Basil Lourié. Philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite. Theory of meaning. Vol. 3. No. 2. 2018

Publication Details

Philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite. Theory of meaning
Title in the language of publication: Философия Дионисия Ареопагита: Теория значения
Author:
Basil Lourié
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor at the Institute of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Campus in Perm.
Address: 38 Studencheskaya Ulitsa, Perm 614070, Russia.
Issue:
P. 387–440.
Language: Russian
Document type: Research Article
 
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Abstract

The paper presents an outline of the treatment of semantic issues in Patristics, especially in Dionysius the Areopagite and Basil of Caesarea. The main problem, namely, that of naming God who remains unnameable, is approached from a non-theological formal semantic viewpoint and against the background of different twentieth-century-semantic theories as well as author’s own understanding of the indirect meanings. Moreover, are taken into account those quantum logics whose purpose is a formalisation of the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum theory (given that some of them were developed under an impact of 1960s theories in semantics of natural language). As one could expect, the formal semantic implied in the theology of Dionysius the Areopagite and Basil of Caesarea does not coincide with any of the semantic theories available in modern scholarship, even though has something in common with some of them. Generally speaking, the formal semantic implied in theology of our patristic authors presupposes an intesionality which is not reducible to extensionality. In this respect, theology is similar to poetry. However, unlike poetry, the formal semantic of patristic theology is undetachable from a kind of “existential export”, that is, some ontology. Non-reducibility of intensionality results from inconsistency — quite explicit as it as — of the main notions applied to God (which implies all kinds of contradictions, that is, subcontrary, contradictory, and contrary — whereas the latter are almost not dealt with in the article). The article focuses on posing questions and looking for general directions where the answers are to be found, but the answers themselves are to be discussed elsewhere.

Keywords

Dionysius the Areopagite, semantics, intensionality, paraconsistent logic, dialethism, divine names, designation.

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© Basil Lourié, 2018

Basil Lourié. The Modal Ontology of Dionysius the Areopagite. Vol. 3. No. 1. 2018

Publication Details

The Modal Ontology of Dionysius the Areopagite
Title in the language of publication: Модальная онтология Дионисия Ареопагита
Author:
Basil Lourié
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor at the Institute of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Campus in Perm.
Address: 38 Studencheskaya Ulitsa, Perm 614070, Russia.
Issue:
P. 229–251.
Language: Russian
Document type: Research Article
 
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Abstract

The modal ontology of Dionysius is structured as an alethic modal logic containing the axioms K+D+CD. The three-stage hierarchies together with the negation of the being (through the evil) as the fourth accessible state form the full logical square (being = possibility, well-being = perfection = necessity, illumination = internal negation of being, non-being = impossibility = external negation of being). The evil has no existence at all because it is a logical connective (external negation of being). This logic has much in common but also much at odds with Leibniz’s and his Spanish Jesuit ‘predecessors’ deontic logic of the «moral necessity» imposed on the divine Providence. Both have, however, the accessibility relation of uniqueness (in Kripke frames). In Dionysius, no deontic logic could be imposed on God, but the deontic logic for humans who try to be saved (=deified), that is the logic of ascetics (different from the deontic logic of Church law) has shift reflexive accessibility relation. The main differences between Leibniz and Spanish Jesuits, on the one side, and Dionysius and the Eastern Patristics, on the other side, result from their different theological attitudes. The West did not know the Eastern doctrine of deification, and, moreover, these Western thinkers were Augustinians who deliberately tried to avoid what they called «Semi-Pelagianism», but what, in fact, was the normative teaching of the Eastern Fathers on the free will.

Keywords

Modal logic, alethic modal logic, deontic modal logic, Dionysius the Areopagite, Leibniz, Molinists, Pelagianism, «Semi-Pelagianism», John Cassian, free will.

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© Basil Lourié, 2016

Basil Lourié. Identity of the Human Individual according to John Philoponus: the Physical Body in Space and the Human Body in Resurrection. Vol. 1. No. 2. 2016

Publication Details

Identity of the Human Individual according to John Philoponus: the Physical Body in Space and the Human Body in Resurrection
Title in the language of publication: Идентичность человеческой личности по Иоанну Филопону: физическое тело в пространстве и человеческое тело по воскресении
Author:
Basil Lourié
Doctor of Philosophy, Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Campus in Perm.
Address: 38 Studencheskaya Ulitsa, Perm 614070, Russia.
Issue:
P. 388–420.
Language: Russian
Document type: Research Article
 
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Abstract

The difficulty of reconstructing Philoponus’ thought concerning the bodily Resurrection resulted from our total dependency on the Cononite sources (the monophysite Tritheist party of the opponents of Philoponus): even Timothy of Constantinople (a Chalcedonian) was depending on the Cononite information, too. However, the Cononites were not able to understand the subtleties of Philoponian philosophy. One of such subtleties was related to a key term of his doctrine on Resurrection, eidos.

