Theory of Systems, Systems Metaphysics and Neoplatonism

Science has been developed from the rational-empirical methods, having as a consequence, the representation of existing phenomena without understanding the root causes. The question which currently has is the sense of the being, and in a simplified way, one can say that the dogmatic religion lead to misinterpretations, the empirical sciences contain the exact rational representations of phenomena. Thus, Science has been able to get rid of the dogmatic religion. The project for the sciences of being looks to return to reality its essential foundations; under the plan of theory of systems necessarily involves a search for the meaning of Reality.

Cartografia de Orfeu:analogia e assurreição nas Soledades de Luis de Góngora y Argote

O tema desta Dissertação de Mestrado é a análise dos conceitos de analogia e assurreição (objetos formais) na obra Soledades (objeto material) de Luis de Góngora, bem como suas implicações filosóficas e formais. Pretendi fazer uma análise do poema, tendo em vista perseguir a seguinte hipótese: a desmesura e a desproporção que as Soledades apresentam não são fruto de um mero capricho estilístico. Elas nascem de uma intervenção do furor poético, entendido como furor divino. Góngora teve acesso a essas concepções mediante o influxo de ideias herméticas e neoplatônicas na Península Ibérica. Tais influxos são responsáveis por uma amplificação especialmente aguda da doutrina da analogia. O desdobramento máximo dessa ênfase no princípio da analogia é propriamente a assurreição, tal como definida por Claude-Gilbert Dubois. A partir desses elementos, esta Dissertação de Mestrado pretendeu proceder a uma análise de alguns motivos, cenas e trechos do poema narrativo Soledades, de Luis de Góngora y Argote, mostrando como ele elabora a doutrina da analogia de proporcionalidade e em que momento essa analogia aguda produz a assurreição, ou seja, o corte transversal na hierarquia dos corpos institucionais, movimento este em geral entendido em termos teológicos e políticos como heresia. Por outro lado, há a importante relação entre hermetismo, neoplatonismo e literatura na Renascença, bem como a maneira pela qual a doutrina do furor poético se infiltrou nas artes e na poesia espanholas por via italiana nos séculos XVI e XVII. Concentrei-me no conceito de assurreição e na análise do deslocamento metafísico-teológico das analogias de proporcionalidade presentes nas Soledades, cotejando-as com a distribuição dos lugares naturais de cada elemento do cosmos, fixada sobretudo por Santo Tomás de Aquino, a maior autoridade da teologia católica na Península Ibérica do século XVII

John R.A. Mayer fonds, 1963-2007

John R.A. Mayer (de Berncastle) was a professor in the Philosophy Department at Brock University from 1965 to 1997. During his career at Brock he served as Chair of the Philosophy Department and as Associate Dean of Arts and Science. In 1972 he conceived the Master of Philosophy Program, along with G.M.C. Sprung. He was also a special member of the Brock Philosophical Society, a group of Brock alumni, faculty, students and Niagara citizens, which promoted an open and free discussion of ideas.

Émanation et métaphysique de la lumière dans Vérité et méthode de Gadamer

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.

Être et image : une approche de la notion de sujet chez Maître Eckhart

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.

Cosmología en la obra de Dante Alighieri

Este ensayo busca mostrar la síntesis del pensamiento griego y cristiano en materia de cosmología, síntesis que operó a lo largo de la edad media y que encontró su mayor expresión literaria en Dante.

Plotino y Grosseteste: El neoplatonismo en la cosmología medieval

En este trabajo se estudia el caso de la cosmología del filósofo y científico Robert Grosseteste como un ejemplo de la notable influencia del neoplatonismo en la ciencia medieval. Uno de los propósitos de la cosmología de Grosseteste consistió en explicar la secuencia efectiva de la creación del cosmos. Sostengo que la explicación que ofrece Grosseteste acerca de la creación es una expresión renovada de algunas ideas de Plotino a propósito de cómo el Uno engendra lo múltiple. Me interesa resaltar tres aspectos de la estrecha relación entre el sistema cosmológico de Grosseteste y el sistema metafísico de Plotino: (1) Unidad de principio, (2) Mecanismos de generación y (3) Unidad del sistema.

