée des pensées de Damascius et de Guo Xiang relativement à la question posée. Le chapitre I expose les principaux éléments relatifs aux biographies de Damascius et de Guo Xiang. Le chapitre II aborde l’arrière-plan historique, intellectuel et institutionnel de chaque auteur : y sont présentés les cadres dans lesquels prennent place et évoluent l’activité intellectuelle dans la Grèce des IIIe-VIe s. et dans la Chine des Han et des Wei-Jin. Le chapitre III est un essai d’archéologie de la question des premiers principes dans la philosophie grecque et dans la pensée chinoise ancienne. Le premier volet parcourt l’histoire ancienne du platonisme et de l’aristotélisme ; le second traite des réflexions cosmologiques chinoises depuis les Royaumes combattants, jusqu’au IIIe s. Le chapitre IV aborde la question des limites auxquelles se heurte le langage s’efforçant d’appréhender la nature profonde des principes et de la réalité. La question est abordée chez Damascius, puis dans le Zhuangzi sur base du Commentaire de Guo Xiang. Au chapitre V, nous analysons la métaphysique de Damascius : nous montrons comment Damascius critique et repense l’architecture néoplatonicienne des principes. Le chapitre VI aborde les notions clés de la pensée de Guo Xiang, en particulier celles d’ainséité (自然 ziran) et de transformations autonomes (獨化 duhua)
The present research aims to explore the metaphysical issue of the first principles as it has been risen in Late Antiquity Greek philosophy (IIIrd-VIth century CE) and in Early medieval Chinese thought (IIIrd-IVth century CE). I define it as a complex of questions about the founding principles and about the origin of all things conceived as a whole, as well as about the fundamental conditions of the cosmic order and of the framework wherein human knowledge and actions take place. These questions bring out many philosophical issues: if the principle is truly principle of everything, it should have a nature distinct from what proceeds from it, as it should be conceived as prior to everything that proceeds from it. Uncaused, unfounded, non-being, the principle should not possess any attribute of what it founds, otherwise it would not be principle, but something among other things. Still, the principle cannot be absolutely disconnected from what it makes possible since, in the absence of any connection, the former could not be a principle of the latter anymore.Greek and Chinese philosophers have risen these questions. In the Neoplatonist school and in the Dark Learning movement (玄學 xuanxue), Damascius and Guo Xiang are both highly representative and critical toward the philosophical trends of their time. The study of their thought through the question of the first principles reveals original perspectives on the principle, as well as different opinions regarding the question and its significance. The methodological framework of this comparative approach is based on the methods in history of philosophy (especially the archaeological method developed by M. Foucault and by A. de Libera), and on the comparative studies in history of sciences (especially G.E.R. Lloyd’s studies). I aim to contextualise Damascius philosophy and Guo Xiang thought and to study them “in their own terms” in order to define a “delimited space for dialogue” between them. The dissertation has sixth chapters. The purpose of the three first chapters is to contextualise Damascius and Guo Xiang in the philosophical landscape of their time. Each of these chapter has two parts: the first part deals with the Greek context, the second part with the Chinese context. The three following chapters are devoted to the study of Damascius philosophy and Guo Xiang thought. Chapter I addresses Damascius and Guo Xiang biography. Chapter II addresses Damascius and Guo Xiang historical, intellectual and institutional background. The purpose of this chapter is to expose the framework of intellectual and philosophical practices in Late Antiquity Greece and in Early medieval China. Chapter III is an archaeological approach of the question of the first principles in ancient Greek philosophy and in Early Chinese thought. The first part of this chapter addresses the history of Platonism and Aristotelism in Antiquity; the second part addresses Chinese cosmological thinking from the Warring States period to the beginning of the Wei-Jin period. Chapter IV addresses the notion of aporia: the guidelines of the chapter are the limits of human language in the metaphysical quest for the ultimate principles or in the attempt to reach the core nature of reality. I discuss these question in Damascius’ philosophy and in the Zhuangzi as interpreted by Guo Xiang. In chapter V, I analyse the critical dimension of Damascius’ metaphysics in order to stress how Damascius cunningly modifies the Neoplatonist metaphysics. In chapter VI, I address the main concepts of Guo Xiang’s thought, especially the notion of self-so (自然 ziran) and the notion of lone transformations (獨化 duhua). I show how Guo Xiang argues that the search for a primordial cause is potentially endless and how he dismisses such inquiry. By so doing, Guo Xiang thinks the unity of the cosmos as the co-presence of all things with all things rather than through the priority of a first ordering principle

