PLATO’S APATHETIC THEOLOGY
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008
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Information about authors: Filin Dmitriy Anatolyevich, PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor of Department of Culturology, Kemerovo State University of Culture (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). E-mail: dmitri.filin1@yandex.ru
Annotation: Plato was the first consistently thinking apothatical theologian in the history. All “upper” hypostasis of his philosophy he determines apophatically, so as the concepts of light and beauty. Plato is the first philosopher who explains rationally the transition from the unity of oneness to plurality, from non-being to being applying the dialectical method in his dialogue “Parmenides.” In this dialogue, the God transcendental to all existent predicates is thought as the Nothing. Herewith He is the Nothing that generates the plurality. That is actually He contains in Himself the unity in all fullness of its senses. Thereby He is the integral whole of over-and-non predicates of all being. In fact, Plato for the first time in the history justifies the use of the apothatical method without which the systematization of the apothatic theology is impossible. In the Plato’s apothatic the divine being is always a mystery which is the fundamental principal of our thinking. It is the difference between Plato and Kant. For the latter one, the concept of noumenon has exclusively negative extension towards the sensitive experience. That means that in that period the concept of the divine mystery keeps gradually leaving the West European culture. One can see the reduction of the divine mystery in the total immanentism of the Absolute to the human cognition in the Hegel’s philosophy. According to Feuerbach, it is a fantasy child and entirely disappears out of his philosophy. Due to the fact that the concept of the Divine Mystery keeps gradually leaving the life and the thought of the XVIII–XIX centuries, the human existence appears as the bad infinity of the human mysteries. To put an end to the absurdity of life, the modern human should use Plato’s experience, his apothatic teaching of Unity of Oneness.
Keywords: Plato, apothatic, hypostasis, intelligence, good, beauty, light, the unity of oneness, plurality, dialectic, mystery, noumenon.
DOI:
Article ID in the RSCI:
Article file: Download
Information about authors: Filin Dmitriy Anatolyevich, PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor of Department of Culturology, Kemerovo State University of Culture (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). E-mail: dmitri.filin1@yandex.ru
Annotation: Plato was the first consistently thinking apothatical theologian in the history. All “upper” hypostasis of his philosophy he determines apophatically, so as the concepts of light and beauty. Plato is the first philosopher who explains rationally the transition from the unity of oneness to plurality, from non-being to being applying the dialectical method in his dialogue “Parmenides.” In this dialogue, the God transcendental to all existent predicates is thought as the Nothing. Herewith He is the Nothing that generates the plurality. That is actually He contains in Himself the unity in all fullness of its senses. Thereby He is the integral whole of over-and-non predicates of all being. In fact, Plato for the first time in the history justifies the use of the apothatical method without which the systematization of the apothatic theology is impossible. In the Plato’s apothatic the divine being is always a mystery which is the fundamental principal of our thinking. It is the difference between Plato and Kant. For the latter one, the concept of noumenon has exclusively negative extension towards the sensitive experience. That means that in that period the concept of the divine mystery keeps gradually leaving the West European culture. One can see the reduction of the divine mystery in the total immanentism of the Absolute to the human cognition in the Hegel’s philosophy. According to Feuerbach, it is a fantasy child and entirely disappears out of his philosophy. Due to the fact that the concept of the Divine Mystery keeps gradually leaving the life and the thought of the XVIII–XIX centuries, the human existence appears as the bad infinity of the human mysteries. To put an end to the absurdity of life, the modern human should use Plato’s experience, his apothatic teaching of Unity of Oneness.
Keywords: Plato, apothatic, hypostasis, intelligence, good, beauty, light, the unity of oneness, plurality, dialectic, mystery, noumenon.