Antecedentes histórico-filosóficos da problemática do tempo e do mal no freiheitsschrift de schelling: aproximações gnósticas

This thesis aims better understanding the relation between time and evil in Schelling s Freiheitsschrift, having its starting point in approximations from Gnosticism. For that purpose, before approaching that relation, it is reviewed (chapter I) the question of Gnosticism, a strain of thought essentially concerned with the problem of time and permeated by the belief in an evil nature of creation, and which is alleged to have significantly influenced certain ideas of Schelling. An evaluation of approximations between Gnosticism, gnosis and German thought follows (chapter II), as well as an evaluation of Schellingian aproximations to Gnosticism (chapter III). Then, the Freiheitsschrift is analysed as the text where Schelling, having taken hold of a very distinct appropriation of Gnosticism, goes beyond Kantian theodicy (chapter IV). Some interrogations about whether key ideas of Schellingian philosophy (about gnosis, creation, duality, time, and evil) are conceived in a way that is essentially different from that of historic Gnosticism, despite the much that has been said to the contrary, are then addressed (chapter V). The proposal of a Platonic-Plotinian key to the understanding of the relations between time and evil in the Freiheitsschrift comes next (chapter VI), and then gives way to the concluding remarks (chapter VII). We perceive that Gnosticism and Neoplatonism are systems of thought that sometimes converge, and that German thought is one of the places of this convergence. Notwithstanding this perception, it is possible to affirm that Schellingian thought, with its valorization of time and of a certain perception of evil, is essentially anti-gnostic, despite some contrary observations

A Metafísica da luz em Marcílio Ficino.

The aim of the present dissertation constitutes to analyse the way in how light assumes the meaning of universal bond in the cosmovision of Marsilio Ficino, especially from his works Quid sit lumen, De Sole, De Amore and De Vita. The influence of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) in the history of occidental thought is impressive. Besides having translated to Latin the important texts of the neoplatonic tradition, Ficino presided over the Academy of Careggi, congregating important humanists in the top of the Renaissance. His treatises on love, beauty, light, magic and immortality of the soul have influenced strongly the production of other thinkers. The subject of light is of fundamental importance among his works since it is deeply related with all the other aspects of his philosophy. For him, light is spiritual emanation that perpasses everything without staining itself. Originated how the divine goodness, the light blows up in beauty in multiplicity, setting fire on the soul that truily contemplates it and that identifies whith it. The starting point of this loving relation between man and deity is, therefore, the physical world, that occults in itself the metaphysical light.

Nexus: da relacionalidade do princípio à metafísica do inominável em Nicolau de Cusa

We indicate the idea of nexus or conexio, thought of as intelligible connection with the intelligent, the foundation on which the reason why you can understand and name, even if inadequately, what the intellect sees incomprehensible and unnameably. Thus, it opens a way for our research: we will take the idea of nexus as fundamental to the interpretation of the divine names and the "metaphysics of the unnameably" and we show how the divine names, mainly in possest, mirrored in the Trinity, relatedness of the principle and therefore also the nexus. For that you need to think some preliminary questions: we will place Nicholas of Cusa in the tradition of medieval Christian Neoplatonism, we resume some discussions on the problem of naming and the philosophy of language in his thinking, we will reflect such thinking is molded from active dialogue with the tradition and how it is your speculation is founded upon the dynamic and dialectical relationship between philosophy and theology to be thought of in our text using the relationship between faith and understandig (intellectus). After introductory clarify these issues we will come to consider introductory understanding of the Trinitarian Beginning and speculation about the nexus taking as its starting point from where the De venatione sapientiae nexus or conexio is designed as a hunting field of wisdom and the First Book of De docta ignorantia where the maximum is now thought of as one and triune. From the Second Book of the same work and the Idiota. De mente we will show in what sense the universe and men, as imago dei, imitate the eternal Trinity. Finally, we will resume the notion of the scientia aenigmatica of De beryllo and some information that will clarify that Nicholas assumes the divine names as enigmas. Finally, we will try to show that the enigmatic or symbolic names also mirror the triune Beginning principle. So, before we return some traces of this aspect in some divine names and texts of the "late period" and then conclude with that which in itself already indicates the nexus and therefore the trinity: possest

