This work is the second part of a critical textual edition that is devoted to an extraordinarily rich collection of manuscripts with equally remarkable historical significance dating from late Christian antiquity.

Excerpt from Die Metaphysik und Ethik des Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita: Im Systematischen Zusammenhange DargestelBis auf den heutigen Tag ist die sogenannte areopagitische Frage noch nicht gelost, obwohl die Litteratur uber dieselbe bereits eine betrachtliche ist. Die erste Erwahnung der areopagitischen Schriften fand auf einer Zusammenkunft der monophysitischen Severianer und der Katholiker zu Konstantinopel im Jahre 532 statt. Bei dieser Konferenz beriefen sich die ersteren auf dieselben, wahrend die letzteren ihre Echtheit bestritten. Aber der Protest hielt nicht lange an; vielmehr (...) hielt man bis zum funfzehnten Jahrhundert an der Authentie dieser Schriften fest, und sowohl in der romischen wie in der syrischen und giechischen Kirche galten sie fur "wunderbare und fast gottliche Schriften." Da begann endlich im funfzehnten Jahrhundert der gelehrte und scharfsinnige Kritiker Laurentius Valla von neuem den Kampf gegen ihre Echtheit, ein Kampf, der bis auf unsere Zeit noch nicht entschieden ist. Die einen suchten mit allen erlaubten und unerlaubten Mitteln die Echtheit der areopagitischen Schriften nachzuweisen, wahrend die anderen im Gegensatz zu ihnen die Unechtheit derselben darzulegen sich bemuhten. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.". (shrink)

The present essay aims first at clarifying Werner Beierwaltes’ understanding of Neoplatonism at large as the accomplishment of Greek philosophy pursued by Plotinus and coherently developed by Proclus. It seeks secondly to locate Beierwaltes’ remarkable effort to trace the “Wirkungsgeschichte” of Neoplatonism. Focus has been placed, thirdly on his understanding of Dionysius Areopagita as the effective mediator of Neoplatonic issues in the Latin philosophical tradition long before the rediscovery of Proclus in the 13. century. Beierwaltes’ understanding of (...) class='Hi'>Dionysius’ “Christian Neoplatonism” as a lucky instance of “Hellenization of Christianity” is finally compared with different exegesis provided by Ivánka and Balthasar in the years immediately preceding Beierwaltes’ remarkable Proclus-monography of 1965. (shrink)

The Epistola de morte apostolorum Petri et Pauli (CPG 6631, CANT 197) is addressed to Timothy, the disciple of the apostle Paul, and attributed to Denys the Areopagite. It contains a hymn on St. Paul, the lament for the loss of Paul and Peter and an eyewitness report on St. Paul’s martyrdom in Rome. Its aim is to legitimize Denys as heir of St. Paul’s theology by linking him with Timothy to whom the main tractates of the Corpus Dionysiacum were (...) sent. There are two recensions of the letter’s text. One recension exists in Syriac and Arminian, the other in Georgian and Latin, both part of hagiographic collections and both translating (lost) Greek exemplars. The two recensions are presented here in first critical editions, provided with philological introductions and a German translation. The oldest witness is a Syriac codex of the 9th century; the Georgian version is in a legendary of the 10th century. The Latin version surfaces in the 13th century and was taken up by the Legenda aurea. An Early New High German translation is edited as well. In addition there is an edition and analysis of the homily BHL 2187, a neglected document (end of the 8th century) for the fusion of Denys, the martyr bishop of Paris, with Denys the Areopagite. (shrink)

Throughout the history of Christian spirituality, it has been held that it is impossible to adequately name God. The Neoplatonic readings of Plato's Parmenides, particularly by Plotinus and Proclus, decisively influenced the course of Western philosophy and theology. From a comparison of the notion of God in Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Epistle III, and in Martin Heidegger's text "Der letzte Gott," I show that there is a common thread, based in the Pauline idea of kenösis.