This thesis places Chaucer within the tradition of philosophical poetry that begins in Plato and extends through classical and medieval Latin culture. In this Platonic tradition, poetry is a self-reflexive epistemological practice that interrogates the conditions of art in general. As such, poetry as metapoetics takes itself as its own object of inquiry in order to reinforce and generate its own definitions without regard to extrinsic considerations. It attempts to create a poetic-knowledge proper instead of one that is dependant on other modes for meaning. The particular manner in which this is expressed is according to the idea of the loss of the Golden Age. In the Augustinian context of Chaucer’s poetry, language, in its literal and historical signifying functions is an effect of the noetic fall and a deformation of an earlier symbolism. The Chaucerian poems this thesis considers concern themselves with the solution to a historical literary lament for language’s fall, a solution that suggests that the instability in language can be overcome with reference to what has been lost in language. The chapters are organized to reflect the medieval Neoplatonic ascensus. The first chapter concerns the Pardoner’s Old Man and his relationship to the literary history of Tithonus in which the renewing of youth is ironically promoted in order to perpetually delay eternity and make the current world co-eternal to the coming world. In the Miller’s Tale, more aggressive narrative strategies deploy the machinery of atheism in order to make a god-less universe the sufficient grounds for the transformation of a fallen and contingent world into the only world whatsoever. The Manciple’s Tale’s opposite strategy leaves the world intact in its current state and instead makes divine beings human. Phoebus expatriates to earth and attempts to co-mingle it with heaven in order to unify art and history into a single monistic experience. Finally, the Nun’s Priest’s Tale acts as ars poetica for the entire Chaucerian Performance and undercuts the naturalistic strategies of the first three poems by a long experiment in the philosophical conflict between art and history. By imagining art and history as epistemologically antagonistic it attempts to subdue in a definitive manner poetic strategies that would imagine human history as the necessary knowledge-condition for poetic language.

Mon travail a pour objet l’étude de l’idée de système telle qu’elle est pratiquée par Plotin et l’analyse du type de détermination hénologique que sous-entend une telle idée. Pour ce faire, j’ai axé mes recherches sur trois pôles :premièrement, sur le rôle que joue l’indétermination dans la constitution du système de l’être ;deuxièmement, sur le nombre comme manifestation de la détermination du réel ;troisièmement, sur la présence de l’indétermination dans le système de l’être. Mes recherches montrent qu’il existe une perméabilité du système de l’être relativement à la double indétermination qui l’entoure, à savoir celle de l’Un et celle de la matière dernière. Cette perméabilité est ce qui assure au système une vitalité interne, vitalité dont témoigne le double mouvement de procession et de conversion qui le caractérise./

My work’s object is the study of the idea of system which is practised by Plotinus and the kind of henological determination implied by this idea. In that perspective, my researches are shared out in three mains subjects :firstly, the function of the indetermination in the constitution of being’s system ;second, the number as expression of the determination of reality ;third, the presence of the external indetermination inside the being’s system. My researches show the existence of a system’s permeability with regard to the double indetermination which surrounds it, namely those of the One and of the ultimate Matter. This permeability ensure a vitality to the system, vitality of which the double movement of procession and conversion testifies.
Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation philosophie
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In Proclus, the delphic adage “gnothi seauton” reached the status of the fundamental principle of philosophy, according to two perspectives: theoretical and practical. From the theoretical point of view, and in answer to the Skeptical challenge to representative knowledge in its subject-object duality, the neoplatonic tradition carried out a considerable deepening of the philosophical reflexion on self-reflectivity or conversion to one’s self (epistrophê pros eauton), thus inaugurating a form of “turn to the subject” as philosophical method. From the practical point of view, self-knowledge constituted a true spiritual path of self-care, leading the soul from a natural and irreflected condition to a life of philosophical piety and self-transformation, culminating in the soul’s deification through union to the Divine. To this end, in the neoplatonic schools of this period, a formalization of the gradual process of the soul’s education takes place, delineating in the form of a ladder of virtues and sciences, the various levels of the path to be pursued until the soul’s ascension into the beatitude of assimilation to deity. Underlying these two perspectives is a comprehension of the core of the soul, its pure indeterminate existence (huparxis), as being deiform, in such a way that upon it depends both the possibility of true knowledge, in the form of intellectual intuition (noesis), and the possibility of beatitude, in the form of love (eros). To actualize them is the purpose of the ascesis to which the platonic philosopher dedicates himself. This dissertation aims at hypothetically reconstructing, based on Proclus, this path of self-knowledge in Late Neoplatonism, starting with an investigation upon its roots in greek religion, Plato and Plotinus
Em Proclo, a máxima délfica “gnothi seauton” alcançou o estatuto de princípio fundamental da filosofia, segundo duas perspectivas: teórica e prática. Do ponto de vista teórico, em resposta ao desafio do Ceticismo ao conhecimento representativo em sua dualidade sujeito-objeto, a tradição neoplatônica levou a cabo um considerável aprofundamento da reflexão filosófica sobre a autorreflexividade ou conversão a si mesmo (epistrophê pros eauton), inaugurando assim uma forma própria de “virada ao sujeito” como método filosófico. Do ponto de vista prático, o conhecimento de si constituía um verdadeiro caminho espiritual de cuidado de si, conduzindo a alma de uma condição natural e irrefletida para uma vida de piedade filosófica e transformação de si, culminando na deificação da alma em união ao Divino. Para este fim, há nas escolas neoplatônicas deste período uma formalização de um processo gradual de educação da alma, delineando, sob a forma de uma escada de virtudes e saberes, os vários níveis do caminho a serem percorridos por ela em sua ascensão até à bem-aventurança da assimilação à divindade. Subjacente às duas perspectivas está uma compreensão do cerne da alma, sua pura existência indeterminada (huparxis), como sendo deiforme, de modo que dele depende tanto a possibilidade do conhecimento verdadeiro, sob a forma de intuição intelectual (noesis), quanto a possibilidade da bem-aventurança, sob a forma do amor (eros). Atualizá-las é o propósito da ascese a que se dedica o filósofo platônico. Esta dissertação busca reconstruir hipoteticamente, a partir de Proclo, este caminho de autoconhecimento do Neoplatonismo Tardio, partindo de uma investigação de suas raízes na religião grega, em Platão e em Plotino

