(YENİ) TARİHSELCİLİK VE (ESKİ) FİLOLOJİ: TARİHİ (YENİDEN) OKUMANIN İMKANLARI ÜZERİNE [(NEW) HISTORICISM AND (OLD) PHILOLOGY: ON THE MEANS OF (RE-)READING THE HISTORY]

 

(Yeni) Tarihselcilik ve (Eski) Filoloji: Tarihi (Yeniden) Okumanın İmkanları Üzerine

 “(Yeni) Tarihselcilik ve (Eski) Filoloji: Tarihi (Yeniden) Okumanın İmkanları Üzerine [(New) Historicism and (Old) Philology: On the Means of (Re-)Reading the History]” was presented on November 29th, 2016 at 2:00 pm at the Department of History in Ankara Social Science University in Ankara / Turkey.

Presentation

NOMOTHETÊS: HERODOTOS’TAN LUCRETIUS’A ANTIKÇAĞ’DA DİLİN KÖKENİ SORUNU [NOMOTHETÊS: THE PROBLEM OF ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE FROM HERODOTUS TO LUCRETIUS IN ANTIQUITY]

Nomothetês: Herodotos’tan Lucretius’a Antikçağ’da Dilin Kökeni Sorunu
 "Nomothetês: Herodotos’tan Lucretius’a Antikçağ’da Dilin Kökeni Sorunu" [Nomothetês: The Problem of the origin of language from Herodotus to Lucretius in Antiquity] was presented on November 28th, 2016 at 3:00 pm at the Department of Ancient Language and Culture, Division of Greek Language and Literature in Ankara / Turkey.

Presentation

TALKING ABOUT THE UNKNOWN GOD [BİLİNMEYEN TANRI HAKKINDA KONUŞMAK]

Istanbul Şehir University Philosophy Talks 26
 
“Talking about the unknown God.” was presented on November 17th, 2016
at 3:00 pm at the West Campus, Room 2003 in Istanbul Şehir University in Istanbul / Turkey.

The Pseudo-Dionysian corpus seems best known for its contributions to the theme of unknowing and apophatic theology. This might well please the author who probably chose the pen-name Dionysius to help make this very point. According to Acts 17, Paul’s sermon on the Areopagus in Athens seized on the inscription of a nearby altar, “To an unknown God” (Agnôstôi Theôi), so the writings attached to the name of his Athenian convert are especially concerned with God as known and unknown. From this starting point, the Corpus Dionysiacum presents an elaborate hierarchical account of the universe, a complementary regimen of austere negative theology, and a description of deifying union with the “God beyond being” as “unknowing” (agnôsia). Pseudo-Dionysius’ entire mystical theology narrates the self’s efforts to unite with the “God beyond being” as a perpetual process of affirming (kataphasis) and negating (apophasis) the divine names. Pseudo-Dionysius’ conviction is that only by contemplating and then “clearing away” (aphairesis) all of our concepts and categories we can clear a space for the divine to descend free of idolatrous accretions. The result of such agnôsia, however, is no mere “agnosticism” but rather the indwelling of the unknown God (agnōstos theos) as Christ, on the model of Paul in Gal. 2:20, wherewith the aspirant simultaneously “unknows” God and the self. According to Pseudo-Dionysius, “complete unknowing is a knowledge of that which is beyond (hyper) everything known” and Moses is “united surpassingly to the completely unknown by an inactivity of all knowledge, knowing beyond (hyper) mind by knowing nothing.” The climax of the Dionysian method is not simply a negation of some concept about God, but the negation of the concept of negation itself. God is beyond all human words and concepts, including the utterance of denials and the idea of negation. Even the most sophisticated theological negations do not capture God. Beyond the last word is only silence. Then what is the exact means of talking about the unknown God?

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