2010-12-10 NSFRI - Damascius - Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles (ch.121) - On Sub
Channel: Pierre Grimes and the Noetic Society
Date: 2018-04-04

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 2010-12-10 NSFRI - Damascius - Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles (ch.121) - On Subsistence

{ 20101210NSFRI }

 Dialogue(s): problems-and-solutions Chapters: chap121SynopsisHyparxis/Subsistence behind all SubstanceWhat difference would it make to try this (Damascius') way of looking at things, versus 'one-ing' (Plato's)?That is, "Everything is a One (and what is that?)"  vs  "Everything is Ineffable"HighlightsUnpacking Chapter 121 ('On Subsistence') of Damascius' Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles. pp 411-412Looking at the first 3 sentences.Is it possible to describe something without making any reference to its qualities?Subsistence - hyparxisSubstance - ousiaSimplicityThe OneThe Simple underlying anything CompositeHere, with Damascius, the One AND Simplicity underlie everything(vs Plato: What After all is the One (It)self?)Do you know anything that doesn't have parts?Ousia: One of the uses of this word is, "that which binds things together and holds them together into a 'one'."Nothing could come into existence without Ousia. And itself, it has to be simple.Anything that comes into existence is a flowering (by coming together into a unity via ousia).I.e., The One Itself (i.e., Parmenides' 1st hypothesis)Everything that comes into existence has parts. Therefore everything has to have some binding power to hold it together (making it a 'one').The fullest flowering - the One itself must be the cause of this unifying action.Subsistence - the "one" of every substanceThe Ousia'ing produces a completion - a flowering/hyparxis/subsistence, i.e., most fully 'what it is'No matter what a thing is, it bears all the scars of everything that happened to it. No matter what happened. Not more, not less.  Therefore it is most fully what it is, because that's what it is for it to be the way it is. Better than Perfect!Paternal/father - realm of the intelligibleIn the realm of the physical:   Seer - Seeing - Seenas in the realm of the meta-physical:   Intellect - Intellective - Intelligible/Being/Vital0:39:00 Explanation of the Brilliant Light of Being and its relationship to the pure/simple One, according to the assumptions of the neo-platonists. Very nice explanation.saving the appearancesDescartesDamascius: Behind every 'thing' is the ineffable One.Triads for Seer, Seeing, Seen. All triads have Being, Power, ActivityEach triad: Being (top) = Father; Power (lwr right) = Mother; Activity (lwr left) = childrenPowers can be represented as 'gods', pure, simplePierre reads from Proclus commenting on the Chaldean Oracles. (I don't know the text)Hyparxis and Ousia - The foundation of everythingBeing has more reach than Vitality which has more reach than MindTextsSarah Ahbel-Rappe, transl., Damascius' Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles, c2010. ISBN-10 9780195150292.Julian (?), Proclus' Commentary on the Chaldean Oracles, unknown source.Technical IssuesDifficult to hear some of the participants in the room when they speak.  (Good headphones help.)  Also, I trimmed off 5 minutes from the beginning of the video I received (which was originally on the Academy of Platonic Studies web-site), since there was no dialogue and Pierre and everyone in the room were just reading the Damascius.[Thanks to Marty and Yoni for videotaping and editing/production, and to StefanR for title and cataloguing info.]More info: http://noeticsociety.org