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2007.
Title from file title page. Timothy M. Renick, committee chair; Tim O'Keefe, Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr., committee members. Electronic text (110 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Jan. 18, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-110).

Il s’agit dans cette thèse de penser les conditions de possibilité d’une philosophie de l’art à partir d’un examen précis et rigoureux de la production artistique picturale de la Renaissance italienne. Cherchant d’abord à définir une méthode, nous étudions en détail les présupposés de l’iconologie afin d’établir ce qui nous en semble être les limites. Puis, forts de cette analyse, nous en déduisons la nécessité d’une philosophie de l’art qui, loin de se contenter d’une analyse érudite de l’icône, cherche à extraire la signification de l’œuvre à partir de sa forme sensible. Si les pensées de Platon, Hume et Kant nous semblent échouer à proposer pareille démarche, les leçons de Hegel consacrées à l’Esthétique nous offrent un schéma analytique opérant, grâce auquel l’espace, le dessin et le coloris fournissent le lieu même à partir duquel peut surgir le sens. C’est ainsi que les œuvres de Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Léonard de Vinci et Michel-Ange constituent le matériau artistique grâce auquel nous mettons à l’épreuve la pertinence du triptyque espace-dessin-coloris, tel qu’il fut élaboré par Hegel. En outre, ce sont les pensées philosophiques consacrées au lieu, à la lumière ou encore à la couleur que nous convoquons – tant chez Thomas d’Aquin que chez Marsile Ficin, chez Albert le Grand que chez Plotin, chez Aristote que chez Nicolas de Cues – afin de proposer un sens philosophique des œuvres picturales, que ne nous semblent paradoxalement pas pouvoir délivrer les théories de l’art que proposent ces derniers. Chercher le sens philosophique des œuvres à même leur sensibilité et non dans une théorie de l’image, tel est donc le projet essentiel de cette thèse
This thesis discusses the conditions of possibility for a philosophy of art based on a precise and rigorous analysis of the pictorial artistic production of the Italian Renaissance. After attempting at defining a method, the presuppositions of iconology are studied in detail with a view to establishing what appear to be their limits. On the basis of this analysis, the author deduces the need for a philosophy of art which, rather than just carrying out an erudite analysis of the icon, endeavours to extract the meaning of a work of art on the basis of its sensitive shape. While Plato, Hume and Kant’s thoughts seem to fail in proposing such an approach, Hegel’s teachings dedicated to aesthetics offer an operational analytical framework, thanks to which space, drawing and colour provide the very place out of which sense can come into being.Hence the works of Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo constitute the artistic material out of which the relevance of the space-drawing-colour triptych, as developed by Hegel, is put to the test. Furthermore, reference is made to the philosophical thoughts on space, light and colour – as expressed by authors like Thomas Aquinas, Marsilio Ficino, Albert the Great, Plotinus, Aristotle and Nicholas of Kues – with a view to proposing a philosophical sense of pictorial works of art, which paradoxically the theories of art provided by these authors do not seem able to deliver. It is the fundamental aim of this thesis to look for the philosophical sense of works of art through their own sensitiveness and not through a theory of the image

