in A. Balansard & I. Koch (eds.), Lire les dialogues, mais lesquels et dans quel ordre ? Définitions du corpus et interprétations de Platon, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, p. 59-83 , 2013
Un lecteur célèbre de Plotin, Augustin, n'a pas hésité à dire que la similitude de la philosophie... more Un lecteur célèbre de Plotin, Augustin, n'a pas hésité à dire que la similitude de la philosophie plotinienne avec celle de Platon était si frappante « que l'on devrait penser, sinon qu'ils ont vécu ensemble, du moins (puisqu'il y a entre eux un si grand intervalle de temps) que Platon est ressuscité en Plotin » 2 . Même si, de la part de quelqu'un qui n'était guère susceptible de croire à la métempsychose, la formule ne saurait être autre chose qu'une boutade, elle n'en exprime pas moins l'idée que dans l'histoire de la tradition platonicienne Plotin tient une place exceptionnelle, tel un second Platon. Aujourd'hui cette proximité a cessé de nous frapper au fur et à mesure que s'est forgée la perception d'une profonde différence entre Platon, platonisme et néoplatonisme 3 , mais l'importance particulière de la lecture plotinienne dans l'histoire du platonisme reste une évidence.
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Plotinian cosmology is based on a re-reading of the Timaeus, rejecting the anthropomorphic model of crafting, and making the Intellect the true demiurge, against the literal interpretations of this figure that Middle Platonism had developped. The world is a “natural” image of the intelligible model, generated like a reflection in a mirror. The catoptric model brings about a radical overturn of the craft model of world production: it eliminates not only anthropomorphic mediation, but absolutely all mediation, since it is by their sheer existence that the Forms produce a corporeal image of themselves. However, Plotinus does not confine himself to such a minimalist scheme of cosmological explanation. Instead, he multiplies other mediating instances between the Intellect and its sensible product: the Forms, the Soul hypostasis, the Soul of the world, Nature, different kinds of reasons. I will seek to show that the hierarchy of these producing powers, while it is based on the metaphysics of processive degrees, also proposes a rearrangement, rather than an elimination, of the elements provided by the demiurgy of the Timaeus.
Plotinian cosmology is based on a re-reading of the Timaeus, rejecting the anthropomorphic model of crafting, and making the Intellect the true demiurge, against the literal interpretations of this figure that Middle Platonism had developped. The world is a “natural” image of the intelligible model, generated like a reflection in a mirror. The catoptric model brings about a radical overturn of the craft model of world production: it eliminates not only anthropomorphic mediation, but absolutely all mediation, since it is by their sheer existence that the Forms produce a corporeal image of themselves. However, Plotinus does not confine himself to such a minimalist scheme of cosmological explanation. Instead, he multiplies other mediating instances between the Intellect and its sensible product: the Forms, the Soul hypostasis, the Soul of the world, Nature, different kinds of reasons. I will seek to show that the hierarchy of these producing powers, while it is based on the metaphysics of processive degrees, also proposes a rearrangement, rather than an elimination, of the elements provided by the demiurgy of the Timaeus.
The systematic use of negativity has a long tradition in Western philosophy. Thus, the idea of a rational apophatic or aphairetic approach, moving forward via negation rather than affirmation, has its beginnings in Antiquity. More specifically, the first traces are found in the works by the Neoplatonist Plotinus, and were further developed in later Neoplatonism and then in the Christian world, notably in the form of negative theology. In this tradition, the ability of the human spirit to understand a transcendent reality hinges upon the construction of a discourse which is entirely made up of negative propositions, and is yet considered likely to lead to knowledge.