Clarissimo speculo bonitatis Dei : o mundo de Tomás de Celano e a sua leitura de mundus

The aim of this study is to understand the version of St. Francis of Assisi created by Friar Thomas of Celano in his hagiographic works. That study also it examines how the Order of Friars Minor and the Papacy have understood the relationship between Christians and the world and turned thisunderstanding in a version of the Saint. Factors such as the replacement of Neoplatonism byAristotelianism as philosophical paradigm and economic and social changes have contributed to change the interpretation of the biblical mandate to not love the world , no longer interpreted as materiality, but as an order for Christians to flee sin. The rejection of the world was replaced by a greater appreciation of nature and society. Moreover, increasingly, the body went from enemy to friend, becoming the brotherbody. Such analysis is important to review the idea, so common in the historiography of what MaxWeber called Worldly Asceticism, the Christian life lived in society, only emerged in Protestantism in opposition to monasticism. The mendicant orders, especially the minority tried during the thirteenth century, the period of analysis of this work, experience the loving nature of Christianity and acting,through preaching and charity in the cities.To make this work, were analyzed the hagiographic discourse (on San Francisco) made by Thomas of Celano, Vita beati Francisci (called Vita Prima) and Memorial in desideiro anime (named Vita Secunda) and, from this, understand the Celano´s interpretation on how it should be the Christian's relationship with the world. The world ceased to be adistorted reflection of a perfect reality, becoming the perfect reflection of God's goodness.

Newton’s Metaphysics of Space as God’s Emanative Effect

In several of his writings, Isaac Newton proposed that physical space is God’s “emanative effect” or “sensorium,” revealing something interesting about the metaphysics underlying his mathematical physics. Newton’s conjectures depart from Plato and Aristotle’s metaphysics of space and from classical and Cambridge Neoplatonism. Present-day philosophical concepts of supervenience clarify Newton’s ideas about space and offer a portrait of Newton not only as a mathematical physicist but an independent-minded rationalist philosopher.

El valor estructural de la magia en el universo pastoril de Lope de Vega

The different aspects of magic became an essential ingredient of bucolic universe since the origin of pastoral genre. Within an idealized and utopic frame, magic built a bridge towards transcendence, and balanced the disharmony created by human love emotions within Arcadian microcosm. This concept of magic became infused to Sixteenth century pastoral novel through Neoplatonism and Hermetic tradition. From a narratological point of view, magic episodes became indispensable to complete the philosophical meaning of the works. Lope de Vega, in La Arcadia, published in 1598, fully participated from this tradition, though he will approach the convention from a particular dramatic-like perspective. And it was precisely in pastoral comedias where the Fénix ends up deconstructing bucolic code to remodel it as a mere vestige of the tradition and treat magic as a humorous ingredient.

El recurso a Dionisio Areopagita por sobre Aristóteles en algunos pasajes del Comentario a las Sentencias de Santo Tomás

El Comentario a las Sentencias, una obra de juventud del Aquinate, permite reconocer la presencia de Aristóteles en su pensamiento ya desde el comienzo de su producción filosófica. Uno de los temas donde claramente se nota su influencia es en la teoría del conocimiento, pues el joven dominico parece aceptar los aspectos centrales de la visión del Estagirita, aunque evidentemente las fórmulas y desarrollos no tienen aquí la precisión que se observa en escritos posteriores y en las que ciertamente uno encuentra un Santo Tomás más maduro. En el presente artículo quisiera desarrollar algunos elementos que surgen al analizar la importancia que se da en esta obra a lo sensible. En efecto, la frecuencia con la que el Aquinate recurre a Dionisio para completar e incluso corregir algunas afirmaciones de Aristóteles en este tema no puede menos que llamar la atención. A la necesidad de lo sensible se suma por ejemplo el hecho de concebir a la creación como símbolo de Dios o a lo material como un elemento mediador, dos temas de clara inspiración dionisiana. Como intento mostrar, aun reconociendo la presencia de Aristóteles, la posición de Santo Tomás en el tema de lo sensible y sobre todo en el papel que deben ocupar los sentidos no pueden ser comprendidos cabalmente sin reconocer en qué medida su pensamiento es tributario del Areopagita.