Hypotheses of Parmenides

8/12/2019 Hypotheses of Parmenides

1/21

God as the monad in Divine NamesGod and the hypotheses of Parmenides


2/21

Speaking contradictions on God

Dionysius in Divine names speak on God in contradictory terms:

absolute unity congaing in itself plurality

cause of creation completely dissimilar with it

known as the cause absolutely unknown


3/21

Importance of Platos Parmenides

In dialogue of Plato - Parmenideswe can findthe scheme which was used by almost all

neoplatonic philosophers to describe God.

This dialogue is claimed to be the most

unclear and obscure of all dialogues.

Parmenides for Neoplatonists it become aprimal source of information on noetic realm.


4/21

The first part of the dialogue is the discussion between

Parmenides and Socrates on the nature of ideas.Second part is the discussion between Parmenides andAristoteles on the nature of the One - supreme idea of Platos

system.

The second part of the dialogue can be divided in the three

following parts - three hypotheses.This difficult second part of the dialogue is generally agreed to

be one of the most challenging, and sometimes bizarre, pieces in

the whole of the Platonic corpus.

Content of Parmenides


5/21

Hypothesis 1:If supreme idea is one

The one cannot be made up of parts and cannot be a single

part, because a part must be section of a whole, in order to be

different from many.

So it has not a beginning, a center or an end thus it cannot be

spherical or linear. Since the one cannot be touched because

has got no parts, it is neither anywhere nor into itself, because

it would be many.

Therefore the one cannot move and cannot dematerialize in

order to reappear in another place. The one must be itself and

cannot be different from it. The one does not take part in the

flowing of time so it is imperishable.


6/21


7/21

Hypothesis 3: If the one is not

If the one is not it participates of everything different from him, so everything is partiallyone.

Similarity, dissimilarity, bigness, equality and smallness belong to it since the one is

similar to itself but dissimilar to anything that is, but it can be big or small as regardsdissimilarity and equal as concerns similarity.

So the one participates of the non-being and also of the being because you can think of it.Therefore the one becomes and perishes and, since it participates of the non-being, stays.

The one removes from itself the contraries so that it is unnameable, not disputable, notknowable or sensible or showable.

The other things appear one and many, limited and unlimited, similar and dissimilar, thesame and completely different, in movement and stationary, and neither the first nor thelatter thing since they are different from the one and other things. Eventually they are not.So if the one is not, the being is not.


8/21

Neoplatonic interpretations

Neoplatonic philosophers commonly claimed

that third hypothesis is only the continuation of

the first, so for them there were only twohypotheses;First- if the One is not (containing first and third

hypotheses of second part of Parmenides)Second- if the one is (the same with second

hypothesis)


9/21

Names of God

In his treatise Divine Names, Dionysius attributes thefollowing positive names to God to describe God as amonad:

Good

Being, Life, WisdomPower, Peace, Greatness and Smallness, Samenessand Difference, Similarity and Dissimilarity, Restand Motion, Equality

One


10/21


11/21

Neoplatonists use of names

The Neoplatonists in commentaries to Platos Parmenides, used the names to

describe God and noetic realm.Plotinus and Iamblichus, assigned the positive characteristics of the

second hypothesis to the intelligible and intellectual realms, whileapplying the negations of the first to the OneFor Proclus positive attributes of the Parmenides should, be attributed

to the mediating intellectual orders, which are dependent upon the

One as its inferiors. The One itself, can be described only with thenegations formulated by the Parmenides.Only Porphyry does not observe this distinction between the first and

second hypotheses as referring to the One and the realm of the

Intellect.


12/21

Dionysius use of names

Dionysius, like Porphyry, can be seen as applying the first

and second hypotheses of the Parmenidesto the same

supreme principle, dividing the hypotheses according to theappropriate functions of the divine:

the first hypothesis expresses God in his transcendent statethe second hypothesis describes God in his creative aspect

Dionysius is original in creating new - Christian vision, or is

he only following Porphyry?


13/21

God described and beyond

description.

By using these names, Dionysius discusses the aspects of

God by which he is both the very essence of these names

and beyond them:In this way, Dionysius attributes both the second

hypothesis of Platos Parmenides (that the One is) and

the first hypothesis (that the One is not) to God.

