The paper is a study of the logic of existence, negation, and order in the Neoplatonic tradition. The central idea is that Neoplatonists assume a logic in which the existence predicate is a comparative adjective and in which monadic predicates function as scalar adjectives that nest the background order. Various scalar predicate negations are then identifiable with various Neoplatonic negations, including a privative negation appropriate for the lower orders of reality and a hyper-negation appropriate for the higher. Reversion to the (...) One can then be explained as the logical inference of hyper-negations from mundane knowledge. Part I develops the relevant linguistic and logical theory, and Part II defends Wolfson and the scalar interpretation against the more traditional Aristotelian understanding of Whittaker and others of reversion as intensional abstraction. (shrink)

This paper argues that Malebranche’s semantics sheds light on his metaphysics and epistemology, and is of interest in its own right. By recasting issues linguistically, it shows that Malebranche assumes a Neoplatonic semantic structure within Descartes’ dualism and Augustine’s theory of illumination, and employs linguistic devices from the Neoplatonic tradition. Viewed semantically, mental states of illumination stand to God and his ideas as predicates stand in Neoplatonic semantics to ideas ordered by a privative relation on “being.” The framework sheds light (...) on interpretive puzzles in Malebranche studies such as the way ideas reside in God’s mind, the notion of resemblance by which bodies imitate their exemplar causes, and the issue of direct vs. indirect perception through a mechanism by which agents can see bodies by “seeing” ideas. Malebranche’s semantics is of interest in its own right because it gives a full account of the mediating relations that determine indirect reference; lays out a correspondence theory of truth for necessary judgments; defines contingent truth as based on an indirect reference relation that is both descriptive and causal but that does not appeal to body-mind causation; and within his theory of perception, works out an account of singular reference in which singular terms carry existential import, refer indirectly via causal relations, but describe their referents only in a general way. (shrink)

The thesis offers a reconstruction of Plotinus' reading of the Theaetetus, and it presents an account of his epistemology that rests on that reading. It aims to show that Plotinus reads the Theaetetus as containing two anti-sceptical arguments. The first argument is an answer to radical scepticism, namely, to the thesis that nothing is apprehensible and judgement must be suspended on all matters. The second argument is an answer to a more moderate form of scepticism, which does not endorse a (...) universal suspension of judgement, but maintains nonetheless that scientific knowledge is unattainable. (shrink)

Contrary to the claims of recent commentators, I argue that Boethius holds a modified version of the Ammonian three-fold universal (transcendent, immanent, and conceptual). He probably identifies transcendent universals as divine ideas, and accepts too forms immanent in corporeal particulars, most likely construing these along the Aphrodisian lines that he hints at in a well-known passage from his second commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge. Boethius never states the theory of the three-fold form outright, but I attempt to show that this theory (...) nevertheless underlies and gives structure to what Boethius has to say on the topic. (shrink)

Este texto explora la llamada teoría de las cinco sustancias que ha caracterizado la interpretación de la ontología ficiniana desde que Kristeller publicó su libro El pensamiento filosófico de Marsilio Ficino. Su objetivo principal es cuestionar su pertinencia a partir del análisis del primer capítulo del Libro I de la Teología Platónica con el fin de evidenciar que no es claro que los cinco grados de lo real puedan ser identificados con el término “sustancia” en el trabajo de Ficino. A (...) partir de la confrontación de algunos pasajes que caracterizan su noción de “cualidad” y de su Comentario al Parménides se propone que es más adecuado calificar como “sustancia” solamente los tres primeros grados de la jerarquía y que, por tanto, la interpretación tradicional de la ontología ficiniana no es exacta. (shrink)

En este texto se explora la llamada teoría de las cinco sustancias que ha caracterizado la interpretación de la ontología ficiniana desde que Kristeller publicó su libro El pensamiento filosófico de Marsilio Ficino. Se busca cuestionar su pertinencia a partir de la exploración del primer capítulo del Libro I de la Teología Platónica con el fin de evidenciar que no es claro que las cinco hipóstasis o grados de lo real puedan ser identificadas con el término “sustancia” en el trabajo (...) de Ficino. A partir de la confrontación de algunos pasajes de su Comentario al Parménides se propone que es más adecuado calificar como “sustancia” a las tres primeras hipóstasis y que, por tanto, la interpretación tradicional de la ontología ficiniana no es exacta. (shrink)