Lexis (Dec 2021)
Ipermetafisica neoplatonica
Abstract
The essay aims at pointing out the origins of Damascius’ ineffable principle. In Damascius’ De principiis the first principle is totally unknowable, since it is beyond One; this radical thesis is not similar to the speculation from Proclus to Plotinus but it has a close relationship only to Iamblichus, more than two centuries before Damascius. It will be argued that placing a principle beyond One was risky, because it rejects the henologic paradigm, traditional in the Neoplatonic system. Therefore Iamblichus did not fully develop his proposal and was resumed only by Damascus in his theoretical radicalism. As a result the passages in which Iamblichus spoke of an ineffable principle superior to One are preserved only by Damascius and are almost unknown to all the authors in the middle.
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