Throughout the history of Christian spirituality, it has been held that it is impossible to adequately name God. The Neoplatonic readings of Plato's Parmenides, particularly by Plotinus and Proclus, decisively influenced the course of Western philosophy and theology. From a comparison of the notion of God in Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Epistle III, and in Martin Heidegger's text "Der letzte Gott," I show that there is a common thread, based in the Pauline idea of kenösis.

The key to understanding Dionysius is the methodical acceptance of the literary fiction involved in reading an author who tries to recreate the immediateness of the first encounter of pagan wisdom and Christian doctrine. Dionysius’s method consists of the presentation of a Platonic ontology by way of biblical theonyms. These theonyms express whatever we can grasp of God by His self-communication toward us, yet they ultimately cannot reveal Him as He is. It is rewarding to compare biblical theonym (...) and author’s allonym at this point: the allonym “Dionysius Areopagita” expresses how the author wants to be read and received but not who he really is. Th us the Dionysian writings present themselves as if they were the communication of an early Christian author whose objective it is to proclaim the “unknown God” to philosophically educated Greeks, naming Him with the biblical theonyms and explaining them in a Platonic way. (shrink)

The Divine Names explores the different names and metaphoric expressions used in the Bible to refer to God. Dionysius the Areopagite is known as an exponent of positive theology, in the sense that he offers an argumentative and explicit account of the nature of God, relying on the Scripture as a source of knowledge and truth, in contrast to the declared inability of apophatic or negative theology to communicate any knowledge of the divine. Indeed, the Areopagite resorts to the (...) study of biblical terms and to the coinage of hapax, neologisms often derived of known terms with added privative prefixes, in order to refer in some way to the sacred. Our research aims at showing that, for Dionysius, the purpose of pursuing the knowledge of God is not only to grasp the order of the different spheres of existence—present across the Corpus Dionysiacum—but also to connect with Him in hénosis, a living experience of permanent tension towards the Supreme. By focusing in the study of the names of God through exegesis, this paper aims at clarifying eutony, a constant tension towards God, as the central theme of the Byzantine theologian’s thought. (shrink)

This article examines the relationship between light, splendour and beauty in the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. From a systematic analysis of the Corpus Dionysiacum, we will see to what point he forged an aesthetic perspective from the property of “splendour” in comparison with “proportion”, to coordinate the conception of light in Christian Revelation and in Neoplatonic Philosophy.

This essay strives to illustrate the unusual philosophical category of exaiphnēs (“sudden ; instant”) which is testified in Damascius’ De principiis ; Damascius is the last diadochus of Neoplatonic Academy. It will be illustrated how Damascius takes up a rare idea contained in Plato’s Parmenides on the sudden, rigorously adjusting this notion to describe the irreducible transcendence of the ineffable principle with respect to the One, just like the sudden bursts into time without belonging to it. It will therefore be (...) shown how this specificity of exaiphnēs appears to be taken up and enhanced in a Christological key about the Incarnation by Dionysius ps.‑Areopagite, turning somehow the theoretical reflection of the contemporary pagan philosopher Damascius into a Christian one. (shrink)

Este libro de reciente aparición representa una síntesis actualizada de los orígenes, recepciones e influencia del Corpus Dionysiacum. Los tópicos que desarrolla no se limitan a la raíz neoplatónica y su fusión con el cristianismo, sino que explora asimismo las tradiciones que confluyen en el pensamiento de (Pseudo) Dionisio Areopagita y su despliegue en diversas filosofías y teologías que son profundamente afectadas por los modos de lectura del Corpus. La reconocida autoridad de los firmantes y la extensión temática que (...) abarcan constituyen este volumen en una nueva obra de referencia necesaria para los estudios dionisianos y de las recepciones del pensamiento tardo-antiguo en general. (shrink)