Partiendo de la metafísica neoplatónica, vemos cómo el hombre indaga en la reconversión al origen. Según dicha filosofía, el hombre se encuentra en lo más bajo del estatus, es decir, la materia como tercera hipóstasis. Utilizando la belleza intentará alcanzar en un movimiento ascendente dicho origen, de ahí que el hombre griego de la academia de Atenas busque la perfección en las diferentes obras artísticas, ya sea utilizando la proporción áurea en estructuras arquitectónicas o cánones de belleza en esculturas. Con la única finalidad de reconvertir la materia informe en principio espiritual, que es sinónimo de belleza. Belleza es, por tanto, el estado entre el uno y la primera hipóstasis, Afrodita, nacida de la fuente primigenia, que es Urano. Entre el Medievo y el pensamiento moderno surge un humanismo renacentista, un movimiento de transición en el desarrollo del pensamiento occidental que retoma textos clásicos y los reinterpreta, asimilando la cultura romana y la griega, lo cual facilita la aparición de la academia neoplatónica. Agrupada en torno a la figura de Masilio Ficino desarrolla una forma de pensar, nuevos sentimientos y aspiración ideal de la vida. De esta manera, surge la idea de que el amor genera movimientos del alma que dan lugar a la felicidad en la Tierra y después en la vida ultraterrenal. La escuela florentina se nutre de las enseñanzas neoplatónicas. El amor es el movimiento de reconversión y retorno de la materia, capaz de alejar al hombre de lo terrenal hacia etapas superiores. La alegoría de la primavera y El nacimiento de Venus representan dicha idea. Entre los siglos XVII-XIX se produce un cambio en la búsqueda del Dios. Aunque se sigue manteniendo una relación con la idea de lo divino, Kant anuncia un cambio. El dios griego entendido como finito toma una naturaleza infinita: ello se fundamenta en que la razón comprende la noción de infinito en la naturaleza y el alma. Y, en segundo lugar, en el Romanticismo, el Dios entendido por Kant como naturaleza infinita adquiere un papel de eterna revelación: primero, en la infinitud que se percibe en la naturaleza; después, en el espíritu finito y, por último, en Dios manifestado en lo más profundo de la naturaleza: a través de su lado más oscuro, reflejado en leyendas e imágenes alucinadas del inconsciente humano. Finalmente, el Dios entendido como símbolo artístico e idea, en su capacidad de crear múltiples singulares, utilizando al sujeto para manifestarse en toda su plenitud, de forma ilimitada. Artistas como Velázquez desarrollan símbolos sublimes que no agotan sus posibilidades y que siempre son abiertos, claro ejemplo del proceso manifiesto del Dios creador e inagotable. De ahí que la grandeza del artista sea formular símbolos e ideas con capacidad de posibilitar singulares de reflexión, acción o sensibilidad estética.

Zwischen 1630 und 1650 vollzog sich ein Wandel in Athanasius Kirchers Vermittlung des musikalischen Wissens: Musik konzipierte er im Zusammenhang der Universalwissenschaft immer mehr als Zeichen des Weltbildes im Kontext einer christlich-neuplatonischen Pansemiose. Die Studie arbeitet dies am Beispiel der "Institutiones mathematicae" (ca. 1630), der "Mathematica curiosa" (ca. 1640) und der "Musurgia universalis" (1650) heraus. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt Kirchers Umgang mit seinen Quellen, insbesondere Nikolaus von Kues, Robert Fludd und der Tradition der Philosophia perennis
Between 1630 and 1650, a change in Athanasius Kircher's way to communicate the knowledge of music took place: Within the context of universal science, he conceptualised music increasingly as a symbol for his world view and its Christian-Neoplatonic pansemiosis. This study discusses these issues based on Kircher's "Institutiones mathematicae" (c1630), "Mathematica curiosa" (c1640), and "Musurgia universalis" (1650). Special emphasis lies on Kircher's use of his sources, particularly Nicholas of Cusa, Robert Fludd, and the tradition of Perennial philosophy