The Cononites understood Philoponus’ notion of εἶδος as synonymous to σχῆμα (“appearance”), whereas its real meaning was different (the soul as a separable ἐντελέχεια of the body etc.). Thus, the famous knot from the Cononite anti-Philoponian florilegium, the following Philoponian quotation (about the resurrected bodies) must be cut with an emendation: instead of “And not only by number will they be different from the present ones, but they will be not identical to them according to the eidos” this key text must be restored to “And by number will they be different from the present ones, but they will be identical to them according to the eidos” (“not only” and “not” should be deleted).

Keywords

John Philoponus, Monophysitism, Origenism, space, anthropology, Resurrection, person.

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© Basil Lourié, 2016

Basil Lourié. The Notion of Number in the Triadology of Eastern Patristics. Vol. 1. No. 1. 2016

Publication Details

The Notion of Number in the Triadology of Eastern Patristics
Title in the language of publication: Понятие числа в триадологии восточной патристики
Author:
Basil Lourié
Doctor of Philosophy, Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Campus in Perm.
Address: 38 Studencheskaya Ulitsa, Perm 614070, Russia.
Issue:
P. 289–311.
Language: Russian
Document type: Research Article
 Acknowledgments:  The present study is a part of a larger project No. 16-18-10202, “History of the Logical and Philosophical Ideas in Byzantine Philosophy and Theology”, implemented with a financial support of the Russian Science Foundation.
 
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Abstract

A classification of the presently available logical interpretations of the Christian understanding of the triunity of God is proposed. There are four main types: (1) 3 = 3 (“trivializing” interpretation, where the unity is understood as one or other kind of collectivity, that is, not on the same reality level as each of the three: “Tritheism” of John Philoponus and all the modern “analytical” Triadologies put forward so far); (2) “3” = 1 (not the hypostases as beings existing per se but only their individualising features/relationes are real: Damian of Alexandria and the mainstream of the Latin scholasticism, including Thomism); (3) card(3) = 1 (the hypostases are real as three beings existing per se but infinite, whereas the unity of God is a kind of the common cardinality of these three different but ordered infinities: Duns Scotus’s line in the Latin scholasticism but also some earlier rationalising theologies, e. g., Babai the Great); 3 = 1 (true paradox and paraconsistent logic: the mainstream of the Byzantine theology since the 4th to the 15th cent.). The type (4) poses a problem of the very notion of number. It is obvious that this number is no longer natural (as in types (1) and (2)) nor consistent at all (as in type (3)). It is obvious that the notion of number implied in type (4) would be perfectly fitting with Poincaré’s intuitivist understanding of number but incompatible with the set-theoretical interpretations/definitions of number, because they imply the notion of pair. In the Byzantine Triadology, no pair is permissible: it implies such counting to three where two is skipped. Instead of the pair, this Triadology implies a triad, which is indissoluble to the elements, and where the logical addition operation, instead of the iteration of the ordinary (binary) exclusive disjunction, is a different connective called ternary exclusive OR, first described by Emil Post in 1941 and even now little known to the logicians. The number three implied in the Trinity is the minimal one in the series of such paraconsistent numbers. Some properties of these numbers are described, especially non-extensionality. 

Keywords

Analytical theology, paraconsistent logic, infinity, Triadology, non-extensionality, ternary exclusive OR, Evagrius Ponticus.

References 

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Lourié B. (2014) “The Philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite: An Approach to Intensional Semantics”. Georgian Christian Thought and Its Cultural Context. Memorial Volume for the 125th Anniversary of Shalva Nutsubidze (1888–1969) (ed. by T. Nutsubidze, C. B. Horn, B. Lourié, A. Ostrovsky). Leiden; Boston: Brill (Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity. Vol. 2): 81–127.

Lourié B. (2016a) “The Paraconsistent Numbers and the Set Theory Implied in the Cappadocian Trinitarian Doctrine”. Logiko-filosofskie shtudii. Т. 13. № 2 [Logical and philosophical studies. Vol. 13. No. 2]: 56–57.

Lourié B. (2016b) “Nicephorus Blemmydes on the Holy Trinity and the Paraconsistent Notion of Numbers: A Logical Analysis of a Byzantine Approach to the Filioque”. Studia Humana. Vol. 5. No. 1: 40–54.

Lourié B. (2016c) “Temporality and a Metric for Created Natures in Gregory of Nyssa. Toward two recent monographs on his concept of time”. Scrinium. Journal of Patrology, Critical Hagiography, and Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 12: 340–351.

Lourié B. (forthcoming) “The Trinity from Six Groups: a Logical Explication of Byzantine Triadology by Joseph Bryennios”.

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© Basil Lourié, 2016