The Divine Namesis, then, an exposition of the supremacy

of the Godhead, both as to how it encompasses and how

it simultaneously surpasses the totality of creation.


14/21

God as the Good

In Chapter 4 of the Divine Names, Dionysius speaks on

name of good. This is averring name for the others like:

light, beautiful, love, ecstasyand zeal.

For platonic tradition Sun was always the best way to

describe God.

Sun makes all things visible and gives life to all things.It cannot be perceived itself because it blinds the

observing eye.


15/21

God as the One

God is principally oneness in and of himself, and he existsin a state of remaining within himself (mon). Even whenGod processes outward to create the universe, he remains

within himself.His oneness shapes the universe. This quality of unity isshared with the rest of the universe in so far as everything

has some degree of unity which it derives from itsparticipation in the divine oneness.Name of the One is connected with the name Perfect,because to be perfect means to be One.


16/21

Beginning, middle and the end

Dionysius says that God is the creative source, middle, and end ofall things (DN 824A) he follows Proclus:The first principle is beginning and middle and end, but he is nothimself divided into beginning and middle and end; for he is thebeginning of all things because all things are directed towards him;for all pangs of desire and all natural striving are directed towardsthe One, as the sole Good; and he is the middle because all the

centres of existent things, whether intelligible, intellectual, psychicor sensible, are established in the One; so that the One is thebeginning, the middle and the end of all things, but in relation tohimself he possesses none of these, seeing that he possesses no othertype of multiplicity. (Komentarz do Parmenidesa1115, 271116, 1)


17/21

Being, life and wisdom

The Platonic triad of Being, Life and Intellect plays a central role in the

Dionysian system, (chapters 57 of the Divine Names). It was also of the

most importance in pagan systems.In systems of Athenian Platonists (Proclus) this triad serves to describe

noetic realm, which is divided to triads and enneads which corresponds

pagan gods.

Unlike the Athenian Platonists, but like Porphyry, Dionysius places Being,

Life and Wisdom within the One as its attributes.

Dionysius uses the triad of Being, Life and Intellect (replacing Intellect

with Wisdom) to Christianize the Neoplatonic triad, so that it refers to

God himself, not to an aspect of the second hypostasis and noetic cosmos.


18/21

Status of Divine Names

For Dionysius and all ancient authors who knew neoplatonicphilosophy it was obvious that he only speaks on God inneoplatonic manner.Everybody understood that they were names of God and thesupreme ideas, and paradigms of all things.

However in all Christian tradition Christ himself was the Logoscontaining all ideas and paradigms in himself. For Dionysius

Christ is a person of Trinity which is above all, also above names,because Trinity is above all.

So if God is transcendent can we see Divine Names as mediative

beings existing separately between God and creatures?


19/21

What Dionysius says about the

status of Divine names

They are paradigms (paradeigmata) - forms of all creationsThey are providences (pronoias), because they are

expression of Gods intentions (designs) of how the world

will be created.They are acts of God s will (energeias) they are specific

acts of unmeasured and infinite activity of God.They are active symbols playing important role in

ascension of the soul to God.


20/21

Names as ideas (exemplars)

The exemplars (paradeigmata) of everything

preexist as a transcendent unity within It. It brings forth

being as a tide of being. We give the name of "exemplar"to those principles which preexist as a unity in God and

which produce the essences of things. Theology calls

them predefining, divine and good acts of will which

determine and create things and in accordance withwhich the Transcendent One predefined and brought

into being everything that is. (DN V, 8, 824 C).


21/21

Names as providences

I do not think of the Good as one thing, Being as another,Life and Wisdom as yet other, and I do not claim that there arenumerous causes and different Godheads (theothetas), all

differently ranked, superior and inferior, and all producingdifferent effects. No. But I hold that there is one God for allthese good processions and that he is the possessor of thedivine names of which I speak and that the first name tells of

the universal Providence of the one God, while the othernames reveal general or specific ways in which he actsprovidentially. (DN V, 2, 816 C 817 A)

Documents

Hypotheses of Parmenides