Le Druzisme représente un courant philosophico-religieux qui peut être considéré comme une doctrine d'apparence religieuse, de pensée philosophique et systématique, de référence gnostique dans l'histoire de l'Islam. Ses adeptes vivent en communauté hermétique, ses sages (šeiẖs) se retirent dans des réclusions (ẖalwāt) en s'isolant comme des mystiques, ils se livrent à une retraite spirituelle sans pratique religieuse, ils ne se réfèrent à aucune tradition précédente des religions monothéistes, de par leurs écrits ou leurs pratiques. Ils conservent une tradition et une éthique avec un code de conduite et des interdits culinaires. En revanche, le Druzisme est né au sein de l'Isma`ilisme, il établit un lien intellectuel et spirituel avec la philosophie antique et avec le néoplatonisme tout en assimilant des éléments des religions d'orient avec des éléments grecs helléniques. Peut-on alors parler d'une secte de l'Islam, du moment où il n'y a aucun lien avec ce dernier sinon le milieu historique dans lequel celle-ci est vu le jour? Peut-on parler de religion, quand il n'y a aucune religiosité ou pratique religieuse exprimée ou vécue? S'agit-il de dire que l'on est face à une théosophie alors que le lien entre les membres de la communauté n'est pas fondé sur la philosophie et que le commun des Druzes n'est pas philosophe? Comment qualifier ce phénomène d'une communauté dont le lien est une foi qui n'est pas exprimée religieusement, et une doctrine dont le contenu n'est pas révélé, à laquelle s'attachent des membres qui ne le connaissent qu'une fois initiés? En somme, qui sont les Druzes et qu'est-ce que le Druzisme? Existe-t-il un lien entre cette doctrine et la gnose?
Druzism is a philosophico-religious movement which may be considered primarily as a doctrine but with a religious appearance, a systematic and philosophical thinking, with some reference to Gnosticism in the history of Islam. Its adherents live in a community of hermits, its wisemen (šeiẖs) retire in seclusion (ẖalwāt) by isolating themselves like mystics, as they deliver themselves to living in a spiritual retreat, without any religious practice ; they refer to no previous religious traditions even among the monotheistic ones, whether in reference to their sacred writings or religious practice. The Druze adheres to a tradition and a code of ethics and behaviour, as well as to culinary prohibitions. Druzism itself however, was born in the heart of Ismailism, while establishing an intellectual and a spiritual link with both ancient philosophies and neoplatonism, all the while assimilating various element of mid and far-eastern religions, mixed with Greek and Hellenistic ideas. Can we therefore speak of the Druze as if forming a sect of Islam? Can we even speak of a religion where in fact there is no trace of religiosity or religious practice either expressed or lived? Is it possible that we are facing theosophy where the link between the members of the community is certainly not founded on a philosophy? How can one qualify this phenomenon of a community where the main tenet is that of a faith which is not expressed in a religious manner, and a held doctrine the contents of which are not revealed, to which its members adhere, not knowing it fully unless once initiated? In summary, who are the Druzes, and what is Druzism? Is there a link between its doctrine and that of Gnosticism?

La thèse étudie et met en lumière la thématique, centrale dans la philosophie de Marsile Ficin, de la temporalité. L’œuvre de Ficin est, en effet, traversée par ces figures du temps que sont la tradition, la révélation et l’espérance. Pensée cohérente et unitaire, la philosophie de Ficin ne forme pas pour autant un système mais est bien plutôt l’expression d’une dynamique, celle de la pensée renaissante. Dans cette étude, les formes de la temporalité et l’unicité du monde sont examinées à travers l’analyse du Commentaire de la République de Platon par Marsile Ficin qui ne met pas tant l’accent sur les thèmes politiques et éthiques propres au dialogue platonicien mais à la différence de celui-ci se veut explicitement métaphysique et théologique ne serait-ce que parce que les figures de la temporalité y sont conçues comme autant de points de vue métaphysiques à partir desquels sont envisagés le monde et les êtres qui le composent.Ce texte n’ayant pas bénéficié de traduction française moderne, la thèse comble de surcroît une lacune dans les études ficiniennes en proposant pour la première fois une traduction en français des Argumenta in Rempublicam Platonis. Cette version française s’appuie sur l’établissement critique du texte, s’assortit d’une notice, de notes complémentaires et de la possibilité de se référer aux différents témoignages sur lesquels ce travail se fonde. Enfin, la thèse met en évidence une définition proprement ficinienne de la temporalité comme réalité spirituelle et humaine en examinant la question de la genèse et de la généalogie des concepts temporels et en en montrant l’implication cosmologique
The thesis studies and highlights the central theme of temporality in Marsilio Ficino’s philosophy which is a thought crossed by the figures of time that are tradition, revelation and hope. The philosophy of Ficino, which is both a coherent and united thought, is not a system but it is rather the expression of a dynamic, specific to the Renaissance thought. In this study, the forms of the temporality and the unicity of the world are examined through the critical analysis of Marsilio Ficino's Commentary on the Republic of Plato which, unlike the political and ethical themes specific to the platonic dialogue, is expressly metaphysical and theological because the figures of temporality are conceived as so many metaphysical points of view from which are contemplated the world and the beings composing it. As this text did not benefit from a modern French translation, the thesis fills a gap in ficinian studies by proposing for the first time a French translation of the Argumenta in Rempublicam Platonis is proposed for the first time and, this French version, which is based on the critical establishment of the text, includes a notice, additional notes and the possibility of referring to the various sources on which this work is based. Finally, the thesis exposes a strictly ficinian definition of temporality as a spiritual and human reality by dealing with the question of the genesis and genealogy of temporal concepts and showing its cosmological implication