The conference on Negative knowledge sets out to examine this renewal of reflections on negativity in order to evaluate the contributions negative approaches can make to 20th and 21st century philosophy. Do approaches based upon negativity that are explicitly or implicitly inspired by the ancient apophatism and negative theology allow for a redefinition of the horizon of human rationality and for a critical reflection on transcendence? Can negativity provide a convincing methodological tool for providing answers to metaphysical questions in the post-modern context? Or is the reintroduction of figures of thought inherited from Antiquity and Negative Theology simply a rearguard action carried out by certain onto- and theorsauruses (Onto- und Theosaurier), as Franz Josef Wetz says with irony? In order to favor a reflection on these questions, we welcome proposals for talks that develop different facets of these issues, both as concerns contemporary discussions and its historical anchor points.
Keynote speakers : Emil Angehrn (Université de Bâle), Jörg Disse (Theologische Fakultät Fulda), Pierre Livet (AMU, Centre Granger UMR7304), Stephen Mumford (Durham University), Jean-Marc Narbonne (Université Laval, Québec), Philipp Thomas (Université de Tübingen), + 21 communications sélectionnées sur AAP, en français, anglais et allemand.
Published version : Sebastian Hüsch, Isabelle Koch & Philipp Thomas (eds.), 2020. Negative Knowledge. Tübingen : Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, coll. « Basler Studien zur Philosophie », vol. 20
Communications de : Jean-François Bert (Université de Lausanne), Ronald Bonan (CPGE & INSPE AMU), Mariagrazia Crocco (INSPE AMU, CGGG UMR 7304), Isabelle Koch (AMU), Daniel Liotta (CPGE Avignon), Xavier Payet (AMU/Lycée LʼEmpéri, Salon-de-Provence)
Communications de : Emmanuel Barot (Université Toulouse 2, ERRAPHIS), Michele Corradi (AMU, IHP EA 3276), Giuseppe Di Liberti (AMU, CPERC UMR 7304), Patrick Lang (Université de Nantes, CAPHI), Julie Mazaleigue (Université de Picardie Jules-Verne)
Actes publiés dans la revue Philosophie antique, 14 : « Le devoir : origines stoïciennes, postérité, réévaluations », 2014
Communications de : Anne Balansard (Université Aix Marseille 1), Luc Brisson (CNRS, Centre Jean Pépin, Villejuif), Monique Dixsaut (Paris 1), Gilles Dorival (Université Aix Marseille 1), Charles Genequand (Université de Genève), Stephen Gersh (Cambridge University, UK), Philippe Hoffmann (EPHE, Paris), Isabelle Koch (Université Aix Marseille 1), Julia Lamm (Georgetown University, Washington), Carlos Lévy (Université Paris IV), Michel Narcy (CNRS, Centre Jean Pépin, Villejuif), Didier Pralon (Université Aix Marseille 1), Christopher Rowe (Durham University, UK), Harold Tarrant (University of Newcastle, Australia), Stéphane Toussaint (Centre d'Etudes supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours), Franco Trabattoni (Università degli Studi di Milano)
Actes publiés en 2013 : I. Koch & A. Balansard (dir.), 2013. Lire les Dialogues, mais lesquels et dans quel ordre ? Définitions du corpus et interprétations de Platon. Sankt Augustin : Academia Verlag, 275 p.
Communications de : Jean-Pascal Anfray (ENS Ulm), Laurent Jaffro (Université Paris 1), Isabelle Koch (Université Aix Marseille 1), Cyrille Michon (Université de Nantes), Christelle Veillard (Université Nanterre Paris Ouest), Cristina Viano (CNRS Paris Centre Léon-Robin)
Communications de : Dominique Doucet (Université de Nantes), Dimitri El Murr (Université Paris 1/ IUF), Angelo Giavatto (Univerzität zu Köln), Françoise Hudry (CNRS UPR 76, Villejuif), Frédérique Ildefonse (CNRS UPR 76, Villejuif), Isabelle Koch (Université Aix-Marseille 1), Pascal Muller-Jourdan (Université catholique de lʼOuest, Angers), Alain Petit (Université Blaise-Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand)
Actes publiés aux Presses Universitaires de Provence en 2014 (Autos, idipsum. Aspects de lʼidentité dʼHomère à Augustin. Aix-en-Provence : Presses Universitaires de Provence, 2014, 160 p.)