This paper offers a brief introduction and interpretation of recent research on cultural techniques in German media studies. The analysis considers three sites of conceptual dislocations that have shaped the development and legacy of media research often associated with theorist Friedrich Kittler: first, the displacement of 1980s and 1990s Kittlerian media theory towards a more praxeological style of analysis in the early 2000s; second, the philological background that allowed the antiquated German appellation for agricultural engineering, Kulturtechniken, to migrate into media (...) and cultural studies; and third, the role of these conceptual dislocations in enriching media-genealogical inquiries into topics such as life, biopolitics, and practice. (shrink)

This article situates the emergence of cybernetic concepts in postwar French thought within a longer history of struggles surrounding the technocratic reform of French universities, including Marcel Mauss’s failed efforts to establish a large-scale centre for social-scientific research with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the intellectual and administrative endeavours of Claude Lévi-Strauss during the 1940s and 1950s, and the rise of communications research in connection with the Centre d’Études des Communications de Masse (CECMAS). Although semioticians and poststructuralists used cybernetic discourse (...) critically and ironically, I argue that their embrace of a ‘textocratic’ perspective – that is, a theory of power and epistemology as tied to technical inscription – sustained elements of the technocratic reasoning dating back to these 1920s efforts to reform French universities. (shrink)

World War II research into cryptography and computing produced methods, instruments and research communities that informed early research into artificial intelligence and semi-autonomous computing. Alan Turing and Claude Shannon in particular adapted this research into early theories and demonstrations of AI based on computers’ abilities to track, predict and compete with opponents. This formed a loosely bound collection of techniques, paradigms, and practices I call crypto-intelligence. Subsequent researchers such as Joseph Weizenbaum adapted crypto-intelligence but also reproduced aspects of its antagonistic (...) precepts. This was particularly true in the design and testing of chat bots. Here the ability to trick, fool, and deceive human and machine opponents was a premium, and practices of agent abuse were admired and rewarded. Recognizing the historical genesis of this particular variety of abuse can help researchers develop less antagonistic methodologies. (shrink)

World War II research into cryptography and computing produced methods, instruments and research communities that informed early research into artificial intelligence and semi-autonomous computing. Alan Turing and Claude Shannon in particular adapted this research into early theories and demonstrations of AI based on computers’ abilities to track, predict and compete with opponents. This formed a loosely bound collection of techniques, paradigms, and practices I call crypto-intelligence. Subsequent researchers such as Joseph Weizenbaum adapted crypto-intelligence but also reproduced aspects of its antagonistic (...) precepts. This was particularly true in the design and testing of chat bots. Here the ability to trick, fool, and deceive human and machine opponents was a premium, and practices of agent abuse were admired and rewarded. Recognizing the historical genesis of this particular variety of abuse can help researchers develop less antagonistic methodologies. (shrink)

World War II research into cryptography and computing produced methods, instruments and research communities that informed early research into artificial intelligence and semi-autonomous computing. Alan Turing and Claude Shannon in particular adapted this research into early theories and demonstrations of AI based on computers’ abilities to track, predict and compete with opponents. This formed a loosely bound collection of techniques, paradigms, and practices I call crypto-intelligence. Subsequent researchers such as Joseph Weizenbaum adapted crypto-intelligence but also reproduced aspects of its antagonistic (...) precepts. This was particularly true in the design and testing of chat bots. Here the ability to trick, fool, and deceive human and machine opponents was a premium, and practices of agent abuse were admired and rewarded. Recognizing the historical genesis of this particular variety of abuse can help researchers develop less antagonistic methodologies. (shrink)

As a young philosopher Gilbert Simondon identified technology as a site of obsession, anxiety, and misunderstanding within contemporary culture. “Culture,” he wrote, “has become a system of defense designed to safeguard man from technics” (Mode of Existence, 1). According to Simondon, technique and technology ubiquitously structured thought and practice, especially in the contemporary world, yet philosophical tradition relegated the technical to an obscure zone of conceptual neglect. Simondon took the intimacy and obscurity that surrounded our relation to the technical as (...) a clarion call to philosophy. Over the course of thirty-odd years of philosophizing, he examined the relation of the technical to the cultural .. (shrink)