L’ambition de cette thèse, qui se présente en sept chapitres regroupés en trois parties, est de reprendre l’ensemble du Corpus dionysien pour en définir un principe de cohérence : la théologie négative. Dans le sillage des recherches antérieures, souvent centrées sur une des œuvres qui lui sont attribuées ou sur une thématique particulière, on s’est interrogé sur l’histoire et la complexité de plusieurs concepts centraux de l’œuvre : théologie négative, symbole, hiérarchie. Et, en proposant de considérer la Hiérarchie ecclésiastique comme l’achèvement du Corpus – c’est au bref traité de la Théologie mystique qu’on attribuait volontiers cette place – nous montrons comment l’apophase ou la théologie négative s’enrichit, s’approfondit, d’une dimension liturgique, au-delà de l'affirmation et de la négation
The purpose of this thesis, consisting of seven chapters grouped under three sections, is to reconsider the whole dionysian Corpus and to define the principle of its consistency, that is negative theology. Following the previous research, often focusing on one of the treatises or a main theme, we start with the history and the complexity of several key concepts within the Corpus: negative theology, symbol, hierarchy. We suggest that Ecclesiastical Hierarchy should be considered as the final step of Dionysius’ theology (rather than Mystical Theology as usually), and that leads us to study how the apophasis or the negative theology deepens into a liturgical dimension, beyond affirmation and negation

This project traces shifts in understandings of causation from the premodern to the early modern period, focusing on one premodern interpretation of causation as representative of the Neoplatonic period, that of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and comparing this perspective to several early modern thinkers, especially, Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Francis Bacon. For Dionysius, formal and final causation have metaphysical superiority over efficient and material causation. By contrast, beginning in the early modern period, efficient causation, the sense that describes how an object acquires a particular shape, begins to be seen as metaphysically supreme. The main historical and philosophical reasons for this shift in perceived supremacy are the affirmation of the primary-secondary quality distinction, and the rejection of Forms and teleology. The primary-secondary quality distinction allows for reality to be completely quantified, and thereby renders superfluous qualitative approaches to reality, such as formal causation. Similarly, the rejection of Forms and teleology leaves formal causation meaningless. After this historical overview, the philosophical hypothesis that Dionysius's premodern understanding of causation is more amenable to those who want to avoid nihilism is defended: purely scientific notions of causation have no means for providing whatness, intelligibility, or determinacy to the world in a rationally defensible manner, and thus, when pressed, a purely scientific view of the world is without whatness, intelligibility, and determinacy, which, by definition, leads to nihilism. By contrast, a world with causes other than solely scientific causes, specifically, a world with formal (and final) causation such as Dionysius's, allows for whatness, intelligibility, and determinacy, and thereby escapes nihilism because whatness requires Form, intelligibility requires Form and teleology, and determinacy requires teleology (which, in turn, is a supplement to Form). As argued, science studies the world of becoming, and therefore cannot provide the grounds for the world of being (which belongs to metaphysics); to live in a world of pure becoming without being is to have a nihilistic worldview. The epilogue draws a significant implication from this conclusion: the premodern approach invites a necessary revival of natural philosophy because the world of becoming is wider than modern science acknowledges.

