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Die Glosse Suda ε 1756 wird in der Forschung mit der von Damaskios von Damaskos verfaßten Vita des Philosophen Isidoros in Verbindung gebracht. Tatsächlich aber steht sie in engerem Zusammenhang mit der aus dem Werk des Johannes Antiocheus entnommenen Glosse Suda β 246 und ist daher aus dem Corpus des Damaskios zu streichen und Ioannes Antiocheus zuzuschreiben.

Damaskios (5./6. Jh.) ist der letzte Scholarch der Platonischen Akademie und zugleich der letzte systematische Denker der paganen Antike. Die von Paşcalău vorgelegte Arbeit untersucht die zentralen Themen der Damaskenischen Metaphysik, deren originellster Zug in der Überbietung des neuplatonischen Transzendenz-Diskurses und in der Setzung eines Prinzips jenseits des „Einen" besteht. Die Dialektik, die Damaskios entwickelt, um vom „Unsagbaren" jenseits des Einen zu sprechen, bildet zweifellos die konsequenteste Theorie des Absoluten in der abendländischen Geistesgeschichte. Paşcalău analysiert Damaskios’ Argumente (...) für die Annahme eines absolut transzendenten Prinzips sowie die Methodik, die zu einem „unartikulierbaren Bewusstsein" des Absoluten hinleitet. Im Lichte des vertieften Transzendenzbewusstseins erweisen sich alle Konzepte der Metaphysik als „unartikulierbare Begriffe" (arrhetoi ennoiai), die „das Unsagbare" einzuholen versuchen und dabei ständig scheitern. Paşcalău zeigt, dass die Vorwürfe des „Mystizismus", die vielfach gegen Damaskios vorgebracht wurden, eben aufgrund dieser radikalisierten Theorie des Absoluten unhaltbar sind: Die unio mystica der Seele mit dem „Einen" scheitert bei Damaskios wegen der Einheits-Transzendenz des „Unsagbaren". Was bleibt, ist die Einsicht in die Unerreichbarkeit des ersten Urgrundes und die Selbstbescheidung des Menschen angesichts dieser „überwältigenden Wahrheit". (shrink)

Das Denken des letzten Leiters der Platonischen Akademie bis zu ihrer Schließung im Jahre 529 fand bislang selbst im engeren Kontext der Neuplatonismusforschung wenig Beachtung. Dabei kann man das System des Damaskios ebenbürtig neben die Entwürfe Plotins und Proklos' – mithin der anerkanntermaßen einflußreichsten antiken Neuplatoniker – stellen. Es ist nicht nur die letzte, radikale Durcharbeitung aller zentralen schulinternen Fragen, sondern zugleich eine eigenständige Synthese von Lösungsansätzen zu fast allen Grundfragen der antiken Philosophie. Auf dem Boden einer konvergenten Durchdringung (...) des Platonischen und des Aristotelischen Denkens gelangt Damaskios zu Einsichten, die weit voraus in die Zukunft weisen, insbesondere was die Theorie des Absoluten, Ontologie, Erkenntnistheorie, Seelenlehre oder das Verständnis des Wesens von Zeit und Raum angeht. (shrink)

Analyzing the reasons why we fail to grasp genuinely first principles, this book gives a new perspective on how to understand the meaning of the radical aporetism in the treatise on the first principles written by Neoplatonic philosopher Damaskios. Analysant les raisons de nos échecs à dire, connaître et concevoir authentiquement les principes premiers, ce livre offre une compréhension nouvelle du sens et du rôle de l’aporétique radicale du traité des Principes Premiers du néoplatonicien Damaskios.

“Biography” is a sober, precise and modern word. Like other words formed from a Greek root, it has a competent and knowing air. It makes a good appearance in the summary of reviews, on the platform at conferences, between “biology” and “bibliography,” between “necrology” and “radiography,” in that scientific elite of the lexicon that travels in “business” class from one language to another, always at home in the time belts, hotel lobbies, conference rooms or amphitheaters. Compared with this prosperity, the (...) word “Life” is old-fashioned, a poor relative doomed to retirement homes. In the period between the two wars it disappeared from bookstore windows and book jackets. The hesitations of André Maurois, the author of Aspects de la biographie (1928), are characteristic of a transition: he wavered between La Vie de Disraeli (1927), Ariel ou la vie de Shelley (1923), Prométhée ou la vie de Balzac (1965) and Byron (1930). We sense that the title Vie was on the way out or had to yield to a proper name or an allegorical figure. However, it was a word in good standing, nobly Latin in origin, as great a signore in its class as those Massimi or Colonna who claimed their ancestors were mentioned by Titus Livy. Its genealogy is still more ancient, if we recall that its metonymic and literary meaning in Latin is a translation of the Greek word Bios, which the Hellenes, inventors of the genre and who had a more pedantic use of their language than we do, were content to use up until the end. “Biography,” according to Liddell-Scott, is not found in Antiquity except in a very late neo-Platonian, Damaskios, who put this humorless escogriffe into circulation when twilight was descending on the Roman Empire, between the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., at the dawn of the Middle Ages. It made its entrance into modern languages in the last quarter of the 17th century, when the humanism of the Renaissance was coming to an end, and the Enlightenment was beginning its rise. This late and ill-boding word began a slow ascension, long delayed: it did not come into usage outside the circles of antiquarians until the 19th century. The old word “Life” proudly kept its importance until the ‘20s of our era in the particularly conservative language of titles of works. Its definitive effacement to the profit of “biography” brought that of the word “memoirs” or the word “confessions,” which yielded to “autobiography,” while “hagiography” without being able to impose itself so well in usage, took much gravity and credibility away from the “Lives of the Saints.”. (shrink)

In a 1997 paper, Salvatore Lilla pinpointed multiple textual parallels between Damascius and the Pseudo-Dionysius, showing certain conceptual parallels. For instance, both Ps.-Dionysius and Damascius speak of the first cause, or God, as being all things, i.e. as “encompassing” (περιληπτική) or as “anticipating” (προληπτική) all things, at the same time that God transcends all things. In my chapter I expand on Lilla’s findings by showing how Ps.-Dionysius’ conception of God fits more closely with Damascius’ framework for the One, especially Damascius' (...) description of the triad of principles (i.e. the One-All, All-One, and Unified) at the One’s level which closely parallels Ps.-Dionysius’ description of the Christian Trinitarian persons (i.e. the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). The chapter also shows striking parallels between Damascius and Ps.-Dionysius elevating divine revelation as a primary means of communicating knowledge about the first cause’s mode of being (correcting certain claims of Lilla), while it also shows how the parallels drawn between Proclus’ henadology and Ps.-Dionysius make more sense when looking at Damascius’ own adaptation of Proclus’ henadology with his conception of the One’s triad of principles. (shrink)