Ma thèse montre la présence et le rôle de la métaphysique dans Vérité et méthode. Elle tente de démontrer que Gadamer s'inspire du néoplatonisme pour surmonter le subjectivisme de la modernité et propose une métaphysique à cette fin. Après avoir expliqué comment Gadamer se réapproprie l’héritage de la pensée grecque pour critiquer la modernité en situant son interprétation de Platon par rapport à celle de Heidegger, je montre que Gadamer s’approprie la conception de l’être de Plotin de façon telle qu’il peut s’y appuyer pour penser l’autoprésentation de l’être dans l’expérience herméneutique de la vérité. L’art va, pour ce faire, redevenir sous la conduite du néoplatonisme source de vérité. Gadamer redonne en effet une dignité ontologique à l’art grâce à la notion d’émanation, notion qui permet de penser qu’il y a une présence réelle du représenté dans sa représentation, celle-ci émanant du représenté sans l’amoindrir, mais lui apportant au contraire un surcroît d’être. La notion d’émanation permet ensuite à Gadamer d’affirmer le lien indissoluble qui unit les mots aux choses. En effet, la doctrine du verbe intérieur de Thomas d’Aquin implique ce lien que Platon avait occulté en réduisant le langage, comme la logique, à n’être qu’un instrument de domination du réel. L’utilisation de la notion néoplatonicienne d’émanation permet donc de dépasser la philosophie grecque du logos et de mieux rendre compte de l’être de la langue. Je montre ensuite comment Gadamer radicalise sa pensée en affirmant que l’être qui peut être compris est langage, ce qui veut dire que l’être, comme chez Plotin, est autoprésentation de soi-même. Pour ce faire, Gadamer rattache l’être du langage à la métaphysique néoplatonicienne de la lumière. Les dernières pages de Vérité et méthode rappellent en effet que la splendeur du beau est manifestation de la vérité de l’être. On rattachera alors le concept de vérité herméneutique à ses origines métaphysiques. La vérité est une manifestation de l’être dont on ne peut avoir part que si on se laisse submerger par sa lumière. Loin d’être affaire de contrôle méthodique, l’expérience de la vérité exige de se laisser posséder par ce qui est à comprendre. Je démontre ainsi que Gadamer a découvert dans le néoplatonisme des éléments permettant de s’opposer à la dictature du sujet moderne, dictature qui doit être renversée, car elle masque le réel rapport de l’homme à la vérité en faisant abstraction de la finitude de son existence concrète. La critique du subjectivisme moderne sous la conduite du néoplatonisme ouvre ainsi le chemin vers une métaphysique de la finitude.
My thesis shows the presence and role of metaphysics in Truth and Method. It attempts to show that Gadamer builds upon Neoplatonism to overcome the subjectivism of modernity and offers a metaphysics in this regard. It explains how Gadamer reclaims the legacy of Greek thought to criticize modernity, placing his interpretation of Plato compared to that of Heidegger, I argue that Gadamer appropriates Plotinus’ concept of being in such a way that it may lean to think of self-presentation of being in the hermeneutic experience of truth. In that sense, art is going to be a source of truth under the leadership of Neoplatonism. Gadamer gives an ontological dignity to art through the concept of emanation, a concept which suggests that there is a real presence of the represented in its representation, the latter derived from the represented without weakening it, providing it instead with more being. The concept of emanation then gives Gadamer an opportunity to affirm the indissoluble bond that unites words and things. Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of the inner word indeed implies the link that Plato had covered up by making language, like logic, a mere domination instrument of the real. The use of the Neoplatonic concept of emanation makes it possible to overcome the logos of Greek philosophy and to better account for the being of language. I then show how Gadamer radicalized his thinking as he says that the being that can be understood is language, which means that being, as in Plotinus, is self-presentation. To this end, Gadamer links the being of language to Neoplatonic metaphysics of light. The last pages of Truth and Method recall indeed that the splendor of beauty is an expression for the truth of being. The concept of hermeneutic truth is then connected to its metaphysical origins. Truth is a display for the being in which we can partake only if one gets overwhelmed by its light. Far from being a matter of methodical control, the experience of truth requires to be possessed by what must be understood. In this way, I demonstrate that Gadamer found in Neoplatonism elements to challenge the dictatorship of the modern subject, which must be reversed because it hides the real relationship of man with truth by ignoring the finitude of its concrete existence. The criticism of modern subjectivism led by Neoplatonism opens the way to a metaphysics of finitude.

This thesis is an attempt to understand the efficacy of prayer in Boethius’ 'Consolation of Philosophy.' Prayer is man’s commercium with the divine realm, and so prayer is higher than human thought. The highest stage of prayer in the Consolation is similar to that in Iamblichus’ 'De Mysteriis': man becomes aware of his own deficiency compared to the divine and so turns to prayer. Lower prayers are also effective because they are both immaterial theurgy and spiritual exercises. The circles throughout the work are a crucial instance of these prayers. They constantly purify the Prisoner’s soul of false notions, and restore it to its true state. They lead the Prisoner to discover that his activity of thinking is a form of theurgy. The Consolation reveals that in the life of philosophy there is a mutual interdependence between thought, prayer and theurgy.

Le présent mémoire constitue une tentative de circonscrire - par l’étude d’un corpus textuel principalement emprunté à l’œuvre vernaculaire (allemande) de Maître Eckhart de Hochheim (1260-1328) – le rôle joué par certains motifs conceptuels caractérisant la notion moderne de sujet-agent au sein de la pensée de ce philosophe, théologien et prédicateur. Plus précisément, il y est question de déterminer en quoi le « je » (ich) décrit en plusieurs lieux textuels de l’œuvre d’Eckhart présente les caractères d’autonomie et de transparence à soi qui sont l’apanage de la subjectivité telle que la conçoit majoritairement une certaine modernité postcartésienne. Notre argument, qui se déploie sur trois chapitres, adopte sur le corpus faisant l’objet de cette étude et la conceptualité qu’il déploie, trois perspectives différentes – lesquelles perspectives sont respectivement d’ordre ontologique (premier chapitre), existentiel ou éthique (second chapitre) et anthropologique (troisième chapitre). La première approche – ontologique – explicite le sens que donne Eckhart aux notions d’être, de néant, d’intellect et d’image, ainsi que la manière dont elles se définissent dialectiquement en rapport les unes avec les autres. Le second chapitre, dont l’approche est existentielle, expose les applications éthiques des concepts abordés au chapitre précédent, analysant la méthode de détachement prescrite par Eckhart pour parvenir à l’état de béatitude. Le troisième et dernier chapitre cherche, quant à lui, à définir de quelle manière l’homme se définit par rapport à l’union à laquelle l’invite Eckhart, et ce autant sur le plan spécifique que sur le plan individuel.
The following dissertation attemps to establish the presence of certain conceptual motives pertaining to the modern conception of subjectivity (as exemplified by the cartesian understanding of the self), in the middle-high german works of Master Eckhart of Hochheim, philosopher, theologian and predicator who was born in 1260 and died in 1328. In order to do so, it develops a three-fold argument taking place over three chapters, each of which presents a different approach - a different perspective - on Eckhart’s thought. The first chapter presents an ontological argument designed to explicitate the meaning of the key eckhartian notions of being, nothingness, intellect and image, whereas the second chapter exploits the existential consequences of Eckhart’s outlook on those notions – consequences which in ethical terms translate into the necessity for the human individual to practice a systematic annihilation of oneself in order to achieve an absolutely pure union with God. The third and last chapter of this dissertation attemps to explicitate de notion of “I” (ich), used by Eckhart to designate the identity that the detached human soul and God share, a type of identity in which we find similarities with the modern conception of the self – conception which Heidegger thought of as being entirely absent from precartesian philosophy.

Meister Eckhart exhibits an unprecedented confidence in the transcendental way of thought in medieval philosophy. Eckhart, unlike his predecessors, identifies being as such (ens commune) and God, allowing the most primary determinations metaphysics – ‘being,’ ‘one,’ ‘true,’ ‘good,’ – to function as both metaphysical and theological first principles. Eckhart placed them at the head of his projected Tripartite Opus, a vast work of quaestiones and commentaries whose intelligibility, he insists, requires the prior foundation of a supposed series of a thousand axioms. The table of contents remains, the opus propositionum does not. This thesis argues that what enables Eckhart to pursue the direct application of the transcendentals to the divine also makes it unrealizable. His determination of unity is twofold: as (i) indivisibility, and the standard transcendental conception of unity as a negation of the given positive content of being (ens); as (ii) indistinction, comprehending both the negation of otherness which produces the indivisible and the otherness that is negated. There is an inherent tension between Peripatetic metaphysics and Procline henology. Consequently, the Good is devalued when the Procline One appears within the transcendental perspective. Metaphysics, theology and, a fortiori for Eckhart, ethics, take no consideration of Goodness. I show how this tension gives rise to Eckhart’s association of the divine essence with the Neoplatonic One, while the Peripatetic One and the transcendental “true” function as the explanans of the Trinitarian intellectual self-return. This, in turn, gives rise to the constitutive function of the imago dei, and every imago as such, within that self-relation. Ultimately, this produces a standpoint wherein every essence, only as idea, contains the divine uniform infinity.

The place of virtue in the philosophy of Plotinus Abstract The main intention of this thesis is to clarify some aspects of Plotinus's concept of virtue. Significant part of it is a report of J. M. Dillon's article An ethic for the late anthique sage and its comparison with P. Hadot's essay Plotinus or the simplicity of vision, which form a base for characteristics of a dualism between sensual and spiritual world, the body/soul polarity, and relation between higher and lower virtues. Consequently a relationship of a Plotinian sage towards others is being investigated. The result of this thesis confirms that Dillon's interpretation of a radical distinction between polarities mentioned above is exaggerated and his pronouncement of an absence of the element of concern for others in Plotinus's ethical reflextion is basically mistaken. Key words Plotinus, ethics, virtue, neoplatonism, J. M. Dillon, P. Hadot, higher and lower virtues, relation with other, body and soul, sensual and spiritual world, late anthique philosophy.

This thesis interprets the concept of human being in the work of Maimonides and ibn Rushd, two representatives of major Arab and Jewish medieval philosophy. It combines the ancient Greek philosophical tradition, especially Aristotle, with a religious context. When Maimonides and Ibn Rushd tried to harmonize these two traditions, they had to deal with many opposite views, that stemmed from the difference between religious and ancient world. Behind this intellectual ground have they created the original thesis and approaches to grasping reality, the world and the human being in it. The issue of human being is analyzed in three levels. The first level consists of the relationship between human being and creation, which addresses the question about origin of the world the human soul and the resurrection. The second level, i.e. the man and the world, is devoted to describing a scheme of the world, human knowledge and the theory of prophecy. Ethical and political views are analyzed on the third level, which represents the position of human being in relation to the polis. Keywords Ibn Rushd, Maimonides, Aristotle, Plato, neoplatonism, philosophy, religion, The Koran, Torah, human being, world, creation, eternity, soul, resurrection, emanation, knowledge, illumination, active intellect, prophecy, politics,...